Miss A's Reviews

A new local restaurant with a tempting menu of classic combinations – we had to try it. Friday night, the second official day of trading and we were very pleasantly surprised with what we found. The decor is stylish yet comfortable and the countless numbers of staff very friendly and efficient.

The best surprise is the ability to order any wine by the glass or half bottle – even at the premium end of the wine list. Speaking with one of the owners after dinner, they also have adopted the concept of keeping your own bottle of wine or spirit behind the bar so you can enjoy it on a return visit, as well as sourcing any favorite tipple that you may fancy (with enough notice). A real winning concept given the number of restaurants that aim to fleece you with overpriced and unimaginative wine lists. Coupled with an great selection of cocktails on offer we were onto a winner.

As for the food, the combinations are tried and tested but the finished dishes when they arrived were far more interesting and imaginative than i would have ever expected. Scallops with bacon were accompanied by mixed leaves with a tangy and surprising dressing. The true delight of the evening however was the beef wellington… Melt in your mouth pastry, a wafer thin crepe, flavoursome duxelle and beef that you could cut with a butter knife cooked perfectly medium rare. It makes me hungry thinking about it.

We didn't try desert but as i can guarantee that we will be returning to this little gem of a restaurant we'll be sure to indulge next time. Overall verdict: a great concept, friendly and interesting staff and an appealling food menu executed well. Lets hope that, unlike its predecessors, the Penny Black is here to stay!

Overall i thoroughly enjoyed our visit for dinner last thursday night. The food is fantastic and the original formula seems to have transported very well to this new location.

The ribs were an excellent starter, although a bold choice if having a large steak to follow, and i had a rare case of “menu envy” when a fresh and succulent prawn cocktail arrived for one of my fellow diners… The steaks were all cooked to perfection – as you would expect from a place that prides itself on its selection of beef cuts – and a wide range of perfectly suited sides are available. Our table of six could still not agree which of the two types of chips were the best. Having gorged on this amount of meat no-one expected to find room for dessert… untill the menu arrived. All of the options are too appealing. The ice-cream was delicious in a range of well-picked flavours – salted caramel being a highlight. The sticky toffee sundae was the perfect balance to help out when undecided between ice cream or sticky toffee pudding – it was a triumph.

It was not all good sadly… The service was appalling. The staff were trying to be very helpful and very friendly (when you could catch their attention) but it took an age for anyone to take a drink order and then even longer for them to arrive. When the food was bought out of the kitchen, the wait staff would wander around the floor havingly seemingly no clue as to the table numbers. The best option was waving frantically in the direction of the wait staff when they were carrying anything that resembled something you ordered. They did not however try to turn the table so at least we did not have the stress of worrying they would ask for the table back before we could even order our main course.

As fellow diners have mentioned ,the noice levels in the restaurant borders on the ridiculous. Atmospehere is one thing but i struggled to hear what the person sitting next to me was saying, let alone the one across the table from me.

All of this being said, i… More

Visited last night with a group of 5 people and sat in a booth at the back of the restaurant which in itself was very comfortable. Only problem is that there is a serving station behind those tables where throughout the evening the noise of plates and cutlery being dropped from a great height created an earth-shattering din!

The food was very good – classic combinations of flavours executed well with minimal fuss. Slightly disappointing were the scallops with wild boar which lacked any real flavour from the boar but the devilled livers were a winner, as too was the sea bass with samphire. Sides of creamed spinach, tomato salad and chips were fiiting accompaniments to the main courses.

The service was fairly complacent which is a shame and when the bill finally arrived there were over 5 items on it that were not ours – these were removed with minimal fuss but it still leaves a “bad taste in the mouth”.

In summary I will probably go back, albeit wary of the noise levels, as the location is great and the food itself very enjoyable and reasonably priced.