BITE user comments - harch
Comments by harch
The Three Horseshoes, Batcombe
A well presented pub with a lovely gardens and friendly staff, with a good selection of drinks.
As for the food, it was quite reasonable although nothing fantastic. Maincourses were well presented and enjoyable, although not as tastey as they could have been. In particular the steam pudding was a washout, dry and flavourless, however the sticky toffee pudding was up there with the best of them.
So a bit of a mixed bag, persoanlly I wouldn't go there again as I don't feel it is good enough to be worth the money. I appreciate that places have to charge more thesedays to make money with the rising cost of everything, but I can't help in feeling unless they can produce something a little more inspiring, average earners won't be prepared to part with there hard earned cash.
14 Jun 2008 00:27
The Kings Arms, Monkton Farleigh
food is good, quite expensive, but then where isn't thesedays. Good atmos, friendly staff, and they let dogs in. Recommended.
16 May 2008 02:33
Very very good food, some interesting service however with the most rude and obnoxious manageress you are likely to find. On the polite mention of a slight area of dissatisfaction with regards to our meals she loudly said,
"I knew you would complain. You LOOK like the complaining the type. It must be the gin and tonic"
And on a separate occasion after phoning up to cancel a booked table some 60 minutes beforehand I was very aggressively reprimanded down the phone for not canceling in sufficient time. Of course I didn't tell her that was canceling due to a death in the family, but i shouldn't have needed to. Unacceptable.
16 May 2008 02:25
It had a been a long time since I had last visited the Northey Arms at Box, so on a recent venture out into the summer evening to find some food I suggested it. I was met by the smart, but informal place that I remembered, and initially thought I had made a good suggestion. The bar had a good selection of beers and largers. The service, although slow to get our order in was friendly and efficent, and I would say slightly above average. However the kitchen staff were on the whole unable to back this up.
The starter of mussels which my table shared was ok, nothing to write home about, but certainly not a cause for complaint.
The main courses on the other hand were a very rapid downhill slope. Firstly after charging near �18 for a sirloin steak, a price almost becoming the norm, I still feel it is unfair to ask for a further �2 for the addition of a sauce. Especially when on arrival there is only the most thin offering of this expensive sauce to to be seen. That said the steak option did turn out to be the best of our tables 3 main courses. With the steak cooked exactly as asked for.
The biggest disapointment of the meal for me was my cod and chips. The chips passed, fine. The peas, old and dry. The fish, my two little thin slithers of fish were borderline inedible. The fish totally void of any taste at all, an opinion shared by the rest of my party and batter which tasted of cooking oil. I have had a lot of battered fish in my time, and yes ofcourse batter always tastes a bit fatty, essentailly that is what it is. However this tasted and felt like eating crispy solidified cooking oil. A mouthful of which ended up on the plate when I offered a sample to my friend.
I didn't try the other main course of pork belly, which looked fine, however the owner of it wasn't impressed by that either, seeming like the pork had been cooked too quickly and was therefor a little dry.
Overall not a place to be recommended. Seems like there is some potential there and I am sure they are able to knock out some good meals from time to time however at the very least it is currently lacking in consistency.
16 May 2008 02:12
The Montague Inn, Shepton Montague
Eaten here a bunch of times and never had a bad meal. So many places just aren't worth the money thesedays, and althought it isn't cheap (not over the top expensive either) you at least feel the chef and the staff have given you something decent in return for your hard earn't cash. Oh, and at the time of writing this they do a very decent set menu for a tenner on a tuesday evening. A very highly recommended establishment.
14 Jun 2008 00:48