The Pump House, Hotwells

Horrible! Horrible! Horrible! Unfortunately, a friend chose this place for her birthday do. If we had come to this place any other time we would have turned right around and left. As we drank our �4.15 beers, we saw at least 2 groups of people walk in, look at the menu and leave - one of them got to the bar and then left. The group that made it to the bar probably found out that they charge you 50p for using a card - not a credit card, mind you - a debit card, which IS CASH. Almost everyone in our group ordered chips because that was the one item that wasn't ridiculously over-priced. And they didn't even bring sauces out. If this place is so posh and upper crust, I expect the chef's own mayonnaise or some other interesting sauce, but no. We ordered the �7.50 Ploughman's - the cheese one, because to have a slice of ham is �8.50. The Ploughman's was basic and small - nothing special and nothing that justifies the extra money. We were still hungry after, so we ordered chips. I'm willing to pay a lot of money for an exceptional meal and have done on many occasions. This is the kind of a--hole restaurant where they count on people not objecting to being royally screwed. It's a beautiful location and the waitstaff are very nice, but that's not enough to keep me from advising that you run away!

19 Jun 2011 17:27