The Duck in the Pond, Harrow

Four of us had Christmas lunch here on Christmas day. Sadly the whole event was not the festive experience we had hoped for!!
Walking into the pub/bar area and it could have been any day of the year. complete lack of any festive cheer. In fact i did think that maybe we had got the booking date wrong and there were no lunches being served that day!! There were hardly any decorations around the main bar or restaurant area. Although the serving staff friendly and polite, they did not wear any xmas clothing, hats, or even any red.
The tables were poorly decorated with a cheap paper napkin and tablecloth and a sad cracker each with the cheap contents and even cheaper jokes!!
2 of us had the melon starter which was basically a melon with the top cut off and a couple of grapes shoved in. Sadly the melon was rock hard and couldn't even be cut with a dinner knife!! The grapes inside ended up being catapulted around the room by dinners as they grappled with the melon bricks.
The main course was OK, if you liked only one vegetable and liked gravy, as this was poured all over the food without us being asked. The turkey was the texture of Bernard Mathews, but couldn't really been seen under the gravy so it could actually have been spam for all we know. There were no sauces or cranberry jelly either.
The pudding was a slice of xmas pudding with custard, again whether you wanted custard of not!! No brandy butter offered or even a bit of festive holly!
At �35 a head I guess 'you gets what's you pays for!' but I still think this was way too much, even for a Christmas lunch.

All in all a very disappointing Christmas lunch, as far as the food, atmosphere & surroundings were concerned.

Nice friendly serving staff, shame about the venue.

29 Dec 2010 20:12