Restaurant at The Bell at Skenfrith

Guy Bowden (6 April 2009)

My wife and I took my mother there for lunch recently, booking well in advance and avoiding both Mother's Day and Easter to ensure that it wasn't too busy. Although we were seated quickly, the service afterwards was very slow. We were hoping for a relaxed time, but felt that 45 minutes between courses was unreasonable, and we had to remind the staff that we were still there in order to get a dessert menu. The food was disappointing too; starters were pleasant but unremarkable, and the main course, described as local shoulder of lamb, may well have been this but could equally well have been another cut or even another meat, as any particular flavour came from the sauce. The potatoes, vegetables and accompanying Yorkshire pudding were described, at best, as resembling those offered at the local steak house, and, at worst, as like school dinners, for people who remember these. The desserts of homemade ice cream were good, but not the flavours told to us by the waitress, and by the time they arrived we had given up on the idea of asking for coffee. Several staff were also very unhelpful when we asked for the bill, and eventually we had to go and find someone willing to accept payment. The setting and the building itself are lovely, so it was a shame that the food and service were such a disappointment. It felt as though the business had overstretched itself.

JP (29 August 2008)

We used to love The Bell but over the last two years it seems to have lost its way. Our last meal was so disappointing and this will be our last. What was described as a rack of lamb arrived as one very thin slice of lamb with a bone - presumably the rib of the rack - and one thin slice without the bone, a delicious piece of liver and a very greasy rösti. It was intended as a treat for a close friend and was embarrassing. They closed the old bar – the only pub for locals within four or five miles - to get a couple of extra tables in and lost a good deal of goodwill. There are lots of better places nearby so I think they will have to pull their socks up, starting with a bit of staff training.