Crispy Duck Crispy Duck
Merry Monk

Merry Monk

30 West St, Isleham CB7 5SB, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Pubs • Steak • French • British


"We booked to come for our first anniversary based on a recommendation from others. Upon arrival were very disappointed to see only 2 vegetarian dishes available (one containing peanuts) however the owner was more than happy to explain the reasons why this is the case and even offered an additional meal that could be vegetarian, which was amazing. The drinks were absolutely spot on and the treacle bread was absolutely to die for. The owner even explained how he makes it and the process for it as well as bringing out his 3kg tub of product ready to be made. This alone was an unbelievable touch and we really appreciated the personal touch from him and the waitress as well, both were so happy to talk about the food; it is something you don't get in just any restaurant. Thank you so much for this. When the food came out (it didn't take long at all) it was absolutely outstanding. From the presentation to the flavours it was just everything we would have hoped for. Both dishes were superb. The puddings were also amazingly presented and were clearly made with love and care and not just frozen foods microwaved. The Baked Alaska was unreal! That takes some skill. The service was top notch and personable and we both found conversations with staff and owner to be really genuinely great and felt welcomed and valued. They even allowed us to have a different dessert off menu and barely charged us for it, which was just brilliant. Value for money is excellent when you compare to other similar places and found the overall cost to be exactly what we would expect. Blown away by this place and will come back again very soon!"

Drgnfly Pan-asian Restaurant Bar

Drgnfly Pan-asian Restaurant Bar

1 Bournemouth Road, Poole I-BH14 0EF, United Kingdom

Sushi • Asian • Fusion • Japanese


"Booked a table of 5 for my birthday dinner. We were promptly seated then immediately asked for drinks orders before even being offered a drinks menu or water. After we had ordered drinks we were being rushed into ordering some food, every two minutes different waiters coming and asking if we are ready to order (at least 7 times). After we did order and the food was brought out, we were then just forgotten about and nobody came over anymore to check if we needed any more drinks (4 out of 5 glasses were empty) or if the food was ok. (It was- but no one checked). After we had finished dining, we still had empty glasses and had to wait 20+ minutes until we eventually stopped a waiter walking past and asked if we could order more drinks. The drinks then took another 15 minutes to come. It was also very disappointing that although we had mentioned on the booking itself that it was for my birthday, there was no acknowledgement of this (I have been before and had received a plate with ‘happy birthday’ written on it in some kind of sauce with a sparkler). My sister even went to ask the woman working on the front desk and received a standoffish attitude back saying no. When the £235 bill came, it even listed ‘birthday plate £0.00’ on it!!! That really let the evening down. The interactions with the staff themselves were great, they were very polite and personable but the actual level of service of being rushed to order and then totally forgotten about really dampened what could have been a fantastic evening."

The Chequers

The Chequers

Abingdon Road, OX14 3DP, South Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

Arts • Pubs • Full • Steak


"We have been visiting The Chequers at Burcot for years, it used to be ok but recently the prices have increased and the quality of the food and the service has dropped. I took my mum for a NYE dinner and her £36 fillet steak arrived like charcoal, mine was less burnt but not right. The fries were greasy and cold and the mac cheese looked worse than store bought. Upon pointing out the charcoal steak to the waiter, he told my mum to try it, she might like it and proceeded to walk off in a huff. When he returned to the table with condiments, my mother informed him that a he didn’t like it. He was then even more obstinate, saying “this steak is cooked by Steve Sanderson, the owner and that is cooked correctly, plus you wanted it cooked well done”. At this point I informed him she would not be eating it and it needs to be changed, he ripped it from the table and stormed off. Following this service, we decided that we would not be continuing the meal, I spoke to another server/FOH and told her we would be paying for the drinks but nothing else. I realise that she was trying to apologise, but there was no amount of touching my shoulder that would make me change my mind. And felt like an invasion of my space. So we paid for the drinks and walked out. On the way out, another server joyfully said ‘I doubt I will be seeing you again, maybe on the street’ Thanks to Steve Sanderson and the team for ruining our NYE."

The Brook Inn

The Brook Inn

Sillins Lane, Redditch, United Kingdom

Meat • Steak • Chicken • Chocolate


"Arrived a few minutes early at 3.15pm for our 3.30pm booking. Very warm welcome from blonde waitress at bar. Very quickly seated by dark haired waitress with glasses who wasn 't very friendly from the start. Pub was fairly busy on arrival but soon became fairly quiet, perhaps explaining our tail end of service poor experience. Wine list had to be chased as didn 't arrive. Drinks also had to be chased. Service to actually place our order had to be chased as we were seemingly abandoned after asking for a few minutes to chose our meals after being asked for our order only a couple of minutes after arrival. Further service had to be chased from our dead zone later in the meal. These were details only, very annoying but par for the course these days sadly. The main and more significant issue was the quality of the roast beef. Tough to the point that you could not cut it. Also delivered not as requested in terms of cooking so lots of back and forth to get our meat cooked as we had asked. Numerous veg were cold or luke warm. Several yorkshire pudding way beyond crisp to the point of being burnt. Excessive salt on majority of veg. Manageress arrived fairly quickly and was initially responsive but the experience at this stage was already hugely spoiled. Replacement food was much better but by that stage we had been put off the whole lunch and to reflect this were offered 2 glasses of wine and a portion of custard to compliment our dessert! This place has been unreliable since the start of the Giles ownership. The family attitude to customers is poor. We asked for the manager to review the bill to reflect the poor experience and ended up being passed a phone to talk to the manager who had gone home. This some 3 hours after we entered the pub due to the awful experience we had encoiuntered."