Downtown Bar & Grill — Restaurant in North Hertfordshire

As a solo diner, maybe I have high expectations with regards to eating out. On arrival, I was casually greeted by the waitress and told to sit anywhere, no one followed me to the table, the waitress casually stopped to have a conversation at the bar with the manager and bartender and after a few minutes dropped off a menu, not a good start on the service side. I ordered the salt & pepper calamari and the chicken skewer for starters. The calamari was bland for being on the menu as "salt & pepper", I had to add my own salt to get some sort of flavour, the chicken skewer was also bland even though it was on the menu as "marinated in garlic" served with or marinated with coriander and chilli as well and served with tzatziki. Usually in my experience, if you marinate something in any of those 3 ingredients, you 99% of the time should be able to taste those flavour on upon eating the chicken, but alas, they were missing in action, the only thing flavorsome on the plate was the tzatziki. The waitress casually dropped by to check on my starters, but by then, I had consumed most of them. For me, when checking on a tables food they are eating, asking more direct questions about the particular meal would be better than a casual is everything OK, but maybe that's just me. For mains I ordered the 28 day aged 10oz Sirloin steak, I ordered it Rare with a Bearnaise sauce and skin on fries. I am very particular about my meat and this was was overcooked to medium. I ate the fries and the onion rings first, in the hope that a team member would check in with me on my meal, but alas, no. I was hungry, so I did eat more than 50% of the steak, but did not enjoy it. The Bearnaise sauce was served very hot, which in my experience should not be done, but I do know that it can be. It was bland and honestly did not taste as if it were fresh, as in I feel it was bought in a carton (please correct me if I am wrong here). Paying £24.95 for a steak, I really do expect a far higher standard than what I received. After still no attention from any team member, even though they were passing my table to serve other tables, I grabbed my plate and headed to the bar to talk with the manager directly. I showed him the overcooked steak and mentioned that the salad leaves were unfortunately not the "dressed Gem salad" that was advertised on the menu. I expressly stated that I did not want anything in return, but just wanted to let him know so hopefully future mistakes could be preempted. To be fair, he didn't charge me for 2 Diet cokes.... I finished off with a sticky toffee pudding that had been warmed in Chef Mike, with salted Caramel ice cream. For the amount I paid on the total bill, I am not impressed and really do expect a far higher standard and level of service than what I received. Upon receiving the bill, a 10% service charge had been added and I enquired if this was included in the bill total, which it was, but I found interesting because it said "optional service charge" printed on the bill. I found it slightly amusing that this service charge would be added given the service I received or didn't receive..... don't get me wrong, I do always tip, but this was rather presumptuous. I truly hope that this was a once off experience and I would like to try this...

Three adults and two children, we had the Sunday carvery apart from one of the children who had goujons and fries from the small plate menu. Roast potatoes were good and golden and plenty of veg and trimmings to choose from. Unfortunately we all choose roast beef and it was very tough and chewy and so was left on the plate. The gammon and pork looked nice but as we didn't have that cannot comment. The yorkshires were a great size but were a bit overdone and the plates could of done with being bigger so you could fit meal onto them (they used to be). For puddings we has sticky toffee, and chocolate brownie. The sticky toffee was dry inside ..it should be moist . The brownie was nice. The decor was good...a bit dark in places but this added a cosy feel. The black metal candle holder on our table was too big and got in the way..needed to be a lot smaller ..was fine if you are only having a drink but we had to take off the table when we had all our plates on it. Water glasses could of been taken off too...maybe just ask the customer if they wanted water with meal and then bring them if required. The service recieved from LISA was excellent despite it being very busy ..she was very proffessional and friendly and if I was reviewing just for her it would be 5 stars all the way... I have only dropped one star for the tough chewy beef and dry pudding and would try something different next time . The prices are a tad expensive but a treat to go out and not something we would pay out...

Well that was a surprise. First time in the area as we're staying for a wedding. Didn't think we would eat at the same venue but the menu was pretty good.

The staff were friendly and attentive. They knew when to come over without interrupting our evening. We had the loaded potato skins; they didn't skimp on the cheese, meant for sharing between two supposedly but you could easily let another person share as it was a pretty good portion. It was so good, I forgot to take a picture....luckily I took a pic of the main.

My husband shockingly admitted he's never had a tomahawk....so 1 guess what we ordered. You have the option to get two sauces; we asked for the blue cheese and the garlic & herb butter....both soooo good. The steak was conveniently pre cut and cooked to our preference. The sides of garlic roasted tomatoes and mushrooms and salad and onion rings....for £50 quid that was pretty decent.

Couldn't stomach a dessert but we are staying another night hehehhe. Genuinely the staff were brilliant. The manager came over and was so kind. The live performer was just the...