The Farmhouse

The surroundings were lovely and the staff friendly, and the pub grub was decent. But the prices felt like restaurant prices without food to match. The special Mother’s Day menu was disappointing, so check your plate against what you ordered. My seabass came as one piece instead of two, with no grilled lemon or king prawns. After we asked, we got a wedge of raw lemon and a few small prawns, but were told our server should have explained the changes. They hadn’t. It felt embarrassing, awkward and like we’d been mis-sold. The salmon starter was missing its toasted focaccia, and my meal came with peas even though I’d asked for none. Luckily I just hate peas and am not allergic, but it was still inconvenient and not what I asked for. Half our party had something missing or wrong. We can’t go back and spend that much between us to be so underwhelmed. We felt our custom wasn’t valued and our enjoyment came second to penny-pinching inefficiencies and untrue menu descriptions.

We’ve been three times because the food was lovely on the first two visits, but this time was different. We were a table of nine. Service started brilliantly and the starters were great. Everyone’s Sunday dinner was lovely, and my brother’s medium rare sirloin was perfect. My husband had ordered a medium rare rib eye, but it came out well done. When we told one server, she sighed and said nothing, then took it away without explaining anything. It came back 25 minutes later, still well done. Another server apologised and said she’d have it redone. Then the first woman came back, rudely asked how he wanted it cooked, and got defensive when we said medium rare. She insisted it was cooked that way. We pointed out that the sirloin was medium rare and there wasn’t any pink in the rib eye. She said they’d cook it rare instead and could cook it more if needed. We agreed, but by then everyone else had finished eating, leaving him alone. The steak finally came medium rare almost an hour after the first one arrived. Our server was lovely and took it off the bill, but the other staff weren’t as friendly. It’s put us off returning.

The room was brilliant, huge, and had great amenities. There was ample parking, breakfast was great, and the flatbread was just what I needed that morning. I was there overnight for work and didn’t have an evening meal, so I can’t rate the atmosphere. Check-in and checkout were seamless. Looking forward to staying again.

The staff on that night were great and very helpful, but there weren’t enough of them and service dragged. We ordered a drink at the table and after 30-40 minutes it still hadn’t come, so we went to the bar and got served almost straight away. It took about an hour from sitting down before anyone asked what food we wanted. The food was alright for what we paid. We all agreed it was cheap and cheerful, nothing to shout about. We probably won’t be back, since we all know other places with better food and service for around the same price.