Kris Barnes

Review of The Gilbert Scott

A beautiful setting for a sadly subpar Sunday lunc...

A beautiful setting for a sadly subpar Sunday lunch.

On entrance in to the hotel it s clearly a beautiful building, immaculately maintained, and a delightful place for a nice, more luxurious Sunday lunch.

It s a relaxed atmosphere and the other guests were all very nice and friendly.

On arrival we were greeted well and taken to our table. We had two babies in our group and the staff were extremely accommodating and wonderfully nice, happy and enthusiastic.





The starters were lovely, and outshone the rest of the meal. I had the onion soup, with a lot of onions, served with a delicious gruyere on toast. The mackerel was tasty and well presented and my friend had the burrata which she finished with pleasant ease.

So far so good.

The mains arrived, meats individual and veg in sharing bowls, which is fine and sociable.

I d call it a Roast of Two Halves .

The meats were mostly nice. The slow cooked Ox cheek was delicious - a really comforting, luxurious melt in the mouth delight. The chicken I m told was also very nice. My wife had the beef, which she asked for medium rare. The parts that were medium rare were lovely, but parts of it were actually raw. So not edible.

We couldn t fault the gravy, it was thick, deep, and velvety. They gave us extra on request.

The real problems, however, came with the vegetables and Yorkshire pudding. The roast potatoes were so over-cooked I could have used them as cricket balls. They must have been cooked and kept warm for a long time. Very disappointing. The Yorkshire puddings were also a bit over-cooked. The carrots were delicious, though. Broccoli - a tad odd, served with a mint sauce that isn t too everyone s taste.

The dessert options weren t very inspiring but we had to choose. I went for the profiteroles... not the kind of profiteroles you would expect, oh no. It was just one huge profiterole, served like an odd sandwich with an extremely sharp, sweet passion fruit and yoghurt filling. No thanks. It was not nice at all. It should be more clearly explained on the menu.

The apple crumbles were massively over-cooked. The banana soft serve was probably the nicest.

They also forgot our coffees and then served them lukewarm. Tut tut.

All in all I d say it was a disappointing experience, hence the 3 stars.

Luckily we were with good friends and had a great time anyway. The staff were friendly and the setting is beautiful. Just a shame about the food.