Sausage And Onion
The Chequers At Loose

The Chequers At Loose

Old Loose Hill, Maidstone, United Kingdom

Pub • Steak • British • Vegetarian


"I feel a bit bad about writing this, but for the first time ever there 's only 1 star and probably the longest comments I 've left. We arrived around 12:15 on a September Thursday after having a walk hungry, we fancied a pub lunch. Staff were pleasant if a bit rushed the young lady behind the bar was on her own and doing the best she could. Several things were off the menu, but we ordered a Curry of the day (Thai Green on this occasion) and sausage mash with gravy. Difficult things to screw up... After a reasonable wait, two small dishes appeared. The Thai Curry was tiny, containing a few small bits of grilled chicken in a fairly anaemic sauce, with a small amount of plain white rice on the side; the two sausages were quite small and on a small bed of mash surrounded by gravy. Both dishes were stone cold. We sent them back. Frankly, if we hadn 't paid in advance, I 'd have left at that point. A few minutes later they re appeared, along with a small dish of sweet chilli sauce and 3 small prawn crackers, two of which were not properly cooked (still solid in parts, i.e. not cooked hot or long enough). The sausages were now hot, the mash lukewarm and the gravy cloying and still pretty cold. Being fair, the very small sausages were quite tasty, but the mash was under/not seasoned and the gravy had little flavour, no onion or anything even vaguely interesting, and was still cold. The curry was a disgrace. The rice was flaccid and tasteless, the curry had almost no flavour and the chicken was watery, and pretty grim (tasteless too). Tiny portion as well. We left the curry. I did eat the sausage mash as I was really hungry, but in retrospect wished I hadn 't. I almost never leave food anywhere in the world, but I left that curry. I 'm not sure how dishes that bad could be let out of any kitchen. We complained to the waitress (who was doing her best) she asked us not to leave and a minute or two later refunded our main courses with an apology. I felt for her as she was doing her best as front of house when the kitchen was a shocker. Note that we didn 't ask for a refund or even hint, they just provided it. I 've never asked for a refund. It 's sad, as these days rural pubs need to do things right, but this wasn 't just small things; everything they could have done wrong with those two dishes they did wrong. Nothing cooked from fresh, nothing checked before leaving the kitchen, tasteless food, tiny portions, cold."

Anchor Inn Wingham

Anchor Inn Wingham

High Street, Wingham, United Kingdom

Wine • Full • Steak • British


"The restaurant had probably 5 occupied tables yet our drinks were forgotten, we waited 20mins to be asked if we wanted dessert in the end we asked twice more for dessert menu. When we couldn’t decide on a wine and asked ‘which one would you recommenced?’ We were told by waitress ‘I don’t know I don’t drink wine?’ Asked waiter/Barman ‘where are the toilets?’ to be told ‘I don’t know’ and he walked away, no attempt to ask someone else or help us look. When we ordered we asked for extra toppings as per menu option only for a more senior member of staff to come to the table and question if we really meant to add the extras. We made to feel a stupid asking for Brie on top of a steak. It wasn’t a ‘special’ request it was an option on the menu. Food was mixed, 2 out of 4 of us really enjoyed our food. Personally my chicken was really dry and the bun was burnt. One of meals came out wrong (new potatoes rather than mash) although this was rectified quickly. I personally wouldn’t return and I wouldn’t recommend. We were served by 3 members of staff and each as poor as the rest so the excuse ‘oh he is on a trial’ didn’t really excuse the poor service when we mentioned it. Can’t blame it being busy as there was 4 staff and about 20 people using pub and restaurant combined. Can’t blame one member of staff having an off night as we was served by 3 staff members."