Team Rating
Harry's Review
So up to the Three Moorhens for our next food session. Not a pub that I have used very much so didn’t know what to expect. The place is a bit TARDIS like in that it looks small from the outside, but is really quite spacious on the inside. Again a Greene King house. Maurice arrived a few mins before Mick and myself and was struggling to get served at the bar. Staff were covering both the food and bar sales and service was slow.
The pub is done out well with a traditional theme and has a comfy feel. There is ample seating outside and I could imagine it being very busy on a warm summer weekend
Got a pint of IPA, good value at £2.59 a pint and a good pint in itself. We found a table and perched ourselves there. Service it is fair to say was sporadic. There didn’t seem to be enough staff working, so when we were asked if we were ready to order, we asked for 5 minutes and it was more like 20 mins and then a different waitress.
None of us wanted starters, so it was straight into the mains. I went for the lamb shank as this one of my faves and success! It was on. However I did get asked by the waitress if I wanted seasonal veg with that, not realising that was an extra dish I said yes, given that the lamb shank already came with peas, probably not necessary! When the dish came up to add insult to injury, the kitchen had run out of broccoli, so to add to the carrot and cauli in the veg side dish they gave extra peas. So a bit of a pea fest… The dish came up with the lamb shank on a bed of mash, a bit of gravy, peas and a small jug of mint sauce. The veg was average, there were far too many peas, the mash OK and not enough gravy. However the lamb shank was a triumph. Beautifully cooked and a good size, there was a generous amount of tender lamb which fell off the bone.
For pud I went for the easy option of the trio of ice cream – just what I fancied at the time. It was very nice and a generous portion, which I also noticed for the other puds for Maurice and Mick, you certainly couldn’t complain about the dessert portions. We did wait a long time for the desserts to arrive, so much so that Maurice was on the edge of having a sense of humour failure.
In summary the food was middle range pub grub, done OK but spoiled a bit by slow service. From looking at the menu, there are good deals to be had on certain nights. For my meal today I would say fairly average across the board, the lamb shank was great but balanced out by not great veg and slow service.
Service and venue: 3/5
Food and drink: 3/5
Value for money: 3/5
Maurice's Review
Anyway on arrival I was shocked to find how many chairs were outside, if this was on a beech in spain woohooo but not sure how they handle the good old British weather. The inside had been redecorated to a high standards and I was hopeful it was going to be a good night.
Anyway that's where the fun ended for me, I was stood at the bar for approx 15 min before being served. The reason for this is that there was only 1 bar staff on, and they were also handling all the food orders. However when I asked if they were busy the answer was "no more than normal".
The good news however was its a cheap round so an extra point by the other boys I am sure.
Starters: Nothing really caught my eye on this, not sure why they had enough range.
Main: Hunters Chicken
This has become a regular in pubs I think, basically a chicken breasts, with bacon on the top, bbq sauce and melted cheese. This came with good old chips and a salad. Overall not a bad dish, only comment I would make is that the chicken was very dry, and a little on the small side, but overall for a pub food - not bad.
Pudding: Apple Crumble and Cream
At first arrival the pudding looked huge, and indeed it was a heck of a portion. The crumble top was lovely and thick and sugary. The apple was sweet and just soft enough not to be mushy. The heat was perfect and didn't burn the mouth. Overall the highlight of the night.Summary:
Apart from the exceptionally slow service from the point of the first pint to the point of almost cancelling my order for pudding after such a wait, this wasn't bad. It was your typical pub food, Goldilocks would be happy as it wasn't great and it wasn't awful it was just right.
Service and venue: 3/5
Food and drink: 3/5
Value for money: 3/5
Mick's Review
Arrived to hear that Maurice had been told that it was not too busy by the bar staff, oh good I thought this should be good, oh how wrong could I have been, it took Maurice a good 10 minutes to get served ( not bad for a pub that was - not too busy).
We sat down and ordered our meals my main meal was - Gammon and chips with double egg and peas, the staff friendly and helpful, the meal arrived, nice and hot and very tasty. I must admit I was rather surprised as I was not expecting this, but sadly it went downhill from there.
I noticed that 3 ladies arrived and sat at a table close by, and ordered their drinks and they duly arrived, when we had finished our main meals, we ordered dessert, in the meantime the table with the 3 ladies had received their main meals and had also received a second round of drinks, before our food arrived.
We waited 10 minutes for our dessert, still nothing arrived, no explanation from the staff and I mentioned to Harry and Maurice that I thought we were now one waitress down. 15 minutes later Maurice is getting more that agitated that we had still not received our desserts, and was extremely close in cancelling his dessert order, just as that decision was about to be made all our desserts turned up ( and not before time). For my dessert I ordered the sticky toffee pudding, which was very nice and very tasty, but due to the delay in receiving the dessert I felt this let the place down, very disappointed as it had started out very well indeed.
Service and venue: 2/5
Food and drink: 3/5
Value for money: 2.5/5
