PLAU — Restaurant in Preston

(Rating as a restaurant) Having the opportunity for a couple of hours in Preston this Friday evening, we were looking for a restaurant serving vegetarian and vegan food. Google maps suggested Plau. Being described as a Gin & Beer House, we may well have skipped past the listing, but I happened to have come across the name the other day while looking at the website of Fieldwork, who seem to have done the branding and design for this establishment - and had seen photos of interesting-looking food. Externally, the venue really doesn't look at all food related but there are several storeys for dining and it's quite spacious. We were walk-ins at 6.30pm on a Friday. Luckily we were accommodated but I would probably recommend booking ahead. It's not a cheap establishment: drinks prices are relatively high for the area (paying, perhaps, for the aforementioned branding and design). Clientele were varied, but certainly the hipster type was strongly represented; I didn't feel I had quite the right type of beard. The decor is smart, dark wood, dark grey, muted gin-palace.

BUT...the FOOD!

The menu (apparently a new menu) contained not too many dishes, mains priced around £15 to £25, small (starter) dishes I think £7 to £9. (The precise menu isn't online yet, so I can't verify prices and dishes.) We chose one small dish and two mains.

Quite a wait for food - not a bad sign. Service was attentive and friendly. Quality was top notch - probably the best food we have had in Preston.

The starter - okra cooked with peanut and served with some beautiful mango chutney and garlic - was absolutely heavenly but we definitely should have gone for a starter each. Small does mean small.

Our mains were two more vegan dishes. The first (koftas containing quinoa and sweet potato, served on a bed of salad containing mango, pomegranate, leaves and a light horseradish dressing) - savoury but light, satisfying. The second salt baked beetroot served on pearl barley with parsnip mash and a light slightly smokey chilli sauce - amazing: earthy but with a tang, not too salty, maybe a hint of vinegar and cinnamon were evident. Presentation good.

We didn't have time for desserts this time but will leave a new review after...

We've just visited the PLAU in Preston, with my mum, to commemorate what would have been her 50th wedding anniversary. Drinks and the venue and ambience were lovely, but the food and the time we had really weren't great.

We ordered lots of food, two halibut, two steaks, two fish cakes, chicken pakoras and fries, with the beer bread and olives. Wow, the bread was amazing, so delicious. And so was the steak, really nice, fries too.

The rest of the food was pretty bad - it was soooo salty! The Thai fishcakes were full of some kind of smoked fish and with a soy sauce dip, pretty unpleasant really. And the chicken bhajis were covered in kind of salty relish, like pickle, not nice. The halibut though, at £11.50 was really bad - soggy, oily, really not nice. Our piece was all broken up.

I'm sorry to complain about this as we were really looking forward to coming, for a special occasion, it was exciting to try your restaurant we had heard loads about! However, we have left feeling pretty disappointed. As I'm sure you can appreciate, given the occasion, we didn't feel comfortable saying much, it was a night we'd looked forward to but really missed the mark - we did say to two separate staff that it wasn't great, and had 15% off the menu, but it was still £79.99 for food and two lime and sodas plus a beer.

Another thing to mention is the table behind us seemed to be friends with a waiter, and for half the food he stood behind us, really quite close, chatting to them, whilst we were trying to eat. Clearly couldn't comment on this at the time, but yes, not the nicest experience to have somebody's back to you chatting whilst you're trying to eat, inches from the back of your head. The rest of the staff were lovely though, but this wasn't the best.

To be honest, we've left feeling pretty disappointed about it. Won't be recommending PLAU, and given the price, feel let down by what we wanted to experience. Love the Conti, and PLAU was good for drinks, but wouldn't recommend eating here - for the price, be better elsewhere,...

Not sure I can articulate just how blown away I am by the service from your bartender tonight. After buying 2 espresso martinis for myself and my daughter I was a bit perturbed that one glass looked much larger than the other. To my husband’s horror I went back up to the bar to query it, expecting at best to be brushed off. Apparently though, a question from a customer who might not be happy with a product is something that is taken very seriously by this gentleman (tattooed with dark hair). Firstly he apologised that we’d not received the same glass as 2 the same hadn’t been available. Then he explained the volume differences of each glass. Then he put out 4 different glasses on the bar and carefully explained how each held the same amount of liquid - not in a patronising way mind, but in a way that showed he was really very determined that I understood that consistent service was important to the bar. I explained that I was really happy he’d taken the time to demonstrate this (it being Saturday night and the bar being busy) and he asked me whether I would like a new drink in the larger looking glass. I said no because I could see they were the same size and he asked me about four more times if I would like another. I said no and thanked him for being so lovely and sat down! Well blow me away but doesn’t he come over 15 minutes later when we weren’t even thinking about it, with another espresso martini and an explanation that customers are very important to him so he just wanted to make doubly sure we were happy. This was above and beyond. I work in a premium service business and we call this ‘unreasonable hospitality’. You rarely experience it - someone going out of their way to make sure you enjoy the experience, but to Plau and your staff member that went completely out of your way tonight, can I just say you absolutely nailed it and I’ll definitely be spreading the...