The Plough Coton — Restaurant in South Cambridgeshire

Just got back from a lunch here to celebrate the 80th birthday of my wife’s aunt and have spent the drive home quietly stewing (if you’ll pardon the pun).

My wife booked the table based on the favourable Tripadvisor reviews. So, with an amazing-looking menu, and eye-watering prices, the six of us were all hugely looking forward to our lunch. Sadly, the reality is a pub that clearly has a grossly inflated idea of its own quality to go with its inflated prices. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t bother writing a review about terrible food – just chalk it up to experience. I told myself this when I bit into my truly awful rib-eye steak for the first time, and even said this to my wife when I gave up on it two mouthfuls later. But when the very well-tailored manageress/owner(?) came over to enquire how our meals were, my wife decided to let her know that my steak was not good. Her reaction? “Well, you’ve managed to eat it all.” Yes… if you ignore the huge slab of undigestible meat skulking behind the beaker of sauce on the plate.

She wasn’t content to leave it there. After the initial sarcasm, I was treated to a patronising mini-lecture about rib-eye steaks and how chewy they can be (frankly, at this point I should have just told her that it was simply badly undercooked). I half-expected her to admonish me for ordering it in the first place. Instead, rather than reading the room, she chose to admonish me for not raising the issue earlier – apparently, I could have had something else, but given the interminable time it took for the food to arrive in the first place, I didn’t fancy my chances of avoiding another extended wait. In hindsight, I should have said this. But being typically English, I sat like a scolded schoolboy and tried in vain to bat away my embarrassment.

Anyway, as it turned out, I wasn’t the only one at the table who was unhappy: My seven-year-old daughter, who will demolish pretty much any pizza put in front of her, had very quietly pushed her pepperoni pizza to one side after a couple of mouthfuls; my other daughter – having tried and failed to scrape the huge quantity of sea salt off her battered fish (who puts this much salt on a child’s portion?!) – also gave up; and my wife’s cousin, who had ordered the Welsh Rarebit, announced that it looked like two pieces of bread with a rather suspicious-looking blancmange dolloped on top. Apparently, it tasted as bad as it looked.

The positives? Lovely atmosphere and service (with the obvious exception!) and the fries were gorgeous – although sadly not enough to go...

When we arrived car park was very busy and we did find a parking space , The pub it was absolutely packed inside & outside nice to see , we was shown to our table quickly and it was good table in corner, we ordered drinks they come quickly , there was 6 adult and 1 teen , no one opted for starter only because there was nothing anyone like , so we went straight into ordering 6 roast beef and 1 roast chicken, again didn't seem along wait, meals arrive and looked ok, however one meal come with no carrot ( I say carrot) as it was half of carrot, and one meal carrot was burnt, and one meal come without gravy, however we notified the service and the quickly brought out bowel carrots and small gravy boat! the carrots had lovely taste, now beef was tender and good, and the rest of the green vegs, however we all agreed the roast was the lease favorite , more of tough leathery skin hard, portion side little on the small side, the roast beef meals, however the roast chicken was massive dinner half chicken , we all had desserts and these were disappointing, they wasn't home made, 2 x passion fruit mango pavlova the with mango sorbet, exotic fruit salsa & mint gel, ( pavlova 2 little small disc shop bought just) these won't nothing like we expected and taste bland, had to ask for cream!! they were bland !! 3 x sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch sauce, salted caramel ice-cream & white chocolate crumb, they were better , 1 x Macerated Strawberries with meringue, strawberry sorbet, granola & basil gel, ( meringue was the broken up pavlova) had to ask for some cream!! overall the same as the passion fruit mango pavlova, 1 x chocolate brownie and ice cream, for teenager who struggle to eat, as it was rock hard to cut and even worse to eat, we all eat our desserts even though not the best , more because of the cost , Overall would we go again have to think about that!! service was very good and prompt and polite couldn't fault because it got extremely over busy, and the service still kept...

Firstly let me say the food at this establishment is incredibly good… the steak I had was very well cooked and very, very tasty… the other mains in my meal were all up to the same standard… absolutely delicious…. The service however left quite a bit to be desired… it was my son’s 18th birthday, with his girlfriend along with my partner we had enjoyed the beautiful river side beer garden in the glorious sunshine… sat down to eat and the gentleman serving, tried to take our order, which he did without writing a thing down… normally fine if you can remember what’s being said however this was were it started to fall over slightly…. We told him what was wanted only for 15mins to pass before he returned with his iPad to actually take our order. Once it was established exactly what was ordered again for the 3rd time of saying it, the fact it seemed to then take around 20 mins to get 4 drinks is a tad excessive but given it’s our first time, benefit of the doubt was due… then the mains came out, after a 45mins wait since the starters… Restaurant wasn’t that busy.. well 3 of the 4 mains came out… my sons girlfriend then waited for approx 15mins for her food, before I had to get up and go to the bar and speak to the manager who in fairness to her, apologised profusely and resolved the issue almost instantly with minimal fuss and maximum efficiency so a massive thank you to you young lady… so we eventually managed to eat well and enjoy the rest of our meal… due to the lack of any service from my waiter (had to sort out cutlery and napkins for the mains myself) it did put a slightly tense atmosphere on the evening which I didn’t appreciate at all… however the manager did heavily discount my bill for the above issue, which I can only thank you for and say it was appreciated as you went above and beyond, so I can only highly recommend this lovely gem of a pub/restaurant and when I come back hopefully my experience will be perfect…. Thanks again for a...