Mount Pleasant Inn Repton — Restaurant in South Derbyshire

A great place to go if you like your steak and chips.... Food is delicious and reasonably priced. However... We've been visiting the Mt Pleasant for over 30 years, but our last visit left us all disappointed. The pub is starting to look very tired and shabby inside and out. They obviously have serious problems with the roof leaking and you can smell dampness inside and in places the ceiling is water damaged and looks about to fall in. The decor is old and looks very dated and not been touched in decades.

They had their fire door open for some ventilation, but this left the interior feeling draughty and also full of flies and mosquitos. Not ideal for diners and not what you want in a food preparation area.

We'd requested to sit in a quieter area away from the main table area which was quite noisy with lots of families and kids. I don't normally have a problem with this, but as it was half term, it was fairly busy. This was obviously a problem for them, but eventually they relented and we were allowed to sit at the other end of the pub, which was actually unoccupied anyway.

From that moment on, they really took umbrage and we were treated like dirt for the rest of the visit, the staff were curt and generally unpleasant. An hour after we ordered our food still had not arrived. I was on the verge of walking out, and had it not been for our friends would have done. I appreciate it was busy, but it was obvious they were doing it on purpose. We then chased up our order, and told it 'was being plated'. A short while later it arrived, but without any cutlery. But to be fair, as usual, the food was delicious. But once we'd finished we couldn't wait to leave. A disappointing evening, and one we won't want a repeat of in a hurry, so we won't be returning for a long time. You never know, they might revamp the place in the meantime, before it falls down.

A final point. At one time you used to be able to arrive (without booking) and decide where to sit if it wasn't too busy, then order at the bar from the big menu on the wall, with a round of drinks, pay for your food there and then. Why do we now have to be placed, and order off an individual menu ? This just wastes time and makes extra work for the waiters. Why make...

Absolutely appalling evening.

It was freezing in the dining area. Radiators were on but barely heating the place up, and in the middle of December, that is not good enough. We were wearing out coats the majority of the evening!

They messed up our starters, labelled food as “chicken bites” but brought us chicken wings (which they did then bring out some chicken strips after)

We asked for steak, 1 medium and 1 medium rare - both were rare. We also ordered a mixed grill, all the meat was tough.

We then thought we would try the “hot” puddings. This was a slice of cake warmed up in the microwave. The middle of the dessert was cold and so was the custard.

We asked for Carling Shandy, they brought us a pint of Carling.

The toilets were absolutely disgusting! Looks like they are never cleaned.

We then went to pay and they told us “it is cash only” Being in the 21st century we don’t carry cash and expect many places to have a card machine, especially as it’s easy to get one! If we had known this, we would have brought cash. The staff claimed they emailed and text us, we did not receive an email or a text to say it was cash only. They didn’t even tell us before we ordered, so we had no chance to even run to the cash point!

After complaining to the staff, they came up with a load of excuses and no apologies. One member of staff even scoffed and said “whatever”

We are not ones to complain, nor do we go out of our way to write a review… but this service was...

What can i say the food was excellent with plenty of it, cooked to perfection. Hats off to the chef they did a sterling job. However, when i visited there wasn't a great choice of beers on draught. I was only able to pick a pint of lager because that's all they had, poor really for a public house. You had to order your drink at the table rather that at the bar , which i thought was rather strange.If they stocked a few more beers then they could tap into the late evening drinks market which is thriving in Repton but perhaps they don't want too. By 9pm the pub was like a ghost town. Everyone who had been eating had moved on to other drinking establishments or had gone home due to the poor atmosphere. The decor was also a bit tired and slightly drab.If they redecorated the interior of the inn and offered a few more draught beers, i'm sure this place would go from strength to strength. That said the food made up for the negative points i have outlined. I would have no problem recommending this establishment if you wanted to sit down and have a good meal, you won't regret it. Give it a try and see what you think? Make sure you book in advance because if you just turn up your likely to be turned away. Sadly that happened to some poor chap who strolled in and...