Unicorn Hotel — Restaurant in Newark and Sherwood

We've been visiting The Unicorn on and off for more than 20 years! We live close to the Magna Charta in Lowdham so tend to go there BUT we were celebrating the youngest's A Level results so we persuaded him that a trip to The Unicorn would be nice. Initially it was super and the calm setting and black and white printed menus gave it a bit more of an air of elegance compared to the now standard bright menus at most pub eateries.

I had booked a table but apparently noone was really interested cos it was quiet so I'm glad I didn't specify that we had allergies or a special event to celebrate cos that would have been ignored. The lady who seated us didn't ask about any of these tho', which is very unusual these days. Once seated we sat and pondered the menu. There was a Thursday 30 percent off on Steaks and Grills but noone drew our attention to this or explained which items were applicable. Neither did they tell us what they were out of!

We ordered drinks and they took a while to come. I wasn't quite ready to order so the server said she'd come back, but didn't for ages - 10-15 mins. Still no questions about allergies She took the order but told me that my choice - fish and chips - was off! So that had been a real waste of time because I had been the one undecided who delayed the meal order!

Order placed we sat and enjoyed our drinks whilst we waited for the food. The restaurant got a little busier. We waited and about 15 - 20 mins later our food started to arrive, My sausage and mash arrived with my son's burger. Nicely presented but my sausages were quite charred on one side and my son's burger was over cooked. My husband's halloumi flat bread was ok but there wasn't much halloumi. The fries were lovely but required a touch of salt - sadly the salt cellar provided had a pepper pot lid - lots of holes instead of one! So my son managed to over salt his chips.

No one came and did any check back and we were hungry so we ate, and our main discussion was along the lines of it being more expensive than The Magna Charta, not as nice and our not being able to get the 15% discount we get at the Magna via our A A Membership.

Food finished we waited for someone to clear away. When someone showed interest they didn't ask us how our food was or suggest we might like a pudding. We asked for the bill. This was presented then the lady ran away and we had to wait 5 mins to catch her eye again and pay. We were given a card at the end with the team members' names but I threw it away.

In summary, the food was over cooked and more expensive than it should have been. Next time we shall just go to The Magna or if we want nice food I shall book Tom Brown's. The staff were not very attentive or interested in us and didn't ask about allergies, tell us that they had no fish or check back on what we thought of our meal. I'm a bit sad to be honest cos this was supposed to be a celebration but noone seemed very bothered about making sure we had a lovely evening! So bye Unicorn! We...

After being told my family members that this place was a decent place to eat along with decent sized portions you can only imagine my horror when I got served what I can only describe as a weatherspoons dinner at triple the price. We waited 50 minutes for our food to come (there was 8 of us so expected a little bit of a wait but not 50 minutes) drinks took 15 minutes to come and the bar wasn't even slightly busy. I had to take back mine and my daughters Pepsi because mine was practically flat and my daughter has some sort of scum floating on the top, I assumed it was either from the pipes being cleaned or from the glass cleaner, these got replaced with no hesitation. When the food did come it was a ridiculous sized portion, no onion rings with the burgers, no coleslaw just a burger with chips. My daughter had the 8oz sirloin steak which was tough and burnt to a crisp (she actually left her steak and she never does that) this cost us £18.50! Again she got a steak, chips, mushroom and a tomato, again nothing else which is obviously stated on the menu but again was expecting a bigger portion of the other stuff as this would reflect the extorniate price. The picture I've uploaded is of my hunters chicken, I needed a steak knife to be able to cut through it as it was that tough and I didn't even get a full chicken breast, it was a bit and bobber job. Again I got a slice of lettuce and about 20 chips, if that. We mentioned to our waitress that we wasn't happy and she just said "I'm sorry to hear that" never asked to see if we wanted a discount or anything as compensation. The only people that enjoyed their meal had a carvery but even then the peas were like bullets and the stuffing had a powdery texture. If you are after amazing food and great sized portions that reflects the prize, DO NOT come here. Overpriced and according to my family members it's gone completely down hill. I will never spend £85 for a family of 4 (including a kids meal which by the way the chicken dippers looked like they had been massively overcooked) we have all walked away still hungry with massive food disappointment.

Oh the sea bass was overcooked too! Everything...

On the positive side, the lady on reception was friendly and helpful, the room (Room 4 top floor) was relatively spacious, the bed was comfortable and the shower worked well. Unfortunately that’s where the positives ended. We found the washbasin filled with water as soon as the tap was opened and took some while for the water to drain, the soap container holder above the wash basin was broken and the container left lying on the basin. The heated towel rail was not working which was quite essential for drying towels to avoid replacing them given that there was no other place to hang towels to dry out. The shower cubicle was falling apart such that the screen doors would not close thus taking a shower was an exercise in avoiding water spraying out on to the floor. On the Saturday morning (09:30 27 September) we informed the lady at reception of the issues and she said she would get maintenance to resolve. She asked if maintenance could access our room while we were out and we said yes. At 17:00 we returned to our room to find nothing had been done; we were booked for a restaurant in Nottingham for 18:30 so we needed to change quickly to travel to the restaurant. At about 17:10 there was a knock at the door with a man from reception and a maintenance man there to carry out the work. For us that was impossible at that time and the maintenance man was not able to wait until after we left. Since our room had not been freshened up (mainly cups to be washed) on the Saturday but we had forgotten to leave the note on the outside door handle. On Sunday morning when leaving just before 10am we placed the note on the outside door handle and spoke to the cleaning lady on our way out. It was quite disappointing to find on our return that nothing had been done in our room. We have family living in the next village of Lowdham and so the Unicorn is both convenient and a pleasant location. This is our third time of staying here and perhaps our worst experience....