Ego at The Hollybush, Stockton Brook — Restaurant in Staffordshire Moorlands

Called in without a reservation on a Tuesday evening (730pm) and was welcomed warmly and seated inside. Service was friendly and prompt with drinks and appetisers served swiftly at our request..it had been a long day! Our mains arrived and tbh the great atmosphere and attentive service were forgotten after a single bite... my order of Lemon Chicken Milanese was frozen and had been flash fried in breadcrumbs ...it shattered my expectations like a needle across a record!! I was shocked tbh! I politely and quietly asked our server to replace it and she quickly returned the offending plate to the kitchen and returned with sincere apologies and a promise of a freshly cooked meal in 10. I kept my fries... My meal was served in 8.ish and I went for it....unfortunately a further shock was waiting. Absolutely starving by now I quickly cut a slice of escalope and got chewing.....

So it turns out that this was a really bad idea...because in order to pre-heat the frozen mini escalopes - they are microwaved and this one had been nuked !!!! (just in case I guess - make sure its done etc). Then a quick fry/blow torch and voilà...something resembling food!!! Needless to say this recently nuked Chicken?? is now in my mouth and a small mushroom cloud is forming above me. My wife was looking on ...concerned. Stupidly I swallowed...spitting out a huge gob of steaming something in a restaurant is just a no go!..however the consequences were a brutal hot poker type experience which I highly recommend everyone avoids at all costs! Thankfully I had a cold beer at arms length and doused myself to avoid spontaneous combustion. At this point a decision is required.. and the variables are endless.. return it..again, complain on health and safety grounds, ask to speak to a.manager, the chef..🤔, or a combination of any/ all the above and see where we end up. Now, I.have eaten some pretty bad meals in my time...frozen 'real meat' lasagnas come to mind and I'm not going to apologise for.my actions here.... in my defense I had worked a 12 hour day and needed food and as I've said I've eaten some rank options in my time ..so I finished the whole sorry plate..... And weirdly enjoyed the further challenge of downing food with an internal temperature of the sun 🌞 Didn't even mention it to our very pleasant server when she brought out the bill.. Questions??? Many! Could I be bothered?? No! Why? Tbh.. I'm sick of this race to the bottom in all aspects of what we do in this country and doing it with food is unforgivable. Wouldn't have made any of us feel sny better and I wanted to go home and have an ice cold Stella for further medicinal purposes!! Btw ...the Paella was a soggy mess as well. Sorry. But it was.

Won't be returning

Your Ego...

This was the first time that we had visited this restaurant, and we chose it as it was somewhere that we wouldn't normally go, but given that it was my sons 18th birthday, we thought that this would be a great treat for him, but sadly the experience did not match the expectation.

As my title reads, we managed two courses in three hours, and this was not due to the size of the courses, but more due to the wait to get them.

We initially opted for their three course menu option, which consisted of a starter, main and desert, the first part of this taking around an hour to arrive, that being the starter. At the point of ordering, my wife asked if we could choose our deserts a little later and to this she was told yes, that that would not be a problem.

When the starters arrived, we noticed that one of the dishes was wrong, but given to how long we had waited, we decided to just go with it, as we didn't really want to wait any longer.

After we had finished the starter, the main courses took around another fourty minutes to arrive, my wife having to go and ask where they were, when at the same time, she asked about ordering deserts, something that the staff seemed confused about, my wife going on to explain what she had agreed earlier, something that confused the member of staff even more. In order to get back to their work, the member of staff told my wife that he would sort this out, and it was left at that.

When the main meals eventually arrived, my wife said that her meal was again wrong, but again, given that we had now been at the restaurant for around two hours, we decided not to say anything.

Once the we had finished the mains, we waited on our deserts...and we waited, and we waited, and we waited, that was until my wife went to ask where they were. The staff seemed still as confused as before, and my wife attempted to explain again that we had paid for the three course menu (starter, main desert), but the member of staff was certain, that we would need to pay for these, the reason being that we hadn't ordered (or stipulated what we wanted) them at the time that we ordered our starters and mains. In the end, we asked to speak to the manager, and she came and sorted this out, but by this time, we had had enough, and decided to leave desert and leave the restaurant, some near three hours after we had entered it.

To say that I am disappointed with what I experienced is an understatement, but what makes it worse is that I could see this disappointment in my sons face, and something that should have been a memorable meal out, turned out to be memorable for all the wrong reasons.

As I wrote earlier, this was our first time visiting here, and I think that I can say, that I most definitely won't...

On Thursday 26th May 2022, I went to Ego at The Hollybush to celebrate a friend’s birthday. I had been looking forward to evening, as numerous people had highly recommended it, but unfortunately I had a very disappointing experience.

I would firstly like to say that the staff and service was fine. They were friendly and efficient. The problems which I had were with the table and food.

The table which was located between the bar and kitchen. This must have been the noisiest location in the whole restaurant.

I was sitting with my back to the kitchen, so I had all the prep and cooking noise, the noise from the speaker above my head and the noise of other customers and staff walking behind my seat. This meant I couldn’t hear or join any of the conversations which my party was having.

As for the food, I had chicken liver & rosemary pâté followed by hanging sirloin steak, served pink. Unfortunately since this meal I have been unwell.

At the time I had noticed that the chicken liver & rosemary pâté was a grey colour, but slightly pink in the middle, which I didn’t worry about. As for the hanging sirloin steak, served pink, it was cold, slimy and tough to chew through.

Since the meal I have learnt that it was cooked in a steam drawer and then sheered on a pan. Another member of my party, who could see into the kitchen, watched the chef cook it.

As I mentioned, I was seated in front of the serving hatch, so my food wasn’t sitting for any length of time before being served, so unsure to why it was cold.

The slimy and tough texture of the sirloin was not enjoyable to eat and I ended up not finishing my meal. Quite quickly after eating this I could feel it sitting uncomfortable in my stomach.

Since Thursday night I have been unwell, being unable to hold down any food or liquid, and the thought of any meat now turns my stomach.

As I mentioned the staff and service was fine, and the rest of our party enjoyed their meal, but I not only didn’t enjoy the experience, I have also spent 3 days unwell because of it.

Very disappointed and will not be recommending to my...