No. 26 — Restaurant in Stafford

I seem to be in the minority, but my review is from my own experience, so here we go. We were a party of 4 out to celebrate a birthday, so hoping for a nice meal and a nice evening. When we arrived we were directed to the bar area, which was fine, we were around 20 mins early so we sat and had drinks. Our time to be called to our table came and went, so I went to the reception area, and none of the staff seemed to know where we were supposed to be seated. After a few minutes we were called in, the restaurant was around one third full. We were placed on a round table which was really too small for a party of four once the food would be delivered, especially with a few drinks on the table. There were other slightly larger rectangular tables available, so we asked if we could be moved, which the staff kindly agreed to. It took over 20 minutes for our order to be taken, and as already said the restaurant was not busy. Maybe it had been a long shift but all of the staff apart from the person who took our order, were miserable, no smiles, no banter, they looked as though they just didn't want to be there. When the food finally came, which we seemed to wait an eternity for, the presentation nor the quantity of food were great. Three of the four of use had a sizeable amount of space on our plates. I ordered the blade of beef, which tasted very good, but wasn't presented well. One of us had the trout, which was actually just a fillet of trout, which was not as described on the menu, or advised by the staff at order placement. The menu describes this as Pan Fried Chalk Stream Trout, so we presumed it would be a whole fish, and it was not, no mention of a fillet. Also you are not able to order a large glass of wine, why is this? Why do establishments not just do the three sizes, is it just so as they can charge more for a medium I wonder. We all had a desert, which were ok, nothing amazing especially in the presentation, and the bill came to over £220 so around £110 a couple for 2 courses and a bottle of wine. I have paid both more and less for a similar meal at other establishments, so this was about on par, but it wasn't a pleasant experience, and if you haven't guessed yet, none of us will be returning...

Can't comment on the main restaurant, but we booked for the Quayside option.

This is part of the main restaurant menu, served in recyclable cardboard boxes with wooden knives and forks. It's effectively street food served as you sit by the quay looking at the boats.

However, and here's the issue, the prices charged here are identical to those in the main restaurant. £14.50 for a burger with all the trimings on a plate served and presented properly isn't too bad. But the same price for everything shoved in a box is well over priced!

You are also asked to 'pay as you go.' Another issue that isn't needed and over complicates the evening.

The lamb burger wasn't cooked properly and was raw in the middle. When we explained this to the matre'd the excuse given was that the chef wasn't the usual chef. A bit of a lame excuse to he honest because any chef worth his salt should know the menu BEFORE he starts cooking!

In all fairness, we were refunded the cost of the burger, given a free drink and a desert (Brakes special?) However, that doesn't absolve the fact we had a ruined evening and never got the food we ordered.

Sorry, but whatever No 26 are trying to do with the Quayside option is nothing short of a rip off! Burgers in a box ala street food - no more than £9 You have zero washing up costs! You cannot justify...

April 12th - first stage of lockdown being lifted. First, the positives, the staff were very friendly and well organised. The restaurant and general settings were lovely and the drinks went down like golden nectar for our first drink out in nearly five months. Now for the food, again starting with the positives, my wife's dinner was delicious (as she reports). She had the rib eye steak and chips all cooked to correctly to order. The chips were like chip shop chips to be fair, they tasted great, just a slight gripe when paying considerably more than a chippy. Now for my dinner. I had the steak pie with chips and seasonal veg. Again the chips and veg cooked very well and came with a rich, very tasty gravy. However, the pie...never have I felt sick from eating a pie, until today. It was so unbelievably rich and really quite disgusting. Overall we were both disappointed. Yes, we both built the evening up in our heads since it had been so long since we could eat out and the cold did damped it slightly but that could have been forgiven if not paying nearly 100£ for something I had to try very hard not to throw up on...