The Five Bells, Henlow

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.

9 Feb 2014 11:48