Michele's review of The Poacher

We visited The Poacher last evening to enjoy the Jazz/Blues music in the bar after dinner. The decor is delightful – heavy blonde, oak tables and chairs on a black slate floor with attractive molten glass pictures and mirrors to increase the visual space. Good, big wine glasses and large starched napkins. “Mine Host” is a cheerful, gregarious man with lots of friendly repartee with the customers. The ambiance is convivial and the dinning room was well populated for a Thursday evening. However, the same positive statements cannot be said of the food. I ordered a sirloin steak and it was the worst steak that I have ever been served. It was 1cm thick and cooked so long that there was no moisture left in it at all. It was advertised as “char-grilled” and it most certainly wasn't. The chef had cut it into three pieces and piled them across each other to make it look bigger, including one piece that was all grissle. I informed the senior waitress of my opinion and she checked with the chef and the answer came back that they had “a new butcher” – as if that was any excuse for a chef sending such low quality food from his kitchen. Perhaps if the prices had been on the low side I would not feel so agrieved, however, the steak was £17.75 with an extra £1.50 for a very poor pepper sauce. The mixed salad was plentiful and chopped into proper bite size pieces. My husband's gammon steak at £10.50 was acceptable but nothing special, and his icecream was flavoursome but lacked any trimmings, wafer or special presentation – he was also not given a fork to assist in the eating of the slippery stuff. Altogether not an expereince that we want to repeat.