Last night, as we hadn't anything in the house for dinner (three small potatoes and a carrot do not make a meal!) I managed to persuade Keith to go out for something to eat. He suggested The Man at Arms in Bitteswell, near Lutterworth in Leicestershire. Sophie loves this village pub as it has fajitas on the menu so she was more than willing to go!
I got home from work at 6pm and everyone was ready and waiting for me, all raring to go! We arrived at 7pm, found a table and had a well-earned drink. At The Man at Arms you choose from the menu, note your table number and then order at the bar. They have an extensive menu with the emphasis on big portions - one of the choices is called The Titanic and is a 48oz steak! Keith loves cod so he chose the Moby Dick which was a "whale of a fish served with a mountain" of chips. Mikey went for the "Go Large Lasagne" which was not for the "faint-hearted" while Sophie had her fajitas and I opted for a seafood platter.
We've eaten here before, but it was a fair while ago and I think the reason we haven't been back more recently became apparent when we were served our meals. Mikey's lasagne was just a normal sized portion which would have satisfied a 5 year old, while Keith's fish was more goldfish than whale. When he delved into the batter there was hardly any fish so he was not happy. If the meal had cost about £6 or £7 then we would have accepted it, but his choice was almost a tenner and at our local we pay that for twice the amount of fish he had on his plate. The poor man was really disappointed so I urged him to have a word with the waitress about it. She duly got the Manager to come over who was subtly sarcastic about his complaint but offered him another portion. My own meal was tasteless. I'd been promised scallops, cod and haddock but I might as well have been eating cheap scampi.
We were almost finished our meals by the time Keith's second plate arrived and to be honest it was no better than the first. When a restaurant describes a meal in those sort of terms they need to deliver, something that certainly didn't happen on our evening out and left us with a feeling of disappointment. We won't be going back!
To make it up to the children we stopped on the way home and I bought some Ben and Jerry's ice-cream for dessert. Why don't we have Dairy Queens in this country?!
2 comments:
What a shame. Made worse by an obviously uncaring manager. If it is part of a group I'd email the head office and say how disappointed you were.
Actually, Kitchen Princess, I think the pub is part of a chain - King Henry's Taverns - so I might well do that!
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