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The Spread Eagle Hotel & Spa - The Restaurant

The Spread Eagle Hotel & Spa - The Restaurant

Spread Eagle Hotel South Street Midhurst, West Sussex GU29 9NH, GU29 9PD, Chichester, United Kingdom

Steak • Hotels • British • English


"Our first choice restaurant was booked up so we decided to eat here because the menu looked really nice and it was convenient as we were staying at the hotel. It was full and so I was encouraged that it would be good. Some nice warmed bread was brough to the table with some olive oil/balsamic mix. The ration wasn't quite right as each time you dipped the bread you got olive oil and no balsamic. We ordered the wood pigeon breast (special) and baked sardines as starters. The breast was overcooked and the red wine sauced lacked any depth of flavour. The baked sardines allegedly came with a basil and garlic crust, Borlotti beans and a herb salad with lemon oil. I struggled to find any basil, garlic or lemon oil. I don't know what they braised the borlotti beans in because they had little or no taste. The sardines were lovely but rest of it was just apallingly executed. Steak is a great dish for judging the competence of a kitchen. It's difficult to get wrong and if you can't get it right then perhaps you're in the wrong section or profession. With that in mind and the disappointment of the first course we both ordered the Chateaubriand rare and rare to blue with extra sides of green beans and tenderstem brocolli. We did ask if it was possible to get a bernaise sauce but were advised that it wasn't. I know restaurants like to avoid going off menu but a bernaise takes me about 10 15 minutes to make so I'd expect a professional chef to do it in half that time. It's possible they didn't have tarragon or more likely the lack of demand would have meant them wasting most of it. Not a huge issue and it made no difference to our rating. The Chateaubriand was tough, chewy and lacked any seasoning it hadn't seen a flake of salt before it reached our table. Normally a great cut like this is tender to cut through, melts in the mouth, has great carmelisation on the outside giving that wonderful flavour. This was just like beef jerky....a real shame. The highlight was the cherries which were wonderfully sweet and bursting with flavour and the green beans. The tenderstem brocolli was underdone but I prefer that to overdone. The chips lacked any crisp bite, like they'd been sitting out for a while. The peppecorn sauce had a nice peppery hint to it but I do prefer a little more pepperyness. The red wine sauce was the same as the one used for the wood pigeon so again it lacked depth of flavour and could probably have benefited from reduction. My partner decided to forgo dessert as the previous courses were so disappointing and the few dishes we saw come out were not particularly appealing. I went for the cheese board. The cheeses were nice and mild. The figs went well. There weren't enough crackers and the slices of cheese were quite small. The front of house staff and serving staff were great, sadly the restaurant is let down by the kitchen. I expect much better food at £53/head. On the strength of the breakfast and dinner we had this place just can't deliver good food."

The Inn On The Pond

The Inn On The Pond

Nutfield Marsh Road, Tandridge, United Kingdom

Pub • Steak • Vegan • British


"Oh Dear! What a difference 2 weeks can make. My daughter (who lives in Farringdon), and I, visited on 21st April and had a lovely meal in a very pleasant environment. Fantastic, we thought, somewhere lovely that we can get to easily from Merstham station, and it accommodates dogs. So, when my daughter and her partner came for a visit on Friday 3rd May, we rushed to get there in plenty of time (kitchen closes at 20.00), and arrived at 19.15 having already read the menu and having decided on our meals. Unfortunately this was a completely different dining experience. No one came to take our drinks order so we had to go looking for a member of staff. We found the staff having a very sociable time with each other but with no one engaging with the customers to ensure all was in order. Our waiter was lovely but clearly inexperienced and getting absolutely no support from the 'team '. Two of our mains were incorrect, and after a 20 minute wait for the missing portions of chips, we decided that we wouldn 't bother because we had eaten the rest of the meal. Our desserts were very obviously micro waved not a problem but were delivered to our table in stages, and the final plate of sticky toffee pudding was returned because it was cold. Desserts that had been specifically ordered with custard were delivered with ice cream. It was now 21.15 and so we decided not to push our luck and didn 't have coffees. When my husband, and then my daughter, approached what appeared to be a more senior member of staff, his response to their concerns was blasé and very unsupportive of his team throwing the chef and the waiter under the proverbial bus, in front of customers, is not the best way to manage a customer service situation. We alluded to Fawlty Towers all evening, and fully expected Manuel from Barcelona to show up, but after a while the farcical humour of the situation wore very thin and spoiled our family get together. Such a shame but we 'll definitely be swerving this 'restaurant ' (unless the owners take control of the situation and engage in a very robust training session with the staff)."