The Stags Head, Lincoln

As I walked into the pub to the sounds of Right Said Fred, I did wonder whether this place was going to be for me. The music was so loud that in the end we had to go to the barman to ask for it to be turned down, instead of screaming at each other to have a normal conversation.
We were served quickly and in all honesty the bar staff and waitress were fantastic, especially based on what came next.

We ordered garlic mushrooms and the platter (combo for 2 to share). The garlic mushrooms came with bbq sauce instead of the garlic mayo we ordered, interestingly the sauce came in plastic shot glasses something you would expect in Ibiza with vodka jelly in and 2 strips of celery plonked into the bbq sauce as decoration. The combo platter was enough for 4 people wanting a heart attack; it was a saturated fat nightmare.

The mains we ordered were Surf 'N Turf, Burger and a lasagne. The steak in the Surf 'N Turf should have been 'medium' it was so well done it could have been used as a weapon! The onion rings were not circles, just massive chunks of onion drowned in batter. My burger was charcoal, I actually felt sorry for the cow that was murdered to become this meal. The lasagne was the redeeming part of the meal and definitely a 'safe' option. Any meal that requires even an element of cooking or finesse just don't order it. Even the salad was uninspiring and in fact consisted mainly of tomatoes.

The waitress saw our leftover food and took the initiative to ask how the meal was. She was worried about taking the complaint back into the kitchen because of how scared she was of the manager. A barman then came over to ask us what was wrong with the meal, he then stated that if the waitress had checked on us more regularly maybe our experience wouldn't have been so bad. We explained that we didn't want the waitress to be blamed, we were just wanting to register our complaint to the chef.

This is when we found out that the manager of this pub was in fact the chef and apparently doesn't take criticism well. The manager couldn't even be bothered to come and discuss our complaint with us sending every other member of staff instead.

A disaster from start to finish. Just don't waste your time, walk further down the road and for the same price you can have a fantastic meal in some of the restaurants in the Bailgate area.

17 Apr 2011 11:27