The Boot Inn — Restaurant in South Derbyshire

I stayed at the Boot Inn for a couple of weeks during a training course. Myself and two other delegates decided to share a room, and it was made clear that we'd need 2x single beds, one double bed. When we arrived we were advised that we'd need to wait, as they thought we wanted a double double room. Not a good start.

The Food: The menu seemed to be pretentious, but on the fist night we thought we'd give it a try. The breakfast was "bigged up" by the owner, so we booked on for breakfast too. I had the pork steak slow roasted in plum sauce.. which sounded nice. In reality, it came out with way too much flavour clash on the plate from the plum sauce, onion gravy, roasted apples and roasted parsnips. my colleagues ordered the steak, only to find out there's no steak knives in the building, and the accompaniment was a few frozen peas... not good value. The breakfast was flavourless, and obviously made from cheap inferior ingredients.

The room: The pillows had seen better days and were virtually flat. There was no headboard on my bed, and the mattress actually left spring marks on my torso, it was that thin. The kettle was placed underneath the flat screen TV, and when boiled, the TV fillled with vapour. On the subject of the kettle, the owner told us "we don't believe in milk pots, so just get a jug from the bar" - At 02:30, when the bar's closed and no fridge in the room, this meant simply not drinking hot drinks.

The Bar: The bar was empty - it's a nice looking tiled bar that the landlord boasted took two weeks to create - what's the point if you're going to make the venue so unwelcoming that the only people who see it are the builders and grafters who are staying; they type of people that don't give a damn about a fine tiled bar. The beers were lousy quality, and bitters rarely on. Bar snacks? no no no.. The owner doesn't want to have snacks behind the bar because they "create the wrong impression".

Overall, I found this pub trying hard to be something it's not. So pretentious it could make you sick with attention to detail, but the wrong details. This could be a charming village local, and judging by how busy the other two pubs in Repton were, there is trade there for it, but during a 2 week stay, I only saw non-residents using the venue three times.

If anywhere could desperately do with Alex Polizzi paying them a visit to help with survival and getting them on the right track,...

Popped in on a Thursday night for a quick bite, as I know you can rely on a good pint. Have you a table for food, yes no problem, just pick a table - great we thought. On the way to the restaurant, we're stopped by another waiter (Russian sounding chap), where are you going he says? To a table, we've been told to help ourselves... He's not happy, I'll have to see what's free.. eh? He then leads us past all the nice tables & sits us as far away as possible in the naughty seats! Obviously a front of house war going on...

The menus have changed, so there are no specials now, & the prices have been hiked. It's £20 for a main, £25 if you want a steak .. We opted for the cheap & cheerful burger, still £12.50. The actual burger was dry & cardboard like, the only taste I could make out was salt & garlic, it literally came with a teaspoon of coleslaw & about 20 frozen type French Fries.. Enough for my wife, but I could have eaten it again.

Nobody asked if our meal was OK, until we'd finished. I mentioned the above points to both the Russian waiter & the girl who cleared the plates. The Russian waiter said they only give a teaspoon of coleslaw now because nobody eats it!

When we came to pay we walked passed all the nicely positioned tables in the main restaurant where we would have chosen to sit, still set out, still not used...

The bill was handed over, no explanation or discount was given after my comments.. £35'ish for 2 burgers & 2.5 pints... I just couldn't wait to escape....

I've only given 2 stars because the beer...

This review is not specifically about the food and/or drink at the Boot Inn at Repton, but about the Boot Brewery company, which I presume operates from the same premises.|Hopefully the service of the staff in the pub/restaurant is far more friendly and customer focused than that of one of their delivery van drivers.|On driving through the built up area of Ticknall (30mph limit), I let a Royal Mail post office van cross in front of my car to enable the postman to park up to deliver his letters/parcels. His van straddled both the footpath and the left hand side of the road on a relatively narrow part of the main thoroughfare just before the low arched bridge. As there were several vehicles coming in the opposite direction, I naturally gave way, as they obviously had the right of way. The driver of the Boot Brewery company van, which was immediately behind my car was not happy at my considerate driving and showed their frustration by using their horn (several times) and gesticulating. Unfortunately for the driver they had pulled up so close to the back of my vehicle that they were not able to manoeuvre around me, and therefore had to wait until I moved by the parked Royal Mail van, when there was nothing coming in opposite direction.|Most vehicle drivers are trying to complete their journey as quickly as possible, but also as safely as possible, so in future a little more consideration to other road users would be greatly...