Very unimpressed.

Yes, other reviewers refer to a calmness at Sands End. We too were sucked in by that apparent attribute. In reality, it is quite different. What masquerades as simplicity, manifests itself as high prices and poor service.

We arrived for Sunday lunch. Greeted by polite public school boys, we were shown to our table right by the ladies room. Ignoring that, the politeness soon ebbed away. These are just kids. The table service was incompetent, and when things started to go wrong they hid behind platitudes to cover up the problems in the kitchen. After an hour and a quarter waiting for the main course, we were told ours was up next. 20 minutes after that, we were told 5 mins. 15 minutes after that it arrived. The French boy who became our waiter over time became increasingly flustered, and by the time I asked to pay the bill he had become insolent.

What Sands End needs to realize is that you can't charge these prices and deliver poor service.
If the menu is short, life shouldn't be complicated. It took 35 minutes to produce one smoked salmon and one cauliflower soup. One of the roast beefs we ordered was very grisly, almost inedible. We left two and a half hours after we arrived, unimpressed by the short and dull menu, and feeling distinctly unwelcome. Never again.