The Old Dairy, Finsbury Park

Genuinely one of the weirdest dining experiences I have ever had...ordered the cod from the "dish of the day" menu which for some unknown reason really flummoxed the lady taking my order, although she was happy to advise me of her dislike of shellfish ("too fiddly") in the slightly unnerving manner of a brainwashed cult acolyte. When the meal arrived, it was actually cod fishcakes. Apparently someone had forgotten to write the word "fishcakes" on the board...I think it is safe to say this is a fairly glaring ommission. No apologies were offered, I was just pretty much expected to shut up and eat what had been served. Sadly this is what I ended up doing as I was desperate to eat although I made it clear I felt it was all a bit of a mess. Sadly my girlfriend who had ordered the parsnip and pumpkin pie also had a fairly dismal experience, claiming; "these vegetables taste like they've been boiled for a week". Having tasted it myself, I can confirm this was true.

The staff are completely bizarre....they find the process of ordering food very difficult and confusing and they are unable to apologise, but worst of all, you get the feeling they are completely contemptuous of customers - this is a bit of a problem in a service industry. I had to return a bad pint because it tasted off, probably because it was from the bottom of the barrel. This is fine and I accept these things happen, but they charged me an extra 20p to have Stella instead...couldn't this have been waived considering the initial bad pint?

It is a prime example of a pub which would be better off keeping it simple and sticking to traditional pub fare (of which there is absolutely nothing wrong), rather than branching out into over-complicated cuisene with too many ingredients which they are unable to execute sufficiently (and deliver to the table), just to please Crouch-enders.

26 Mar 2006 19:16