Staying in an air bnb down the road, this place came highly recommended by the owner.
We booked it a week before and were looking forward to it. What transpired was possibly the most shocking thing I have experienced in a restaurant.
We arrived and...sat at our table and asked about drinks. Not being locals I noted different ales on the menu that I haven’t tried so asked if I could possibly try a little of one.
The comment back from the waitress was ‘oh would you like to try it, I can guarantee you will like it said is a sarcastic manner. I tried the ale and said it was nice to which she said I told you so and looks like you got some free ale. My partner and I commented that she seemed a little surly but let it go.
We ordered our meals, steak and ale pie and fish platter, both around 20 pounds a meal. Expecting a nice hearty pie with some chunky chips, what turned up was not. The pie wasn’t in a dish, but had essentially been an oval shape pie dish and cut into 1/3. In total it had 4 bits of meat and a few mushrooms and gravy. What made it worse was the chips were not even cooked through and raw in the middle. I raised the uncooked chips with the waitress to which she laughed. Another waitress (lady who took our order) approached us and said she heard there was a problem with the chips. Asking if id like more. We were not happy by this point and I said I was fine. To which She responded I can see your tempted so will bring you some and you can have them if you want. No apologies, just another surly comment.
the other main mean contained 3 glass containers (likely old Gu pudding containers) with the different fish dishes. 4 bits of thumb sized toast to eat with and some dry salad with no dressing. 20 pounds a meal for this kind of food was pushing it, but we are not the type to complain, but the rude service was outrageous and a step too far.
We ate some of the meals and asked for the bill. Upon departing, my partner said the meal wasn’t acceptable and the service was worse. We added that laughing to raw food was just a joke. They initially tried to persuade us to have pudding and said they are very nice, again some comment around us being tempted. I responded saying I wasn’t tempted in the slightest to eat anything else in this place. Having paid the bill she then returned with the first apology offering us a free brownie dessert to which we declined and said they would be hearing from us in a review.
For context, we were still both hungry as we wanted a nice meal out, so drove back towards our air bnb and decided to get pudding and drinks in the Pub the White Horse down the road. The service was excellent, the main meals looked lovely and both puddings were extremely tasty. Both waiters were lovely people. The contrast was stark.
Clearly the Four Horseshoes spends its money on the external building as it looks lovely from the outside, inside it’s a little tired but the food and service was absolutely appalling. Maybe they get away with this as it’s a hotel and there isn’t much else around the area.
If we travel here from Kent again, we will go to the white horse and I’d highly recommend others do the same.More