Sunday, June 18, 2006
Expensive, Pretentious, and terrible service, a once reasonable meal at The Bull bites the dust.
Well several weeks after reopening we revisited one of our favorite and regular eating spots to have a pleasant Sunday afternoon lunch at The Bull in Meriden.
We arrived sometime close to 3pm, walked into The Bull via a much better entrance, the new decor was reasonably nice, things weren't too busy and we sat down to peruse the menu. The prices were certainly quite a bit more expensive than previously and the menu didn't seem to be as extensive as it once was. I guess it is always hard to change things and keep old customers happy with those changes.
Having chosen our starters, soup for me and a green salad for Anna, I managed to get my soup, but Anna didn't get her starter without having to specifically ask for it. The Leak and Potato (and olive oil sprinkled on top) soup was okay, the butter was unsalted (I prefer salted if I'm going to indudge), but of the right consistency and easy to spread, not rock hard and just out of the fridge. After some prompting some 15 minutes after receiving my soup, Anna received her green salad, which with lime and apple she to be quite nice. The drinks that had been ordered didn't arrive until after I had consumed the soup and even then a large red wine was really a small red wine and the pint of lager had to be sent back for a top-up.
Taking longer than I'd ideally like, our main course arrived, pan fried chicken for Anna and smoked haddock and muscle fishcakes for myself, the request for no potatoes and extra vegetables seemed to have fallen on deaf ears, with no less than two different style of potatoes being served. The food admittedly did taste good, even if my fishcakes were burnt and the parsnips and carrot was a little over done for my tastes. The addition of another large glass of red wine during the meal had to prompted for again.
We decided to have desert, a lemon meringue pie and a fudgecake. After almost 45 minutes and just as I was again about to have to ask what was happening to our desert we were informed that no lemon meringue pie was available. Not having the lemon meringue pie is understandable, but taking a full 45 minutes to let us know the situation, is to my mind pretty unforgivable.
So understandably my verdict on The Bull in Meriden is pretty damning. Considering the level of service we received, I can only consider The Bull to be both more expensive and more pretentious in its aspirations than any pub has a right to be. Things go wrong, I can understand that better than anyone, but even for the low levels of customer service I've seen on occasion, this plumbs the depths.
If you do decide to forgo my advice on visiting The Bull, just don't go when they are busy, I can't imagine terrible service getting any worse, but I wouldn't bet on it.
We arrived sometime close to 3pm, walked into The Bull via a much better entrance, the new decor was reasonably nice, things weren't too busy and we sat down to peruse the menu. The prices were certainly quite a bit more expensive than previously and the menu didn't seem to be as extensive as it once was. I guess it is always hard to change things and keep old customers happy with those changes.
Having chosen our starters, soup for me and a green salad for Anna, I managed to get my soup, but Anna didn't get her starter without having to specifically ask for it. The Leak and Potato (and olive oil sprinkled on top) soup was okay, the butter was unsalted (I prefer salted if I'm going to indudge), but of the right consistency and easy to spread, not rock hard and just out of the fridge. After some prompting some 15 minutes after receiving my soup, Anna received her green salad, which with lime and apple she to be quite nice. The drinks that had been ordered didn't arrive until after I had consumed the soup and even then a large red wine was really a small red wine and the pint of lager had to be sent back for a top-up.
Taking longer than I'd ideally like, our main course arrived, pan fried chicken for Anna and smoked haddock and muscle fishcakes for myself, the request for no potatoes and extra vegetables seemed to have fallen on deaf ears, with no less than two different style of potatoes being served. The food admittedly did taste good, even if my fishcakes were burnt and the parsnips and carrot was a little over done for my tastes. The addition of another large glass of red wine during the meal had to prompted for again.
We decided to have desert, a lemon meringue pie and a fudgecake. After almost 45 minutes and just as I was again about to have to ask what was happening to our desert we were informed that no lemon meringue pie was available. Not having the lemon meringue pie is understandable, but taking a full 45 minutes to let us know the situation, is to my mind pretty unforgivable.
So understandably my verdict on The Bull in Meriden is pretty damning. Considering the level of service we received, I can only consider The Bull to be both more expensive and more pretentious in its aspirations than any pub has a right to be. Things go wrong, I can understand that better than anyone, but even for the low levels of customer service I've seen on occasion, this plumbs the depths.
If you do decide to forgo my advice on visiting The Bull, just don't go when they are busy, I can't imagine terrible service getting any worse, but I wouldn't bet on it.
