The Castle Tavern, Weston Super Mare

I can honestly say that I have never been more disappointed with a meal than I have with the food served up here.

Let me start by saying that the mock castle exterior did nothing to impress me, it would not have been out of place at a theme park. From the website and indeed looking at the pub from a distance (if you are partially blind) you could be fooled into thinking that the building was a fine example of a classic gothic castle design and true British workmanship but on arrival it was clear that the building was not the only thing to try and be something it wasn�t.

The inside d�cor was ok, nothing special but certainly didn�t offend me.

I would now class myself as an expert in the world of cider but was very disappointed by the lack of local ciders on tap. Indeed the wine list was embarrassingly limited and the selection they did have behind the bar was limited to 2 bottles. Between myself and my 11 other friends we had literally drunk the place dry in an hour.

The food was atrocious. Plain and simple. The old menu was still being presented on the website so we all arrived at the Castle hungry and excited by the tempting choices we had read previously. That excitement soon turned to confusion when we were faced with a very different menu on offer. The food was reasonably quick to arrive but straight away 2 or 3 starters were sent back for not being up to scratch, the soup was straight from a packet. The main courses were awful. Not one of them was eaten. Everything placed in front of us had come from the freezer; some of the food was still frozen. There were complaints of hairs in the food, food over cooked, food under cooked and the quality was very poor. The menu was seriously over priced. No joke, I actually spat cider over my lap when I saw what was being served.

To be fair the bar staff were very good in dealing with our complaints but I wish the same could be said for the manager who dismissed what we were saying. We left with only agreeing to pay for the alcohol and starters. This was promptly followed by the manageress storming out and leaving her young bar staff to deal with the fall-out.

Over all 1 gave this restaurant a one out of 10. This only managed to even get a 1 due to the nice views over the bay. Other than that I would say to anybody thinking of coming here to think twice.

9 Jun 2008 15:05