The Queens Head, Burley

Myself and three friends went cycling in the New Forest at the start of May 2008 and ended up having a drink and bite to eat in the Queen's Head in Burley. From the lunch menu we ordered two balsamic vegetable & goat's cheese wraps, one peking duck and hoisin sauce wrap and one king prawn and mayonaise baguette. Total cost was �19 (excluding drinks). I was told at the time of ordering that the wait would be 30 mins, as there were obviously quite a few people there for lunch. When the food finally arrived nearly 50 minutes after ordering it was a pretty big disappointment. *Both* of the balsamic vegetable & goat's cheese wraps were totally devoid of any goat's cheese - surely the most expensive part of the dish. The prawn baguette was not in fact a full baguette as suggested, it was half of a very modestly-sized baguette. The duck wrap was generally OK, but nothing special - certainly not worth �5. None of the dishes in fact were worth the money paid for them - the only garnishes were measly portions of lettuce. When the waitress came to the table to ask if everything was alright with the meal, I brought all of the above points to her attention, and she went back into the pub. Another waitress, presumably more senior, then appeared and upon desribing the problems with the meal offered us a complimentary dessert. I said I didn't want a dessert and thought that the meal was poor value for money. The waitress then disappeared - we thought to go and get a manager. But after a good five minutes she had not returned. We couldn't be bothered to hang around as we did not wish to waste the day arguing with people who seem uninterested in customer satisfaction. We won't be returning to the Queen's Head, and I would suggest you think twice about what food you're ordering if you're looking for value for money.

5 May 2008 10:48