Chicken Liver Pâté
Paternoster Chop House

Paternoster Chop House

Warwick Ct., Paternoster Sq., City of London EC4M 7DX, EC4M 7LS, United Kingdom

Wine • Steak • Drinks • British


"Please take this review seriously, because the management team won 't. In summary the food was extremely good but took so long to arrive that a McDonalds burger would have been just as welcome, and the enjoyment of the food was compromised. The efforts to make amends at the restaurant were extremely poor, hence no hope of them taking this seriously Visited on a Saturday evening over Valentine 's weekend, and it was pretty quiet, maybe 11 tables occupied, which it was why it was so surprising that we had to wait so long for food. We ordered main course only, and in the meantime watched another couple (that arrived after us) getting served their starter and main course before we received our food. After serving the other couple their main course something seemed to click with the waitress because she came to our table and reassured us our food would be here soon. When it finally arrived, it came with 2 sauces that we hadn 't ordered because the food had taken so long ... personally I would have ordered the sauces if I wanted them so this was of no interest to me. The food was very good but by this time we were so hungry that the quality of the food was pretty much lost on me. When a different waitress came to collect the plates and I mentioned the long wait she said it was because we 'd ordered chateaubriand which needed 30 mins.... ok, except we 'd waited over an hour. She then spoke to 1st waitress and we were given a complimentary tiny pastry tart each (the size of a £2 coin) because of the long wait. Every table was asked if they were happy to pay the 13.5% service charged when settling their bill, but unsurprisingly we were charged it without given the option to refuse to pay it. It 's not the cheapest place to eat, but as long you don 't turn up hungry and are ok to wait, then you should have a better experience than us."

The Anchor Aspley Guise

The Anchor Aspley Guise

United Kingdom, MK17 8DF, Milton Keynes

Wine • Steak • Cheese • Chicken


"Don 't bother. This restaurant is part of the Unique Hospitality family/group. We referred here by the staff of another of the family: The Three Locks. The Three Locks has superb food, fantastic service and staff, and we found ourselves revisiting within the same week. Anchor Inn, on the other hand, is severely disappointed. It 's billed as the high end restaurant in the family, but it 's not at all what it believes itself to be. What they did right: We were greeted by a friendly host and immediately seated. The decor is nice, clean... and it all went desperately downhill from there. (though, the squid starter we did stick around to try was delicious What they did wrong: Ignore (forget? their customers. We received NO service. The host had taken our drink orders before leaving us, and when a waiter dropped them off, he refused to take our orders and headed off to join a group of ALL waiters in the busy, filled restaurant of diners already eating, etc. We heard them being schooled on the night 's specials, taking their sweet time asking and answering questions and talking about the service plan for the night. Once 15 minutes went by and my husband and I felt our business was completely unwanted, we interrupted the group to ask for the chance to give our orders. We were still brushed off. Later, one sympathetic waitress finally wrote down our orders and we asked how long it would take to prepare them, if the chef was also occupied we were on the brink of leaving. The waitress assured us there were many chefs in the kitchen. We wondered why no one was providing them with any orders. Surprisingly, the starter arrived quickly; the mains, less timely. And they were incredibly disappointing. Tasteless. Well presented, but completely lacking flavor or any reason for them to cost money. They were cooked well, prepared with fresh ingredients, but boring. I 've never dreaded a bit of chicken breast so much in my life. I forced myself to get a decent portion of the meal down because we waited so long for it and I needed the nourishment, but I lamented every bite. ...while being forced to listen to another diner 's continuously yipping dog sitting on her lap at a nearby table. Every customer was annoyed by this young woman 's canine dining partner, but no staff member seemed to care. Paying for our meal, we had to ask the waitress about the Unique Hospitality discount card we were supposed to receive, as every customer, eating there, for visiting any other of their family of restaurants. She seemed put off by the request, but did later deliver the card we were due. As we left the restaurant, absolutely no staff member looked up at us, acknowledged us, or said goodbye except the original, friendly host when we reached the door, never to look back. We 'll swear on any holy book you desire that we will NOT ever return to Anchor Inn. We LOVE great food, seek it out around the globe, appreciate a great meal for any appropriate price. The Anchor Inn seems more of the place one might be inclined to gloat to their friends and family that they can afford or do frequent, but they 're all terribly misguided when it comes to what 's worth putting into your mouth and fueling your body with. You should snub the Anchor Inn just like the staff snubs its diners."

