The Mary Beale Restaurant

Went a couple of weeks ago under the Eat out to help out scheme. Arrived very early and asked if we could have some drinks and pay for them with the discount and then order our meal with more drinks after. Was told we had to order food as part of the deal even though I believed you could order food or drink separately. They insisted we had to order these drinks as part of the meal we would order later. Service was slow and meal mediocre. Surroundings very nice. Manager very friendly and nice.

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Very nice food and pleasant atmosphere. Worth a visit!

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Hair in scone! Was really looking forward to coming to West Lodge Park Hotel for an afternoon tea as we hadn't been in over a decade. Knew from the off that it wouldn't be perfect when we asked the bar person to make a mocktail. Only 2 choices avail and even then he had to look at the ingredients online to make it! Got seated and when my wife's Earl Grey tea came, it was way too strong and undrinkable. Fortunately the replacement green mint tea was much better. What really cheesed me off was initially finding a hair on the white table cloth, but this was compounded but seeing a hair on one of the scones (see photo). When my wife asked one of the male workers to change the tea, he never came back again, so we had to ask our initial server to do this. Luckily she was good at her job unlike a couple of the others we noticed who were shirking. I must not forget to mention the piano tuner. Although the hotel will call him the resident piano player, the tunes he played were mainly Elton John & Queen tracks and on occasion he would try and sing a chorus from each tune. Piano person and muzak, both out of time and not comforting to hear in the 21st century. Don't get me wrong, I'm over 50 but I'd prefer to hear something from this millennium. Will I come back here, not for a long time, and trying to forget about the hairs will take some time.

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The area we sat in was beautiful, the pianist played beautifully. The staff were a little bit disorganised but the gentlemen I believed to be the manager was very attentive and very helpful and professional. The arancini were meant to be crab, nice but didn't taste any crab. The roast beef was nice and so was my desert. But we had an absolutely amazing afternoon, sat there for over 5hrs and really enjoyed our afternoon . Everyone of our party 15 had a lovely time. So a really big thank you . And thank you to the staff for the special birthday desert with a candle for my brother.

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Six of us enjoyed a pleasant lunch last week at the Mary Beale Restaurant. Set in beautiful grounds and with easy parking, access is good. Our Guide Dog in Training was accepted with no fuss. We were given a good size round table which we like so we can all join the conversation. I ordered Scallops with black pudding crumb. The scallops were good, well cooked but the crumb was rock hard, more like lead shot. Main for me was the Venison medium rare. This was not just good but excellent, can’t remember ever enjoying venison more, so more than made up for the minor glitch in the starter. My fellow diners all professed themselves more than happy with their chosen dishes including deserts which I passed. We chose an English red wine to accompany the meal which was execrable, it was our choice, so all I can criticise the restaurant for was putting it on the wine list. Definitely will return and next time will be a little more discerning over our wine selection.

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