The Clarendon

We went to that pub for a Sunday brunch with friends and our 3 year-old. The initial impression was good, lovely setting, good parking, nice atmosphere, lots of space.
I don't know for the rest of the week but the Sunday lunch menu options are very limited with only four starters and four mains, none very original or appealing. The kids menu was also very limited to the usual chicken nuggets, pasta or fish fingers.
The waitress came quickly for drinks but it took quite a while (30 min?) to get our starters. Fortunately they brought our daughter's food at the same time. They were flexible though when I asked to have half chips and half green beans for her. I had salmon flakes salad as a starter, it was tasty but a very small portion. I then had what sounded like the Sunday roast with beef and yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes, again the portion was quite small and it was nice but not great – three very thin slices of beef. I had plenty of space for pudding, which was sticky toffee pudding. This was quite nice, with lots of sauce and generous ice cream. My husband had a wild mushroom risotto and the banoffee pie which he found just ok.
The service was pleasant enough but overall, it wasn't great value for money (£25 for three courses, £21 for two courses without the drinks).

Love The Clarendon… Finally got to take advantage of the terrace this week and enjoyed a fantastic evening with great original cocktails and delicious meal.

I am sitting here in the Clarendon as I wrote this, Sunday lunch with friends and their kids. My first impression of the fixed menu was dissapointment, I eventually fou something I vaguely liked the look of – poached salmon. 20 mins later the waiter returns and tell me it is actually flakes into a salad, not a fillet as he first deacribed. There was nothing else that appealing on the menu so I just said fine. Starters for those that ordered then arrived 30 mins after ordering. The dishes were not taken from te table until we requested so, another 25 mins later. The two waiters serving a packed dining room are seriously overworked and really unable to cope with general customer needs. The main was extremely dissapointing, the portion of salmon could not have weighed more than 50g and the dish cost £15. It was completely and utterly average and therefore overpriced. Never
Coming back here again.

Been here twice now and thoroughly enjoyed both meals. The atmosphere is laid back and friendly, the staff attentive and the food very tasty, highly recommended!

All the food was perfect, fresh and tasty… good wines, great great staff, very friendly and helpful. good value for money. a lovely cosy environment, perfect for a lazy sunday afternoon

having done the BBC tour we went here afterwards for a late lunch. Based on Square Meal review I had suggested this place to my friends.
We were very disappointed. First of all it is not very welcoming. Only 1 of the 2 entrance doors was open, and the waiter behind it was blocking this. We asked if they were open and got a mumbled ‘;yes’.
We sat upstairs on the terrace. Only 1 other table was occupied, the rest of the place deserted. Throughout our meal the staff then rearranged the lay-out of the terrace around us for a big party later, this was accompanied by loud arguments over how to do this. Atmosphere was zero.

They had two nice and one not so nice (in my opinion) premium lagers on tap. I order a pint of my first preference: this was ‘off’. Got a pint of my second preference: was told it was the last pint of the barrel. So ended drinking my least favorite lager. This theme continued with the food. Two people in my party did not get the mains order they wanted as they had ‘run out’. (Or, as I suspect, were saving for the big party later…) Two of the deserts were also not available.

The food itself was in my opinion the worst side of gastropub – very simple food, not very well cooked or presented, very expensive. I has a steak dish, my steak was undercooked, my Bearnaise sauce had split. The home made chips were chunky and the best bit of my meal. My friends were also distinctly underwhelmed.

All in all a very disappointing experience, I would not go as far as to say awful, but certainly not to be repeated.

Have been a number of times since it opened and the food is always good and tasty. I can always recommend the chateaubriand. Service can be patchy at times if the sun terrace is open and busy as it seems to get priority to downstairs. Staff are always friendly and as long as the food is good we will continue to recommend.