Vine Restaurant, The

Amelia Hubbard (22 July 2008)

I visited The Vine Restaurant last Sunday for lunch and stumbled upon the previous review this morning. I don't normally write reviews, although I read them, but felt I had to add my own as my experience was unbelievably different to that apparently experienced by the other reviewer. We visited the restaurant for Sunday lunch to celebrate my mother's birthday and we were five of us. We were greeted by a lovely French girl who was very professional and definitely knew her job. She and the rest of the staff took care of us beautifully and were very attentive. Our food was traditional, three of us had the roast beef, and well cooked and we thought it was good value for money for the three courses. My boyfriend had a smoked haddock risotto to start, which was amazing and my sister had a duck salad, which she said was lovely. We had mentioned on the phone that it was my mother's birthday and they even surprised her with candles and 'Happy Birthday' on her plate with her dessert. We had a fantastic experience and would definitely return.

Mike Bartlett (20 July 2008)

After reading what a good place The Vine was, we arranged to meet a group of old friends there for Sunday lunch. I thought the location and decor were excellent but sadly, that's the only positive thing I can report. The service was not what I expect in such an establishment. After we arrived no one even asked if we would like a drink and we waited fifteen minutes before I caught the waiter's eye. We had to ask for the wine list, the menu, actually just about everything else we required throughout the meal. They were not attentive but polite and pleasant and the oldest member of staff appeared to be around twenty years old, so trade experience was obviously lacking. I assume the members of staff were students and there was no interaction and no attention to detail. The food was meagre and poor quality; I had a duck starter, which was overcooked. The roast beef was cold and the vegetables were either soggy or hard - I couldn't cut through one carrot. I felt the Yorkshire pudding was a disaster. The dessert was nice but nothing special. I had looked at the restaurant's website before my visit but on the day there was a yawning gap between the website's description and what my friends and I experienced. Overall, I thought it was a pretty second rate lunch served up in a nice venue by nice people who possibly did not know how to run a restaurant.

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