The Hemlock Stone — Restaurant in Nottingham

I regularly use my local Embers Inn near to my house because the food is always good, the prices are good and the atmosphere is nice. We’ve used this one 4/5 times now as we visit the area once a month.

Sadly, the Hemlock Stone has let us down every time. The food always seems to take forever and isn’t great when it comes out. We came over at Christmas one evening when it was quiet and ordered their widely advertised big Christmas burger. Sadly, it turned up without any Christmas items and was a very sad looking plain burger. Complaining to staff, they provided us with some of the replacement items that were missing but the bowl of pigs in blankets were cremated. We complained and got a voucher which we used last night. 2x fixed price (Our old favourite at our local). The starters were good but you cant really destroy a chicken wing or mushroom. The chicken burgers came out after a longer wait and were black on both sides but also cold! We complained and the staff were very polite and got us replacements and apologised. The chips always seem to be fried instead of the chips used elsewhere too.

I wanted to give this place a chance to prove itself but after our visits, we’ve not had one positive one.

The two younger girls behind the bar were very friendly yesterday though and made it better!

The atmosphere here is also odd. It’s full of families meeting up but there always seems to be a small group of people who walk in, swaggering around and then sit hidden away in corners whilst shouting through the bar to each other. They often appear either to be using substances or are already drunk when they walk in but it seems to be more than a one off now and odd for such a nice residential area. The group yesterday were openly shouting and swearing near to children and not challenged by any staff at any point. Sadly, this makes it feel slightly uneasy compared to my local.

Hopefully things improve, but it needs a kitchen staff overhaul and people challenged suitably to keep the place pleasant for all the families who seem to...

TLDR: Good food, decent value, poor service really lets this pub down.

Myself and my partner have been to this pub twice in the last month or so. Our first outing was fantastic, on a quiet week day, really good value for money. We thought that this could be our new local due to the area and value, so we invited friends for a birthday dinner on a Saturday evening.

We were seated behind a large birthday party where it became apparent that the people attending the party knew the staff, and were treated as priority at the bar over queuing customers. The party was very loud and distracting, to the point where we couldn't hear ourselves talk for much of the night at the table, and were subject to repeated loud bangs where someone in the party was popping balloons. At no point was the party asked to reduce the noise or be more respectful of the rest of the customers, much of whom were searching for the cause of the noise.

The night ended with us ordering a dessert that was more than 25 minutes late, we asked for where it was and the response was very rude from the bar staff. We got the dessert to the table but it was clear that it had been left in the warmth for a period of time (whipped cream had melted) and forgotten about.

The food itself and the general atmosphere is great here, and the noisy party is, of course, not the fault of the pub. The issue we have is that the bar staff clearly were more interested in enjoying the night with their friends than doing their job correctly, and it left a sour taste in our mouths.

Unless this place comes under new management, we won't be returning. But if you're looking for a cheap, fine enough place to eat on a day you know isn't busy, it's the...

Ordered two meals but when they come both were served on cold plates. We mentioned this to the waitress but she didn't seem at all interested. I had ordered sirloin steak which should have been melt in the mouth but was actually so full of gristle to be inedible. Again I mentioned this to the waiter but his explanation was that it was a bad batch from the suppliers. No offer of a refund or recommpence at all. If Asda or Tesco get a bad product it would be taken off sale but it seems that Mitchell and Butler and Ember Inns just serve rubbish anyway. It will be a long time before I go back to any of their chain.

Further to this review and the reply from Hemlock Stone I feel that more should have been done to prevent this poor quality meal. The waiter admitted they had poor quality meat from their supplier but they continued to sell it anyway. My view is that the meat should have been returned to the supplier as not of the quality expected but in this instance Mitchell & Butler, Ember Inns and Hemlock Stone continued to sell it hoping nobody would complain. If Sainsbury's continued to sell a poor quality product it would tarnish their reputation and so would be withdrawn from sale immediately. Why do pubs think they can sell a sub-standard product and get away with it. Yes, we were offered free desserts but neither of us wanted the ones on the menu. We were offered a free drink but had already had our quota. I feel that a full refund should have been issued without hestation. This is a very serious problem and needs more than a simple 'Sorry, we are getting poor quality product from...