Grafton House Restaurant & Bar

We went to Grafton House one exceptionally quiet November Friday night to check out the venue for a corporate Christmas party. The bar manager was incredibly rude for what should have been a straight forward conversation on bookings and on the disposal of our wine (we learnt that the bar is allowed to pour your unfinished bottle of wine down the sink rather than take it to your restaurant table, and they did). As such, the manager's offensive attitude (and that of one of his bar staff) made for an incredibly unpleasant evening despite our best attempts to gloss over their rudeness.

The food however was good and, with 50% off, made for great value. The waitress service was very good and could not be faulted. In essence, good value on food, shame the bar staff do not have any manners on how to be polite to customers. Even more of a shame such basic values have been lost on some of the staff…hardly the service one expects in a down-trodden economy. It will take more than 50% off offers to get me back

I dined there (with a small group) on a Tuesday night. The bar had some people in earlier, but the restuarant was deserted. Whilst the decor was lovely, the atmosphere suffered due the lack of any diners.

The olives we ordered at the beginning of the meal were mostly very soft and unappetising – in fact we complained but didn't get much of an answer. However the beef skillet starter I had was very tender and delicious, and the swordfish main course was ok. Another of our group had the BBQ baby octopus and really enjoyed it. They then had the cod and chips main. 2 of our party asked for a little more brioche with their starter, but were told that it had run out. We didn't have dessert.

The food was on balance OK, but I felt the menu was not particularly interesting, and things like the past-their-sell-by-date olives displayed a lack of attention to detail.

We were charged for a cocktail we didn't have (transferred from the bar area) but they did take it off the bill with no quibbles. The service (for the very quiet night we went on) was good.

I would go back again, possibly on a more busy night, as the cocktail selection was good and it looked like a reliable option.