The Trout at Tadpole Bridge — Restaurant in Vale of White Horse

Really Disappointing! My husband gave me the choice of 3 pubs for a special treat lunch out, just the 2 of us and I picked the trout because of the online menu. I wanted the pulled pork. We arrived to be told the menu had been changed and no pork so I chose a fish finger burger which was nice but very disappointed to not have what I had planned. Why not update the online menu?

The Strawberry bellini was really bitter! All the Strawberry had settled to the bottom and needed to be stirred. No stirrer or straw to stir it so my husband had to go grab a knife and it was still awful.

We chose a halloumi starter to share and were told it was lacking peppers that were stated on the menu. It was lovely but I love peppers, shame. At least they told us.

Chips with our mains were really undercooked, pale and floppy.

My wooden chair in the garden was broken, wobbly and splintered all over so I swapped it for another only to find it was also broken and wobbly. I just put up with it.

We ordered a sharer pudding of cookie and other bits and half the bits came out missing. No pre warning of the incomplete pudding. The waiter was so lovely when we challenged (apparently his first day). He took the pudding back to the kitchen to get it fixed/swapped we wrongly assumed. He came back very polite and apologetic but with the same pudding, now with melted ice cream. We wanted the chocolate strawberries and brownie bites the menu promised but we got neither. Apparently the supplier forgot to deliver chocolate so they out caramel sauce in strawberries instead and no brownie bites to be seen at all just a few brownie bits.

Why not buy chocolate elsewhere? And why say brownie bites to share on a £13.50 pudding when apparently waiter said it was a typo and should've said brownie "bits" not "bites". Way overpriced for half a sharer pudding!

My husband then surprised me with a second Strawberry bellini (bless him I wish he hadn't because the first was awful) the second one was also extremely bitter and I left it. Such a waste of money.

Beautiful pub but sadly the food we received was nit at all what the menu promised.

Also I saw about 5 dogs outside with owners and no bowls of water were brought to them and it was 30oC! I personally think waiters should just bring a bowl not that...

Is it called The Trout or should it be called The Highwayman?

We went here with friends, last weekend, and I understand it's a lovely pub / small hotel situated next to the River Thames - so we probably didn't see it in the best of circumstances as it was teeming with rain when we arrived.

The restaurant inside wasn't particularly plush - wooden tables / wooden chairs - and looked like the inside of any other pub (certainly not a fine dining restaurant).

Food was good but was probably priced towards the very top end of what is acceptable - but beware they also add a further 10% 'discretionary service charge' to the bill which, if you pay it, really makes the food look very expensive. Eg: £18.70 for haddock and chips!

But the real highway robbery takes place when you order the wine.

We ordered a standard bottle of Sauvingnon Blanc from the barman (we weren't offered a wine list) and we were astounded that it cost £38 a bottle (plus service brings it to £41.80 a bottle) when the bill arrived!

We were not warned (about the price of the wine) by the barman and - what made matters worse - is we shared 2 bottles during the meal with our friends.

So our fish and chip supper with a bottle of wine shared between 2 people came to a staggering £79.20 .......

An astonishing cost for ordinary fish and chips and a standard bottle of wine ......

I deducted the service charge from the bill (as we all felt we had been robbed blind) and we will never return and never recommend this place to anyone!

Be warned .... Unless you have deep pockets .... You will be robbed if you buy wine - the beer didn't seem to be so extortionately priced!

The food and drink were OK but the night was ruined by the greedy pricing...

Firstly, they are dog friendly, which is a plus, however... arrived for dinner Sunday evening and waited around 5 minutes for somebody to appear at the bar to help us. There was one table of 4 people in the small front restaurant part, I asked to eat in the bar as it looked more comfortable and was told it was 'only for people using the bar for drinks' - the place was completely empty! They sat us in the small restaurant, size of which meant that we were right on top of the table for 4 and had to listen to their conversation throughout our meal. My partner ordered Hake & King Prawn for main course, when it arrived there were no prawns... we managed to get the attention of one of the staff who looked confused, said he'd investigate and disappeared. We sat waiting for an answer with our food getting cold for 5-10 minutes, the guy eventually returned with a plate of anaemic looking prawns, put them on the table and said 'is there anything else?' No explanation or apology! My partner asked him what happened and he said 'oh, the chef forgot to put them in the dish...' It's a real shame, the setting is great, right next to the river, and the place is quite well decorated, however the staff seem uncaring and unhelpful and the food, despite an interesting looking menu, is bland an un-loved. It's never good to leave a place feeling ripped off and it blotted an otherwise lovely day. There is a lot of choice of country pubs to eat in this area, sadly we won't be going back...