Glazed Lemon Tart
Blue Door Bistro

Blue Door Bistro

Montague Hotel15 Montague Street, London, United Kingdom

Soup • British • European • Bar-lounge


"I must say that my experience at lunch today was incredibly disappointing. I had been looking for a suitable place to enjoy a quiet lunch with my Grandmother before visiting an exhibition at the British Museum. Starting on a positive note, the staff were excellent at providing a pre-lunch Gin Tonic in the hotel before we moved into the dinning room. Unfortunately after that things started to go down hill. The dinning room was deserted for lunch on a Saturday. As it later became apparent, this was intentional. Two groups of walk-ins were turned away and told that the restaurant was “fully booked” despite it only having only two people in it. This is a restaurant that clearly doesn’t want your business. On the food quality, I had ordered the fishcake starter which was to be served with a poached egg. The poached egg had been boiled to an inch of its life. The yolk was rock hard and going grey. I am not certain how such an error could occur in a restaurant that only had two diners. Further my Tuna from the Grill menu was barely cooked at all. Despite these issue the bill also proved challenging. Firstly, I had to remind them that our drinks had not been added to the bill. Secondly, despite the issues they had still had the nerve to add a 12.5% gratuity to the bill. At no point when we were leaving did they attempt to apologise. For those reading to the end of this review, do not visit this “non-restaurant”, they clearly do not value their customers."

The County

The County

The County Hotel, NE46 1PS, Northumberland, United Kingdom

Steak • Pasta • European • Bar-lounge


"My wife and I have been to the County Kitchen a few times for their Sunday Carvery. So why, you may ask have I only given the County Kitchen 3 stars and entitled my review as lacks consistency? Well the title does say it all, it isn 't that the food and service and surroundings are bad its just that as a complete package it...........lacks consistency. Perhaps I should explain rather than repeating myself Our table was crammed in with others in the small conservatory/veranda area. It felt cramped as we were against a pillar and so close to at least 6 other diners that it felt uncomfortable and unwelcoming, especially as the rest of the restaurant was empty. Moving on to our food. We opted for starters, followed by the carvery. My wife 's starter crab haddock fishcake, with chive hollandaise was presented nicely and according to her very nice but lacked flavour . Mine was pork belly terrine and chutney my comments mirror those of my wife 's. Lacked seasoning and flavour, but looked nice. I echo Greg Wallace 's thoughts on Masterchef the other day..... ...would rather have something that tastes good rather than a dish that just looks pretty... Now the carvery you have a choice of at 3 roast meats plus vegetables and if you feeling really hungry there isn 't a limit to the number of times you can go back. But for most appetites 1 visit is enough. Being a little greedy I had a couple of slices of port with yummily crisp crackling) and some beef. The carver described the beef as medium rare my preference) but it was more like medium to well done so it was a bit tough and chewy shame as it looked a fantastic joint of beef). That finally put an end to our meal, we paid our bill £59.95 incl bottle of wine, and starters) and left. I have to say that this hasn 't been our experience on other occasions, so perhaps its was just an off day. Will we go back? Probably, but we won 't be rushing back. Its not a bad place, it just.....lacks consistency!"