Five Bells, Henlowback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Last evening (Saturday) my 69 yr old fiancé and I (64) thought that as we had enjoyed some lovely meals before at The Five Bells at Henlow (lunchtimes & weekdays), that we would go and see if we could get a table early in the evening. We were lucky as they had a table that was not booked for another two hours.
We settled in. The first problem came when I could not order a cream sherry to have before dinner as they did not have any. Yet I have had some there before. So we settled in on second choices. (I might add here that my drink was a glass of cola). My fiancé ordered the chicken pie and proceeded to enjoy it well when he got it. I ordered the Lamb Kashmiri which the menu mentioned was a medium curry.
Once my food arrived, second problem, I tried to enjoy it but the lamb flavour was completely overcome by not only heavy spicing but my mouth was left with a burned feeling from the heat of the spice.
I requested from a waitress that I would like a couple of tablespoons of plain or vanilla yoghurt to douse the fire in my curry. She came back and said they did not have any. I asked for desiccated coconut as seeing an item on the menu that uses coconut I was sure I would get some. However she came back saying they did not have it. She offered milk or cream but as I am lactose intolerant I declined. She offered to replace my meal. Eventually I chose the lamb chops as I had been looking forward to some lamb.
I waited and eventually the lamb chops arrived. They were huge but the actual amount of meat as opposed to fat and grisly on them was so small I could not eat much of them. The fries were greasy and the peas were definitely not garden peas as they looked almost like marrowfat peas.
I nibbled what I could and left the rest. We asked for the bill.
The portly 'manager' came over with the bill and proceeded to state in a distinctly talking-down-to manner, that he had only charged us for the first meal and not the second one, but that if we ever came back again and did this again we would be charged with both the meals.
What has happened to the classy, tasty, lovely service and food The Five Bells at Henlow has been famous for?
I know that I will never again eat there. It is a shame as their service, manners, ambiance and food WAS excellent before. Last night their food was extremely cheap cuts, badly seasoned, their waitresses were younger, and less caring... except the dark curly haired waitress we have seen there before. The senior staff i.e. Mr Portly is in need of a major lesson in sales and marketing and customer service.
Goodbye The Five Bells at Henlow.
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Pub was recommended and it seemed nice and busy. Ordered Jumbo Fish & Chips. This was priced at I think �9.25. Very disappointing. I would expect a fresh piece of fish hand battered for this price but it was a frozen piece in awful hard batter. Something you would get out of a box from the supermarket. None of the staff asked if everything was ok - or did we enjoy our meals, just "have you finished"!!! Probably wouldn't go back.
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13 Adults 2 Kids Just had a GREAT meal at the 5 Bells Henlow. All turned up at the same time hot. Whould recomend a visit.
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What a joke. I've just left there, and the Lady( I use the term Lady for want of a better one) acted as though she was doing me a massive favour by even speaking to me, never mind serving me
I just cannot understand the attitude of pub staff these days. ( that said, I think she was the 'Mrs')
If you don't want to work with the public, find another occupation
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Nice, old fashioned, pub with a large food menu. The food I had was nice and reasonably-priced, but not outstanding. I would, however, take friends and family there for a meal. The pub caters well for older people and the menu seems designed to cater for all ages. A good, reasonably-priced pub which I wouldn't necessarily use for special occassions but would pop into whenever I fancy a good, honest meal.
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Visited this Bank Holiday Monday with family from London and Milton Keynes and was VERY impressed. Staff were friendly and attentive, food choice was phenomenal - including good selections for children - quick, hot, tasty and reasonably portioned and priced. Fantastic hanging basket displays outside. Only let-down was the tired looking beer garden with a damaged children's slide which could have caused an injury. Most likely to visit again when possible.
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Really nice pub & excellent food, we always take mates who visit here for something to eat, reasonably priced & large servings & always, always nice. Lovely garden with play area if you have kids. Friendly staff & nice clean toilets - important to me! Only drink lager & no complains about that.
anonymous - 26 Mar 2007 12:34 |
Visited 20 Feb evening. Ordered Special (Belly pork cooked in wine with wild mushrooms @ GBP10.95 served with fresh veg, roast potatoes, mashed potato). A round large plate emerged from the kitchen, sporting a dark blob of meat, no sauce, no mushrooms, sliced carrot (looking dry with a white glace), cabbage cooked OK, pea's not garden, left in the microwave to long (excellant ammo for a BB gun) dry mash (Taste good) Roast potatos. I asked if I could have some sauce as I found the food hard to swallow, especialy as the pork was difficult to cut. No sauce but gravy offered and a little jug arrived with some BEEF gravy. Wonder what happened to the sauce and mushroom that my tough belly pork was cooked in??? Definitely over priced and certainly not 'Special'
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Well decorated pub. Bar staff seemed a bit disorganised, and slow to serve people. For a tuesday lunchtime, it was pretty full (the OAP menu was clearly popular)
Food took a while to arrive, but was good, and prices were fair. Abbot Ale tasted great, so no worries there
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Lovely pub in this villiage, excellent food with helpful staff who work hard, lovely beer garden i highly recommend this pub.
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Really nice pub, went there for a Christmas meal and it was really nice, reasonably priced, staff very welcoming, nicely decorated, good beer garden and in a nice village.
anonymous - 19 Aug 2005 22:26 |
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