"Would like to add that all the other staff, especially our server, Fatima, were brilliant. Advised food intolerances during booking process and received great email the day before: “I have come across your booking notes and wated to share our menu with you. We have a few gluten free options for all courses and we also have a three course set menu £38pp our guests can also opt for. The Set Festive Menu does not offer GF options for starters, however we welcome our guests to choose this course from out A La Carte.” However, on ordering, the server fed back that I would not be able to choose a starter from the A La Carte and could not have the Festive Menu. She offered to bring the person who had said this to the table to explain. Oh wow bad move. This turned out to be the defensive and accusatory owner manager: This restaurant does not cater for “people like you” who “demand” things outside of what is available and “expect to get them”; and that “the system will not let him order” a starter from the A La Carte for the Festive Menu. “If I wanted to have the Festive Menu I would have to have the Aubergine starter from it”. Blah blah blah blah blah . . . The Aubergine starter was not marked GF on either menu (as per the email). I pointed out that his accusation about people like me making demands applied to him: he was “demanding” I eat the 1 item he selected for me from the menu and it was something I could not eat. Additionally, a quick estimate showed the order would come in a few pounds below the £38 for the Festive Menu. I didn’t bring up the email, because my patient companion asked if they could give their order, which included the aubergine dish. Owner Manager suddenly realised that this might work with the technology and clearly felt a need to share every step of his thinking process about swapping our starters with us. With much huffing and puffing he messed around with the order terminal for several minutes right at the table. After 2 failed attempts, he eventually muttered he’d “have to just write the order by hand” and stalked off. When the order arrived, we received a cup of salad instead of the broccoli side that had been ordered. When the broccoli arrived, it was steamed not sautéed as described in the menu so it was sent back. If having diners in your restaurant is an inconvenience for your technology, business and self, then maybe you’re in the wrong business? We didn’t need to know all the drama and detail about whether our starters can be swapped so that it can be input in the technology and we didn’t need to be party to all the huffing and puffing too. Finally the food: excellent margarita and Oyster mushroom starter. Highly recommend these. The Wild Mushroom rotolo mains was not as great as the starter but still very good. The festive snow bombe dessert presented beautifully, with the bombe melting under a pour of hot chocolate sauce, but tasted average. My take is that the pear filling was bland and didn’t complement the chocolaTe"
