Jolly Postie — Restaurant in North Hertfordshire

Initial impression: Interesting decor, however; on entering the restaurant and all staff simply stared confused to see customers. So we walked to a table and sat down. An individual approached us and advised that the seats had been booked so we had to move. Advice to restaurant would be to hire a concierge or utilise pro active staff. The music plays in the background rather than the foreground.

The food:

Main meal - The food was blatantly fine. No better than passable. The cauliflower cheese was simply a hacked off piece of cauliflower with some sauce (debatable whether it was cheese due to the lack of flavour). The second lump of cauliflower was sent back for more cheese. However, the chef simply plonked a piece of cheese on top of the cauliflower and melted it. When cutting into the lump of cauliflower due to its size the cauliflower did not consist of any sauce.

The potato wasn't baked to a soft texture and was under cooked in places. The side salad consisted of very big lumps of red onion. The sweet potato fries were very nice and the folded dough bread was simply blazahy. Maybe they can turn it round with the dessert....?

Dessert - The Cookie dough only comes with vanilla ice cream which to me was very dissapointing as various flavours can easily be purchased and can also enhance the taste of chocolate. I therefore had custard. If you have a sweet tooth (like me) this dessert is exceptionally nice, and enhances the bland dinner which was provided.

Final opinion:

I would describe this restaurant as being a location which increases the size of a lunch so that it can be eaten as a dinner. However, this train of thought fails. The meet and greet process needs to be enhanced. Providing lazy meals such as lumps of cauliflower or big pieces of onion should be resolved. The saving grace of the meal is the fact that the dessert (although the lack of choice) may simply make the dessert the best of a bad bunch. However, the other diners in the restaurant seemed to be enjoying their meals and the atmosphere was very good. The waitress was attentive and happy to please. I wouldn't advise this as being the best restaurant I have ever dined in. However, it is far from the worst.

Please excuse any spelling mistakes or gramattical errors as I wrote this review...

So many companies tried to make this historic building into a successful business: a pub, a night club; they all failed and then McMullen took it on and turned it into the Jolly Postie. They embraced the buildings original use and turned it into something so special that people of every age, every generation could enjoy... A welcoming, family restaurant and bar. The full menu is available to view online.

The food is absolutely fantastic, fresh and priced so reasonably that it definitely wouldn't break the bank at all to take the whole family out to eat together. All of the decor celebrates that this was once Royston's Post Office and every time you visit, you notice something else that they have cleverly upcycled to use. It has a lovely, soft, warming atmosphere and EVEN has a large old post office van inside the restaurant that they have turned into a dining area! Kids love it.

The place is always immaculately clean (including the toilets); the staff are wonderful people who will go to any lengths to help you. McMullens has given several of them wine tasting courses so their knowledge and advice is superb.

I have visited here many, many times, drinks are brought to the table first, your orders then taken and I have NEVER had to wait longer than 15 minutes before the food arrives.

They have a dog friendly beer garden. You can book over the phone or online and if you need to change the time of your booking that can easily be done by phone or online too. If you have to cancel a booking - not a problem, you are just told that they hope all is well with you and that they hope to see you another time.

I cannot fault this restaurant. It is...

On the plus side the decor is fantastic - somebody has taken a lot of time to source some truly fab old relics of all things post office including a van you can hire out to eat in. There is a lovely roaring fire, lots of space and plenty of comfortable seating. Unfortunately the praise stops there. It's such a shame that the service and food was so awful that we won't be returning. We tried this restaurant twice and sadly our original disappointments were confirmed. The waitresses were perfectly friendly but service was extremely slow. The first time we went service was slow and my roast dinner very average. We gave the Jolly Postie another go because we so wanted it to just be a blip. During the second visit when my burger eventually turned up it was cold so I sent it back only to wait another 20 minutes for a tasteless burnt burger to arrive long after my family had finished their mediocre meals. If you can't get a simple burger right then you know there are problems. No seasoning, no juciness, burnt patty and bacon. I said that I couldn't eat it (I'm not a fussy eater and was super hungry at this point) and wouldn't be paying for it. The manager didn't even bother to come over to apologise which makes me wonder if this is a regular occurrence so they have stopped caring. I think the only way we would visit again is if we were just popping in for a drink ... but even then I would make sure I...