Restaurant at The Feathers Hotel, The

Maria (17 June 2008)

My husband surprised me with a meal at the Feathers for our third wedding anniversary. We are local to Ludlow and have often dined in the bar, but being a special occasion, thought it would be nice to try the restaurant. The food was superb and great value for money. We had the pan fried scallops and the poached monkfish to start, and both dishes were cooked to perfection. Then for our mains we had honey roasted breast of duck and pork tenderloin with garlic and tarragon. Again, the dishes were excellent. The duck was one of the best duck dishes I have ever tasted, and my husband loved his pork dish, saying it was exquisite, and the sauces complimented the taste on the plates perfectly. For dessert I had a dark chocolate delight, which was simply divine. The service was excellent and the waiting members of staff were attentive. We will definitely be dining there again and would recommend this restaurant.

Gabriel Alexander (27 May 2008)

When spending £30 on a two courses, one might expect to be eating some pretty decent food. Sadly this was not the case at the Feather's restaurant. In fact, the food was so awful, that we wondered if we were eating in the same restaurant that is apparently "famous for offering the best of both traditional and innovative contemporary food". I do not have the heart to trawl through all the gory details of our dining experience, but I think a brief description of our main course might give pause for thought for the prospective diner.

I had the duck. On the plate there was a halved duck breast, three slightly burnt slices of leek, and a weird crisp 'cup' with a couple chunks of artichoke in the bottom and a few sprigs of cress. This all sat in a pool of lurid thick brown gloup of a most unnatural colour and consistency. The duck was passable, if a little over done, but at least was edible - the rest was not. The braised leeks were dry and stringy, the crisp 'cup' pointless, the artichoke, described on the menu as baked, was almost certainly out of a tin, and the inclusion of cress bizarre. As to the gloup, this I think was supposed to be the 'foie gras veloute' also mentioned on the menu. It tasted nothing like foie gras, and if it did not start its life in a tin, I would be extremely surprised. One does not expect Bisto on a dish costing £20.

My girlfriend plumped for the lamb. Now, if you assume you cannot really go wrong with lamb, you would be much mistaken. This was supposedly confit lamb shoulder, which is an odd idea in itself, but one might think in a restaurant of this price it might be something a bit special. It wasn't. The lamb was a tough, dry, overcooked, grey slab redolent of my grandparent's disastrous Sunday roast of years back. A simple rule with lamb: don't overcook it! This was accompanied by potato Dauphinoise, which was okay but lacked any oomph, and a horrendous pool of pureed carrot, which looked distinctly unsavoury. And again there was the brown gloup! We were assured that this was a different sauce to that on my plate, but, aside from being overly salted, it seemed pretty similar. Bisto again, I fear.

At the end of the meal, our waiter realised our dissatisfaction with the meal, and informed us we would not be charged for the main courses, just about redeeming himself for not offering the wine for us to taste before leaving the bottle on the table earlier in the meal. And in a restaurant where 2 courses cost £30!