TL:DR - With a little more care and attention, this place has all the elements to meet the image it has of itself. Unfortunately, it currently represents poor value for money for the standard and service provided. We won't be visiting again.
It's the second time we've been here for a meal, although we’ve been numerous times for drinks. The building is very nice. However, it's an effort to get to, due to its remote location.
We reserved a table for 8pm. The restaurant was only a third full, which was surprising on a Friday. The waiter was a tall, slim lad, approximately in his early 20s. Like the previous time, they'd run out of numerous items on the menu. We had wanted 2 x crab and prawn cocktail for starter but, as this was off, I decided to go without, and my partner had Soup of the Day (leek and potato) with focaccia. I happened to notice pickled chillies on the "Nibbles" menu, so asked for that.
The Soup was delivered with a reasonable ramekin of butter, far more than the amount of bread required, and two measly small thin slices of cheap white french stick, rather than focaccia. We weren’t warned focaccia was not available when choosing. The waiter had forgotten the chilies. It took quite a while to catch his attention, as he never looked our way when he walked several times into the room, and this happened every time we needed something throughout the meal. Eventually, he noticed me, and fetched them. Unfortunately we dropped one of the slices of bread, and decided to mention the focaccia, which again took longer than it should have to resolve. He returned with a basket of about 6 of the french stick slices, which seemed about right if they had been brought at the beginning, and had been as advertised.
The portion of chillies was pleasingly generous and, although had a nice taste, were far too spicy and difficult to enjoy after a few. If possible, they ought to find a milder variety, and this item would be delicious.
My partner ordered lamb shank, which came with mashed potato and steamed veg, and I ordered a vegetable ragu (essentially, ratatouille) with rice. The lamb dish was good although, because of the other issues during the evening making the overall standard not up to par, it didn’t seem ideal value at £16.
The veg ragu was £13 and, frankly, the portion was laughable (see photos of how it was presented, and after I’d pushed all the food together). Rice and veg is cheap! If they want to charge that amount, they’d better give more than a third of a plate of food . A quarter of a (small) teaspoon of sugar added to the tomatoes of the slightly sharp ragu would have made a big improvement but, other than that, the taste was good.
When it came to dessert, we were told that, again, that they had run out of some dishes. We decided to go without.
After difficulty catching the unobservant waiter’s eye again, we gave the universal gesture for the bill. It took at least 15 minutes until he allowed us to pay. It was extremely frustrating to be kept waiting, when we were tired and just wanted to go home. I left a £2 tip for the waiter. He gave me a “look”, which I didn’t know whether to interpret as, “how dare you!”, or an acknowledgement of the message I was trying to send that, he could have done better. Anyway, I’ve learned that there’s no point in complaining or being unpleasant in these places - best just to spend your money...
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