[Trunkles]

The name suggests “English people that are a nuisance” or “apples on fire”. Unfortunately, the former description is the more accurate. We entered and stood there, twiddling our thumbs until we eventually had our table pointed out to us. Showing us to our table simply didn’t happen.

The menu is short and after very little thought I decided to try Toad-in-the-Hole, a quintessentially English dish consisting of, for those who don’t know, Sausages baked in batter. We were warned that there was a 25 minute wait for this dish, which at least shows that it was cooked to order. My dinner companion is mostly vegetarian and selected Vegetable Filo Wraps, one of the pair of vegetarian options. Given the short menu, it was a pleasant surprise to find two vegetarian options on there. We ordered a “Basket of Chips” as a side order. Our dishes appeared, reasonably well presented. Filo Wraps had a salad arranged on the plate and Toad-in-the-Hole came with peas, mashed potato and onion gravy. The mashed potato was good, smooth and with an excellent flavour. The chips were good - properly cooked, crisp and golden. The rest of the meal was lack lustre. The sausages were, at best, uninteresting and the batter acceptable but a little on the stodgy side. The Filo Wraps were, according to my dinner companion, “tasteless” and appeared to have nothing but potato and broccoli in them. The onion gravy had, I fear, an element of “packet mix” about it.

The place itself is brown. Brown from the floor to the ceiling. There is little in the way of décor and the chairs we had were uncomfortable. The English are not noted for flamboyance and the interior of “Flamin’ Poms” proves that. I should be noted that I’m English myself, so can speak with some authority on the matter.

To blame the waiting staff for the poor level of service would be invidious, I am quite sure they have had no training whatsoever and so the management must bear the brunt. The management would do well to invest in some good training. The staff were pleasant people and would, I am sure, be excellent at their job, if they were trained.

Desert was considered but only for a fleeting moment. My companion had noticed deserts going to other tables looked rather sad and the waitress who was going to bring us the desert menu failed to do so. She had, however, reached across my partner to pick up her napkin and had used the napkin to clean the table, which is not how to wait on tables. Our experience so far suggested we should go elsewhere for desert and we did just that.

Menu (1.5 / 5)

Service (1 / 5)

Food (2 / 5)

Atmosphere (1 / 5)

Overall (5.5 / 20)

[julie_jane]

I visited on 19th August having made a booking for 5 people earlier that day. We arrived at 7pm as booked but were not greeted by anyone & were not shown to a table but rather someone pointed to where we could sit. The four adults chose the carvery & my son chose the Beef & Ale pie with chips. Our drinks were served promptly. Several people were seated after us & we began to notice that they were all getting food but we were still sat there with nothing. The waitress, (if she could be called that?), who had taken our order eventually approached us & said she was very sorry but she had forgotten to put our order into the kitchen & there was no beef left for the carvery. The woman who had pointed us to a table then shouted over 'It's ok there is more beef'. We then expected to get our food pretty quickly but no, we waited a further half an hour for them to bring my son's food out, which was served with mashed potato & not the chips we had ordered. When we were invited to help ourselves at the carvery we were surprised to see that there was hardly any food to help ourselves to. There were 6 roast potatoes, 4 small yorkshire puddings & a spoonful of cauliflower cheese. There were 2 men & 2 women that by now were very hungry. We enquired if there was more food coming & were told no that's it. The same woman who pointed us to a table then approached, she is English & I believe is one of the owners, & said there was plenty of food there for 4 people. When we disagreed she totally lost it & told us 'I won't charge you for your drinks, just get your coats & leave, I don't want you here'. She then proceeded over to our table & took my son's meal away. I said that was no way to run a restaurant & she replied 'I offered you a free dessert', which the waitress had. I don't think a free dessert makes up for waiting over an hour for food & then finding out that it is only half a meal. I am English myself & have NEVER been spoken to like that in any restaurant. These people have obviously not run a restaurant before & are totally out of their depth. My friends & I will not be going back & also the many people I have told about this experience will not be dining at this aptly named place.