Beautifully styled restaurant with friendly bar staff and a lovely atmosphere. My cheese soufflé starter was light and delicious. However, my main course of ribs was so dry and overcooked that it was inedible. My husband chose skate wing with a butter sauce which arrived...as a chunk of fish in a batter of some sort and completely dry. Nobody came to ask if our food was okay, and when the waitress came once we had to put our knives and forks down and asked how our meal was, we informed her that it had been too dry to eat. The manager arrived and we discussed this with him. He agreed that the ribs were very overcooked and he said that the skate wing had been rolled. My husband pointed out that there was no reference to this on the menu, and therefore that was not what he was expecting, but it was mainly that it was extremely dry. we then received the bill which had been discounted by a third for the main courses. When we asked to speak to the manager again, the waitress, who was extremely professional and polite at all times, said that he was “busy“ and that if we did not pay the revised bill, she would have to make up the difference.
We said this seemed ridiculous and she said that “”someone” would have to pay for the difference. She disappeared again and reappeared with a further discount – not the whole amount of the main courses - and we paid the bill. It was quite shocking that the manager was prepared to allow a young waitress to have to deal with the situation when he should have been the one speaking to us. We told her she was in no way to blame and that it was quite shocking that he would put her in that position. What a disappointing end to what could have been a lovely evening – it really did not matter that we had not eaten much, and when the manager had said that he welcomed constructive criticism and they could always do better, he clearly didn’t mean any of those words.More