Tom Browns — Restaurant in Newark and Sherwood

Upon arrival, we were greeted with silence—not even a simple "hello" from the individual we assumed to be the front-of-house manager. Not exactly the warm welcome you'd hope for, especially on one of the reopening nights of Tom Browns.

We were then silently shown to our table, which was positioned uncomfortably close to the DJ. The music was so loud it felt more like a nightclub than a restaurant, despite it being only 6:30 PM and the venue nearly empty. The volume was unnecessary and detracted from what should have been a relaxed dining experience.

As we made our way through the restaurant, we couldn't help but notice that the dress code we were under the impression was expected, clearly wasn’t being enforced. The four of us felt distinctly overdressed, leaving us confused about the standards communicated at booking.

Service was slow, despite the restaurant being far from busy. It took a considerable amount of time before anyone approached us for drink orders, and later, our food. While both the waiter and waitress who served us were pleasant, it was clear they were unfamiliar with the menu. One would assume a level of training would have been in place for a reopening weekend. Additionally, we were never asked about any dietary requirements or allergies—a basic and essential protocol that was entirely overlooked again has management trained their staff?

Before our food even arrived, a waiter returned with a plate, only to realize it was dirty. While we understand these things happen, combined with everything else, it further reflected a lack of organisation. In a quiet restaurant, these oversights shouldn’t be occurring.

As for the food: it was, to be fair, tasty. However, the portions were surprisingly small. We ordered sharing dishes intended for two, but all four of us agreed the servings were more suited to one.

Dessert was a mixed experience. We ordered two chocolate domes, which were supposed to come with hot chocolate sauce. Instead, they arrived with toffee sauce that was barely lukewarm. The waiter stood awkwardly pouring it, clearly hoping it would melt the dome—it eventually did, but the temperature was off. Again, a small detail, but one that matters.

To finish, I asked for a decaf flat white, only to be told—after some delay—that they didn’t have decaf coffee. This reinforced the impression of underprepared staff and poor management oversight. I switched to tea, which was served without a saucer and accompanied by a water glass full of sugar. There was no designated place to put the used tea bag, and I was unsure whether to use the sugar glass for my spoon, risking cross-contamination. Meanwhile, my father’s cappuccino was served with a saucer, further highlighting inconsistency.

I understand this review is detailed, but it’s written in the hope that this feedback will be t aken constructively. We genuinely want to return in the future, once the teething issues have been addressed and staff have been properly trained. Tom Browns has potential—we just hope it’s realised soon.

Most importantly we would like to highlight the service we were welcomed with. The silence was deafening and peculiar. Whoever this FOH member was has much room for improvement with their service, especially if they are...

We had reserved a table for 4 at 7.30pm on 16/8/23 to celebrate my brother's 30th birthday, which we had disclosed when booking. We were seated promptly and the restaurant had 7 tables (including us) occupied.

Drinks orders were not taken for at least 30 minutes. Food order was placed as soon as we managed to order drinks as we had made our decisions in this time.

Our starters (2 plates) did not arrive until 9.15pm and our main dishes did not arrive until 9.30pm. Bearing in mind we had arrived for our reservations at 7.30pm.

We quickly noticed that there was only 2 people on the shop floor, the floor manager and the waiter/barman - who appeared to be running tirelessly to attend to everyone's needs. There was no other staff on the restaurant/bar at all. We realised that all other tables were receiving slow service also and many complained and expressed their frustration.

We had brought cake for the birthday milestone occasion, which appeared to have not been stored appropriately (despite asking to do so on arrival due to fresh cream involved) and it was basically half melted by the time we came round to it - which we needed to prompt to receive as by the time we finished dinner (we ate everything in 20 minutes as we were starving - I am 9 months pregnant and my mother who is in her 60s was also famished). I prompted that we required to wrap up soon because my brother is not from the region and needs to travel an extra hour to get home - this was why I booked an appropriate dinner time.

Food was good but the service was very slow indeed. There appeared to have been a management issue as this surely could have been anticipated?

Also, it would have been nice to have our extremely long wait acknowledged (by being more attentive, asking if we needed more drinks - especially since it was a very warm summer's evening), particularly as we were celebrating an occasion and the jovial mood rapidly evaporated as hunger and frustration took over.

The hot summer evening meant that all doors were open, and flies became somewhat of a problem. Dishes were not cleared up promptly when groups left as there was no staff. This did not help with the already soured ambiance.

Overall we spent 2.5 hours in the restaurant and we spent 35 minutes of that eating and the rest waiting.

It was a real disappointment to celebrate a nice occasion. I'm sure this is not the standard but it has truly tainted our first impression of Tom Browns and I don't think that we will want to visit again for...

We dined today at Tom Brown's as a group of 6

Our first impression wasn't great, as our drinks order was wrong and we only recieved 4 out of 6 starters. The starters we did recieve were generally good. The soup and mussels were good and the vegan starter (Korean Fried Cauliflower) was excellent and admired by all in the group.

The mains were a mixed bag. On the one end the two risottos were quite good. The vegan main however was very cheap, the noodles being likened to "Supernoodles". Likewise the pork loin dish was of a supermarket readymeal grade. The battered fish was inedible, three of us tried it and it was so dripping in oil there was no flavour of fish whatsoever. My son left hungry due to this.

Our dessert order was wrong too, as the brownie was ordered with clotted cream and arrived with ice cream. The other desserts had very little flair in any of them. For example the rice pudding "with mango and lime" should have featured some real fruit, rather than the miserable blobs of preserve it arrived with.

One nice gesture was my partners birthday marked with a surprise mini-dessert. This was kind.

Overall though, the impression was of a restaurant with pretentious staff, pretentious pricing yet cruicially, not the high-end food to back it up. It felt like a thin veneer of high-class dining with very little substance behind it. In a nutshell the service and food has to be much better OR the price has to be much lower.

Yes, our server did ask if our meals were okay. She was a quiet girl of about 16 or 17 so did not deserve to be moaned at for the strategic errors of the management. We also did not complain for fear of coming across as merely wanting money off the bill. We paid the bill, £215 ish and sadly will not be coming back. We are not fussy diners at all, our reviews are usually positive with most places we visit. On that note, my advice to anybody reading this would be to try Copper in Bingham or the Bromley in...