The Cow Shed Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Thanet

Had an absolutely shocking experience here in Saturday 3rd May for what was supposed to be a lovely celebration for our wedding anniversary. We had pre-booked our table for 7pm...got there 10mins early and was told our table wasnt ready but we could have the table in the window which is right next to the bar and the front door or we could wait for our table as they were just having puddings so wouldnt be long and we could have a drink outside whilst we waited. Ok, dont mind waiting for a little bit but when you book you you are clearly told you have basically 90mins to eat your food and get out! Heater outside didnt work and after 40mins of waiting outside we was absolutely freezing! Table was eventually ready after us having to ask if the table is ready as again no one came out and apologised for the delay. Fortunately we had pre ordered our food whilst outside so it would be quicker when we did eventually get our table. I had to order a coffee to warm myself up and I'm never cold! Got told the camambert cheese was not available but the waitress highly recommended the Texas style garlic and rosemary fire bread with a cheese dipping sauce so we thought ok we will go for that....absolute disaster! I have no other way of dressing this up but to say it was simply white medium bread (probably from local co-op)...3 slices cut into triangles and soaked in olive oil with a tiny pot of melted cheese all for the cost of £10.50! It was soggy and lifeless. I have honestly never seen anything like it in my life. What on earth was texas style about that?! If my blood sugars werent so low i would have walked out at that point. The table next to us ordered the cow shed pate....again medium white sliced bread with what can only be described as the emoji poo dumped on the side, it looked truly awful. I said to my husband, perhaps the main will be better...NO wrong again! I ordered the Louisana 1/2 chicken and my husband had the Chicago rack of ribs...both our chips were cold and his were under the ribs! We told the waitress but didnt really seem to care. No manager came and saw us at that point either. The chicken was smothered in a sour cream which would have been better on the side in a separate dish as it became too sickly. The onion rings were huge but again cold so were inedible. Drinks were very expensive too and for a local restaurant you are certainly not going to last long in todays world! Upon payment, the waitress asked if everything was ok and I said no not really and explained the issues but she just shoved the card in the machine and took payment! Again didnt really give a toss and couldnt be bothered to tell the manager. I dont normally write reviews but we are both so disgusted by this experience, we felt we have to let others know before considering this place. All in all for just short of £90 for a meal for 2 its pretty terrible Cow Shed Birchington and if you do not take notice of your customers you will shortly find yourselves out of business! Shame on your staff (including what you are calling the chef who will be the downfall of your business) and the management for not...

I normally try to go to a place more than once before saying something (if it's in my neck of the woods anyway) but thought I'd make an exception for The Cow Shed. The reason for this will hopefully become apparent.

So this was my first time here. I'm not sure if it's the norm but they were clearly very busy and despite having booked for 8pm it was close to 8:30 before we were actually seated. From what I overheard we may not have been the only couple in a similar situation this night.

Once we were seated the serving staff were very attentive, and it seemed to be true for all the patrons in our vicinity, not just us so that's a good sign. I actually asked for extra time to decide on what to order and again - the waitress came back after basically exactly the right time.

I had the ribeye steak, with my fries swapped for chunky chips, with garlic butter and some onion rings on the side. Then I treated myself to a biscof and bourbon shake.

The shake though not massive was tasty, my wife liked it even more than me in fact. My one issue was it could have been a bit thicker, but I get that is more a personal preference and something that also tends to only be true to more dessert-centric businesses.

The steak I had rare, and it came out perfectly cooked. I was very happy with it's flavour and texture and plan to maybe arrange to try one of their fancier steaks when I visit next. The garlic butter came out in a nice little ramekin.

The chips and onion rings? Perfect. Very crispy, very warm. The chips were nice and fluffy inside and the onion rings were nicely fine such that one bite didn't just pull all the onion out.

As a bonus my wife, upon realising she was thoroughly beaten by the ribs portion size, gave me a few of those to try. Very tender, full of flavour and the house BBQ sauce was delicious.

I'm willing to forgive a lot for good food, and the food here that we were served this one time at least was excellent. I would absolutely come here again. Though if it's a time sensitive occasion I would either schedule for a less busy day/time (it was a Saturday night after all) or consider elsewhere. Additionally parking is nonexistent, requiring hunting in the surrounding residential areas for somewhere, so if that's important to you, you might need to consider elsewhere.

And to be clear, although there was a large delay to the start, once we were seated the staff were friendly and attentive, no complaints at all. So a thank you to all staff at The Cow Shed Bar & Grill, and my apologies if my time got at all sharp while following up on the delay to...

Really disappointed.

Made a booking for Mothers Day Lunch, I enquired at 3 restaurants as my 4 month old was coming and I wanted to make sure there was space for a pushchair as he can't sit in a high chair yet. Was told they absolutely could accommodate so went with Cow Shed.

We got stuck in traffic on the way and alerted the restaurant 30 mins before we were due at our table. When we arrived the table we were seated at had no space for a pushchair, I alerted the staff and we were eventually moved but now with the delay of traffic and the extra delay of moving tables we were then being told we needed to hurry up as the table was only for 1hr 40mins and with the 25 mins traffic and about 15 mins table move we now only had an hour. The starters came quickly and were ok, very big portions which isn't necessarily a bad thing but no one finished theirs. Meanwhile drinks orders were taking 30 minutes for basic drinks orders, they forgot our drinks order twice during the meal. The main was delicious for 5/6 people, 1 got unlucky with the Lamb roast as it was a joint of fat pretty much, they did remove from bill when requested.

As we were finishing up our mains the waiter come over, I assumed to ask him if he could bring our pre ordered deserts out due to the time constraints on the table, but he was in fact telling us we couldn't have them and needed to pay and leave as the next table were due. Honestly couldn't believe it. His offer was remove from bill or take away, the majority had ordered desert with ice cream so not really a take away desert....

There are max 8-10 tables here but you'd think you were in a 100+ cover restaurant how long everything took. Both tables either side of us asked for service charge to be removed, our bill didn't even come with it on, I'm guessing due to the fact they were kicking us out before our pre ordered meal was finished. I understand we were late but there was plenty of time to eat 3 courses if the table they had sat us at originally was pushchair friendly and the service had been better.

Also note only 1 toilet cubicle.

Overall food was good but absolutely wouldn't recommend on what is likely to be a "busy" day.

Won't...