The Black Horse, A Heartwood Inn — Restaurant in Reigate and Banstead

TRICKSTERS AND SCAMMERS LAST TIME OF VISITING HERE - very disappointing experience. Have been before, and thought we should give it a second chance. Food is average and nothing special at all. Firstly, they do not accept LEGAL tender by refusing to accept cash, and are a card only operation, that alone is wrong. Then we ordered pie, which came with mash ONLY as stated by our waitress, which is rather odd, so I asked what vegetables would be on the plate as well, as all other restaurants provide this. I was advised to choose my veg from the added extras section for an extra £4.95! Really?, never encountered this before - disgusting so the dinner is sold in separate pieces.......... Forget it - I am not into scamming. So I chose burger and chips, surely I would not have to pay for each chip separately. It arrived very basic, chips were awful - had better in mcdonalds, KFC and other establishments. Now the final scam - the bill arrived - it had £4.11 gratuity written on it?, what is that I asked. "Its the tip" was my answer, it had been added onto my bill without my knowledge, I asked for this to be removed! If and only if I want to tip I will do so by giving the waiter or waitress a treat. How many customers have not noticed this and paid a tip that they did not think the food or service warranted? Why is it automatically put on the bill without the customer being made aware of beforehand. I COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT THIS IS A PLACE TO BE AVOID - UNLESS YOU LIKE TRICKSTERS AND SCAMMERS - WE WILL NOT BE RETURNING AND WILL MAKE SURE WE PASS THIS...

Incredibly disappointed in our experience here on a Saturday late afternoon. Ordered the chalkstream trout which tasted like a compost heap. Appreciate trout can be earthy, but this was overpowering, and ruined the dish. Skin could have been crispier to improve overall taste. Potatoes were the saving grace of the dish, and very nice. Likely it would have been more pleasant had I requested no watercress sauce, as it was particularly uninspired and if the fish is good (which this wasn’t), you shouldn’t need that much — it’s almost souplike.

I had requested that my food didn’t have any butter on it — and was told that it was pre prepared buttered (even my sourdough came drenched in butter). I’m not a fan of the taste, so it made my green beans pretty unpalatable. Given they were otherwise perfectly cooked, I struggle to understand why it was so impossible to leave off the butter.

Table service was pretty appalling and slow after we were initially seated by a pleasant and friendly host. After this, the staff seemed totally disinterested and took a long time to get our orders, and didn’t clear our table of finished plates/ dishes. The family next to our table left after paying their bill with a full table of plates and glasses (even after requesting that the table be cleared), complaining loudly about the lack of service due to being that it is included on the bill.

All in all, very disappointed. Not the standard we are used to in what is usually a great spot.

UPDATE: emailed management TWICE in regards to their response...

There is an immediate positive impact, a lot of effort has been made to create an inviting environment and charming and polite staff help create a pleasant ambience. The menu is broad with no particular theme. Something to tempt everyone such that you would be looking forward to your selection rather than settling for something. The food on arrival is well presented and appetising with good quality ingredients. I had lamb rump which was beautifully tender and succulent and cooked well to degree which should suit all palates (my own preference is towards rare and I should have liked to have been asked but it did not detract from my enjoyment). Would thoroughly recommend for an enjoyable meal. The one note of caution I would express is that in terms of pricing they have pitched at the top end of the range this genre (shall we say gastro pub) can justify and I do not feel the food we had was lovingly prepared by the creative genius that designed the menu, in short I think these are pre prepared "ready made" courses bought in from a catering company. Not that that is necessarily a flaw and I apologise if that is not the case and the food was certainly prepared well, but I think the chef should be the justification for the high prices. There were some very exotic premium selections ( halibut and chateaubriand). Which, whilst tempting I feared I might be disappointed and at those prices would have left...