Middletons Steakhouse and Grill - Watford

Middletons Steakhouse and Grill - Watford

9 King Street Watford, Hertfordshire WD18 0BW, United Kingdom

Steak • Seafood • Burgers • British


"I’ve been to Middletons a few times before and always a had a good experience/food. I was looking forward to the meal all week. First thing I said when we sat down was ‘this is a cosy table of 8’ our elbows were literally touching the next table. Felt uncomfortable having any sort of conversation as everyone was looking. None of the spot lights above us were turned on, we had to turn the torch on our phones on to read the menu, as did people either side of us. The only section in the restaurant with no lights on. We were told when booking and when we arrived that the table had to be back by 8.30. Starters came out 7.16pm we joked and said we’d be out by 7.45pm if it’s this quick. Wrong! We had to ask for our mains at 8.05pm. The veg in my halloumi and veg skewers was slightly warm and didn’t looked grilled at all. We asked for some more drinks in the long gap as we were getting thirsty and the waitress brought over someone else’s and even read out our correct drinks from the ticket and apologised. When I got my mains of steak and chicken with jacket and greens.. the chicken was half the size I’ve previously had and dry, steak was fine. Greens were cold and crunchy and potato was raw and hadn’t been baked in the oven at all and rushed in the microwave. Waitress was very apologetic and replaced these straight away. Both male and female toilets had a cubicle that needed assistance. Lighting in there was so bad that my husband walked in to another man as they just couldn’t see. When we also got up to leave, we knocked everything off the next table as they were so close, so that was embarrassing picking it all up. We should have asked for money off but just wanted to get out of there. This is the first time we haven’t tipped in a restaurant ever and my husband joked it was that bad he feels like setting up a trip advisor account just to leave a review. What a shame. As it was Valentine’s Day, I feel we’ve all been crammed in and rushed out. We certainly got forgotten."

The Chequers Inn

The Chequers Inn

61-63 High Street, Aylesford ME20 7AY, United Kingdom, Tonbridge and Malling

Pub • Wine • Terrace • Bar-lounge


"We were really looking forward to a Sunday roast lunch at the Chequers Inn and upon arrival we were quickly seated at our table, which was lovely and cosy. We were asked what drinks we would like, and asked for a wine list, to be told they had red, white, or rose. After asking what wines they had, we opted for a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, as they only had a Merlot or Pinot Noir available as red wine. After a short while our waiter returned to say that they did not have a full bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, so we changed our order. (Having subsequently found their wine menu on line I guess they had also run out of Malbec, Rioja and Shiraz, which is why I had to opt for the Pinot Noir from Romania). After a long wait our drinks of one glass of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, one glass of Pinot Noir, two large glasses of lime and soda and one small glass of lime and soda were served and we placed our lunch order, having been told there were no burger buns not a problem as all five of us wanted a roast lunch. For starters we ordered a ‘selection of warm bread with butter, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and tapenade’ and deep fried whitebait. After a very long wait the ‘selection’ of bread arrived. This consisted of a sliced overcooked baguette, with the tiniest drizzle of balsamic vinegar at the bottom of the olive oil and the tapenade had been replaced with finely chopped tomatoes and onions. The exceedingly overdone whitebait turned up after a further long wait. Then one of the roast beef main course turned up, which looked lovely, followed by the roast belly of pork with hardly any gravy so we had to order additional gravy (at a cost of £1 for a very, very tiny pot). The two roast turkey dinners and children’s portion of roast beef turned up after about a further 5 minute wait. The additional gravy followed 5 minutes after that. Despite numerous front of house staff walking past our table it was exceedingly difficult to attract anyone’s attention to ask for more drinks. Whilst we were eating our main course we could overhear the front of house staff laughingly updating each other with what was not available on the menu. Whilst we were waiting to place our dessert order another family came in, but on being told the lengthy list of items which were not available on the menu, they got up and left. When it came to dessert our granddaughter wanted sticky toffee pudding. We were told they had the pudding but no sauce. We asked for floater coffees and were initially told they did not have the cream for floater coffees. We were subsequently told they had the cream, so order a decaf Tia Maria coffee, a normal floater coffee and a rum floater coffee, and another lime and soda. After an exceedingly long wait, (we thought they had forgotten the order), our floater coffees turned up but not what we ordered. The decaf Tia Maria coffee was caffeinated coffee, when we were told this we asked for a replacement and were told they had no more Tia Maria. Great shame as this is a lovely venue, but we will not be coming back, or recommending it to anyone as the service is so slow and the selection of what is available is not what is advertised."