Cock o’ the North — Restaurant in Welwyn Hatfield

Decent food, but stingy portions and very poor service!

We came to this restaurant on Thursday for lunch about 12:45. I have been to the Cock o' North multiple times over the years as I live in the area and have usually had a decent experience but, despite renovations in recent years to vastly improve the dilapidated building, this experience was very disappointing.

We weren't greeted at the door, but instead asked by the bar-person to take a seat. After 15 minutes of being ignored by various waitresses wondering passed our table, we approached them and asked for service. We made our drink and food order simultaneously. After 45 minutes of waiting, our food arrived; you cannot keep a hungry marathon runner waiting that long for food, particularly considering they were only moderately busy.

The food tasted good but the portions were small and we all remained hungry. There was plenty of white space on the plate which they could have filled with a little greenery, like salad. We ordered dessert to fill the void. After the order was taken, I overheard a different waitress apologise to the neighboring table because they had sold-out of one of the desserts. After 10 minutes my waitress came over and informed me that 'she'd just been notified' that my dessert had sold out. Anyway I ordered something else and after another 15 minutes the desserts arrived; I think this is too long, particularity considering the desserts are pre-made and only need to be removed from the fridge and plated up.

It was all reasonably priced; £46 for three meals, two desserts and a coffee. I did, however, save money on the service tip!

Won't be back in a hurry, not when there are multiple other restaurants and pubs in the area with a better standard...

Awful from beginning to end. Arrived today having booked a table and was told they had closed the bar for drinks for 30 minutes because they had run out of glasses. Our table also wasn’t ready- we got the feeling they were hoping we would just leave...Eventually was seated and then had to wait for menus, drinks, cutlery and service. After getting our food 1hr and 10 mins after we arrived the meals were all awful- the burgers were dry and over cooked with no salad/gherkin as promised in the menu. The halloumi fries were so over cooked, part of my chicken burger was pink inside. To top it off one of us ordered a pie which arrived stone cold in the middle. We complained and waited 15 minutes for a fresh pie only to be faced with another stone cold pie again. We sent the second one back again and gave up by this point. They obviously didn’t charge for the pie, we also complained about the burgers but still ended up paying £110 for awful food, awful service and one of our party going hungry. Will never eat there again. I totally understand that understaffing or an unexpected busy day can affect service but this was a truly awful experience, the worst any of us have ever had. We felt we were being a pain and no sincere apology was given. Now I will just hope I don’t get ill from the undercooked chicken. The one star is for the nice garden and the fact I can’t...

I just love this place its local to us many a day in the garden just relaxing. Beautiful place... However, i only give 3 stars now as we visited yesterday, Saturday 26th September 2020. All 4 adults were highly disappointed with thes service of the staff. We were seated at the back right near to the noisy kitchen area, with plates and cutlery clashing, and staff shouting, we did ask for somewhere cosy. Our food was not upto the standard we normally have. The steak and ale pie, and the lamb pie was much to be desired, the pastry was so thick my husband couldn't even cut it, my sausages were too overcooked, and the rainbow trout too dry. This was very unappetizing. We were disappointed with the whole experience on this occasion. I even had to get up and look for a waitress to order dessert as they were chatting and just left us far too long. It's very upsetting as we have always come to this lovely pub for over 15yrs with friends and family. Such a shame for what used to be a high standard of service with melt in the mouth food. But not any more I'm very...