The Cock Inn — Restaurant in St Albans

Unfortunately experienced very poor customer service on last visit. I have been here a few times before, but most recent visit was very disappointing. I phoned prior and was told it was booked but there were some unreserved tables. All good. Turned up and waited for a space to sit at a table in the bar that wasn’t reserved. As extra precaution, I confirmed with the waitress that it was definitely free. Around two hours later, turned out they’d messed up their reservations and said they needed our table back before the football game we’d come to watch, after we’d already spent ~£200 on food and drinks. Whilst mistakes happen, and as someone who has worked in the industry for 10 years I am sympathetic to these scenarios, the manager was completely unapologetic. A sincere apology or offer of a round of drinks would have likely settled the mistake but instead she opted for a belligerent attitude as if it was unreasonable for us to expect to retain the table. Very poor. It’s a pub not a fine dining restaurant…. Even then, I’ve never heard of a restaurant rudely kicking people off unreserved bar tables.

Update: The manager conflates frustration and asking for compensation with abusive behaviour. Absolutely not a single offensive or rude word was levied at any member of staff as that would be unacceptable. Ridiculous. The conversation I held was in a corridor - no raised voices - away from any other customers so curious to know how any upset was caused to other patrons. I clearly remember all members of our table saying to the waiter that we understood and appreciated it wasn’t his fault.

The comment about two hour reservations is irrelevant. We were sat in the bar not the restaurant? The response says they wish I’d let the waitress know I wanted to watch the football, even though I checked with the waitress the table was unreserved - in the bar area! Which is it? When have you gone to a pub with a two hour table limit in the bar for an unreserved table? The reserved table for 10 next to us suddenly needed to be transformed into a table for 14, which became our problem to fix. They effed up and can’t just own up to it for some...

Dear Readers,

I came here with my sister and other half. We were seated in a quite little cubby which was perfect. Dora who waited for us was very attentive and positively chatty. We went with the A La Carte menu and had three courses all of which were served in good time.

We started with the venison scotch egg, baked goats cheese and bread/olives. Honestly, the scotch egg was somewhat underwhelming. Could've done with more seasoning and maybe better quality eggs? The yolks were pale as anything! The goats cheese and bread more than made up for it though. For mains my sister and I had the fish of the day which was Hake, served with mussels and dauphinoise potatoes - an absolute delight. Sister's other half had the Sirloin which he thoroughly enjoyed. No issues on the mains. For dessert we had the winter Eton mess, Sticky toffee pudding and chocolate fondant. The eton mess and STP were delicious however the Fondant was definitely overcooked and not as r as we would've liked.

Overall, the food and service were great, shoutout to Dora!! And given the menu is monthly, I will definitely be visiting again. I would give this place 4.5/5 if I could but unfortunately giving it 5 would mean it was a perfect meal, which it was not, so I'm forced to round down to 4.

Hope this review was helpful and I would highly recommend a visit. It's more than...

We had lunch here on a Sunday. The staff are friendly and welcoming but it was a little short staffed for a Sunday lunchtime. The Sumday menu consists of mainly roasts but there are usually 3 other choices of mains on the menu and a good selection of starters. We shared the tempura prawns for a starter, the prawns were sizeable and delicious. We then both had the stone bass with mussels, clams, leeks and samphire which again was a beautiful dish. I didn't see any clams in mine unless they were hidden. A very well executed dish. My partner finished with a double espresso but we had no desserts. The pinot grigio wine was a good accompliment with the meal. The kitchen did forget our side order of fine green beans. We reminded the waiter and they actually arrived after my partner had finished his main so it was a bean chaser/dessert. They were tasty though. I noticed that the diners next to us also had their side dish forgotten and arrived late after they had virtually completed their mains too. The pub has a nice atmosphere in a lovely historic building and we always dine here whenever we visit St Albans. Well...