The Longbridge Mill, Hook

I have been here a few times, it is lovely to look at and as soon as you step inside you feel warm and cosy, i went here again last friday, 25/02/11, we were allowed to choose where we wanted to sit, we ordered some drinks at the bar, you have to go to the bar for everything, to order food etc.. which i think should change, we sat and looked at the menu for a while then went and ordered. The starters came quite quickly, my mushrooms in beer batter were nothing special, quite bland, my partner had prawn cocktail his favourite, it looked nice apart from the pieces of bread and butter at the side, it was not fresh bread, we then waited for our mains for about 15 minutes, it was not very busy and 2 staff were sitting down having a break, we got excited when we eventually saw our main courses coming as we were starving. I had ordered the steak and ale pie, my face dropped when the plate was put down in front of me, the mash potato looked dry and like it had been sitting out on a work surface for a while! It was cold! what a surprise! Tasted not like any mash i have had before! OH sorry Yes it does! The mash i had last time i was there!!! The green beans looked ok but they were cold too!! The PIE, WHAT can i say, oh my god! the pastry was glued to the pot so i had to try and carve of some of the pastry with my knife, the table was then covered in pastry! Once i was inside i tried the meat and whatever else was inside, i had to pick out about 6 lumps of gristle, after trying to eat at least 6-7 mouthfulls of pie and mash i apologised to my partner and said sorry i just cant its awful! His dinner of gammon chips and egg was ok, the eggs were over done but he still ate it, he said you cant really go wrong with chips can you! Well dunno about that!
The waitress or manager as she looked came to the table to remove the plates, with asmile and said did you enjoy it and i said sorry no, i explained i am a bit fussy and the meat was very fatty and potato was not nice, i did not say anything else, she turned quite defensive and said no-one else has complained! I apologised as i felt guilty now like she had cooked it, then she said the potato comes in pellets and the inside of the pie comes pre cooked from somewhere else! I thought that sounded lovely, pellett potato! I felt a bit sick after that, we thought we would cheer our selves up with a pudding, its difficult to go wrong with a pudding too, is'nt it! Surprise!!!! My partner had the apple pie with custard, the pie was ok but the custard cold!!! He started to laugh, i received two massive proffiteroles with a clump of cream, ok so i was expecting lots of little ones, so i tried to dig in which took a while then put a bit in my mouth expecting to mmmmm! Nope! It was rubbery and tough, i started to laugh too, it was so unbeleivable wewere both laughing, i asked my partner if he fancied a game of rugby outside with the other profitterole! When i went to pay before our plates were taken, the woman was there agin, her attitude had changed towards me, she could not look me in the eye and was short and defensive again, she was also there when i went to order the pudding earlier and said is there something you want? Not very polite, if this was my restaurant i would want the custmer to enjoy the food as well as the surroundings, it is such a great shame the food is letting the place down, the staff looked miserable, and so would i be if worked there, I doubt unless someone else takes over this place that i will be eating there again, rude staff who make you feel inferior and bland, rubbery, fatty cold food!! Thats all i have to say!

2 Mar 2011 13:59