Seafood Sharing Board
The Anchor Aspley Guise

The Anchor Aspley Guise

United Kingdom, MK17 8DF, Milton Keynes

Wine • Steak • Cheese • Chicken


"Don 't bother. This restaurant is part of the Unique Hospitality family/group. We referred here by the staff of another of the family: The Three Locks. The Three Locks has superb food, fantastic service and staff, and we found ourselves revisiting within the same week. Anchor Inn, on the other hand, is severely disappointed. It 's billed as the high end restaurant in the family, but it 's not at all what it believes itself to be. What they did right: We were greeted by a friendly host and immediately seated. The decor is nice, clean... and it all went desperately downhill from there. (though, the squid starter we did stick around to try was delicious What they did wrong: Ignore (forget? their customers. We received NO service. The host had taken our drink orders before leaving us, and when a waiter dropped them off, he refused to take our orders and headed off to join a group of ALL waiters in the busy, filled restaurant of diners already eating, etc. We heard them being schooled on the night 's specials, taking their sweet time asking and answering questions and talking about the service plan for the night. Once 15 minutes went by and my husband and I felt our business was completely unwanted, we interrupted the group to ask for the chance to give our orders. We were still brushed off. Later, one sympathetic waitress finally wrote down our orders and we asked how long it would take to prepare them, if the chef was also occupied we were on the brink of leaving. The waitress assured us there were many chefs in the kitchen. We wondered why no one was providing them with any orders. Surprisingly, the starter arrived quickly; the mains, less timely. And they were incredibly disappointing. Tasteless. Well presented, but completely lacking flavor or any reason for them to cost money. They were cooked well, prepared with fresh ingredients, but boring. I 've never dreaded a bit of chicken breast so much in my life. I forced myself to get a decent portion of the meal down because we waited so long for it and I needed the nourishment, but I lamented every bite. ...while being forced to listen to another diner 's continuously yipping dog sitting on her lap at a nearby table. Every customer was annoyed by this young woman 's canine dining partner, but no staff member seemed to care. Paying for our meal, we had to ask the waitress about the Unique Hospitality discount card we were supposed to receive, as every customer, eating there, for visiting any other of their family of restaurants. She seemed put off by the request, but did later deliver the card we were due. As we left the restaurant, absolutely no staff member looked up at us, acknowledged us, or said goodbye except the original, friendly host when we reached the door, never to look back. We 'll swear on any holy book you desire that we will NOT ever return to Anchor Inn. We LOVE great food, seek it out around the globe, appreciate a great meal for any appropriate price. The Anchor Inn seems more of the place one might be inclined to gloat to their friends and family that they can afford or do frequent, but they 're all terribly misguided when it comes to what 's worth putting into your mouth and fueling your body with. You should snub the Anchor Inn just like the staff snubs its diners."

Wellington

Wellington

Wynyard Hall, TS22 5QF, Stockton-on-Tees, United Kingdom

Tea • Meat • Coffee • Drinks


"As we had friends over visiting from the USA we decided to do something different as traditionally English, what better than a visit to the Walled Garden followed by a traditional afternoon tea. We arrived 10 minutes early for our tea and were sat in a lovely atmospheric area near to the library, however over half an hour passed by before we were seated and then another ten minutes before anyone attended to us. What followed was quite a pleasant experience with staff polite if a little slow in dealing and serving us. However we were not necessarily in a rush so we just enjoyed the overall experience. I decided to try the Gentlemen’s Selection but found it underwhelming in parts, the half pork pie was of average quality and appeared shop bought. The rare breed sausage roll was delightful as was the ham hock terrine and piccalilli a piece of toast would have been a nice addition to this element. The most disappointing element was the spice cake, it was dry and unpleasant, my tea guests had the traditional tea and were very pleased with their choice, no complaints at all. Loose leaf tea was something that we all said reminded us of our childhood which is a nice touch. We have decided to return and do it again sometime as it was as I said a very pleasant experience and the library where we sat was a great location. However I would skip the Gentlemen’s Selection and enjoy the Traditional option."