Ye Old Sparrowhawk

Katy (22 January 2008)

I visited the place for lunch with two other people. We were seated quickly and given menus and our orders were taken. I had king scallops on risotto to start with and the others had mushroom soup. At least half an hour later, the dishes arrived - my king scallops were completely cold, and not good. The risotto though, was very nice. The soups were lukewarm at best, but tasty enough. The sear marks on the risotto from the scallops, showed that they must have been hot when the food was plated. My main comprised, crisp roasted belly pork with neeps and tatties, caramelised onions, red wine jus and apple sauce. The crackling was off the pork and stuck into the mashed potatoes. I love crackling and eagerly bit into it, to find my mouth filled with cooking oil. It has clearly been fried in cooking oil to crisp it up. There was no red wine jus at all, neither was there any apple sauce. The neeps were missing and instead there was some still crunchy shredded cabbage, completely tasteless, and undercooked and the onions were not caramelised. The potatoes were ok, and the pork was nice and thick with a good layer of fat. My main course bore no resemblance to the mouth-watering description on the menu. We ate here on a quiet Monday lunchtime, so there was no excuse for the cold food. I won't be going back again.

Sarah Beckley (16 December 2007)

The food was lovely with good portions. We had to wait a while for the food though, as the service was slow, but it was worth the wait. The children enjoyed it too, which is always a bonus. I didn’t like where we were sat much, as we were next to an exterior door the staff regularly used, so it got drafty. All in all, it was very nice and we would go back.