Lia's review of Smiths of Smithfield

Went to Smithfields for a birthday lunch with a group. While the space and atmosphere is great and the service fine our meal was decidedly average. The portions small and the tastes and flavours of our dishes just did not seem to work.

I had the scallops with black pudding and courgette fritters as a main – I got three small scallops and the fritters were soft and tasted uncooked. One of our party had the ribs which were tasty – if a little overdone, as was the quail.

If we had stopped at mains I think the experience would have been written off as ok but we all went for puddings and these were far below average. The trifle had a base of hard something at the bottom – a strange texture – certainly not sponge. The seasonal fruit pavlova came with a grey sludge that was so tart it couldn't be eaten and what we thought was a poached pear was more like a bitter pickle. The cheese board tasted like it had been sourced with cheese from Sainsbury.

Thankfully when challenged the manager agreed the trifle sponge was wrong, the cheese was cold and he tried to tell us that the pear was quince – even though it was a poached pear colour – quince normally goes orange when cooked. To his credit he didn't charge us for any of the deserts – but I am not sure that this gesture is enough to make me want to go back.