East of England Pub of the Year 2012 - The Good Pub Guide
And
Norfolk Dining Pub of the Year 2012 - The Good Pub Guide
Why? I've no idea why this establishment is so highly rated. Yes the food is good, even excellent and the location delightful. But it is entirely let down by all of the other aspects - particularly the service.
The Darling Wife (DW) and I were treated to a stay at the Rose and Crown for two nights over New Years Eve. We arrived to check in at around 5pm. Upon locating reception we found it unmanned, so we eventually managed to enquire at the bar, and were met at reception a few minutes later. The woman who checked us in, duly showed us to our room with a calm efficiency, which demonstrated no interest in our comfort other than to ensure the radiators were turned up.
Our room was fine. Simple, rather basic, but clean and the bed comfortable. It seems they were aiming for a seaside theme; but it was rather too basic for the prices they charge. The only real irritant was the noise the plumbing made whenever someone else in the building used their bathroom.
We made our way downstairs (horrid carpet) to the bar for Dinner. We were pointed in the direction of a modern dining room, decorated in vibrant orange, pink and lime green. Upon sight of the room, DW exclaimed loudly that it was "vile and tasteless. Could we be moved?" Clearly this was not the desired response; we were calmly and coldly told that this was our table, we could not be moved.
We think that this was our one and only sighting of the owner/manageress (who has had several less than flattering comments on tripadvisor).
We were handed over to a charming waiter in his mid-twenties, who served us well, and was helpful with wine, but had the ability to realise that we have a good wine knowledge and gauged his advice to reflect this. He proved to be polite and attentive with good knowledge of the menu.
We shared Baked Camembert, confit garlic, smoked tomato relish as our starter. DW ordered Pan Fried Sea Bream with Ham Hock Hash and creamed Leeks for her main course while I chose the Beer battered haddock fillet, hand cut chips, mushy peas, tartar sauce.
The Camembert came with a good supply of excellent homemade bread. The confit garlic was full of flavour and the relish complemented very well. Delicious, though I prefer the way that we cook this at home with the garlic (and rosemary) baked inside the cheese.
DW was utterly delighted with her Bream and loved the accompanying ham hock mash -lots of flavour albeit perhaps slightly on the salty side but the creaminess of the leeks did help to balance this. It was beautifully presented arriving topped with some crispy onions.
My haddock was excellent, but it was massive; I couldn't finish it. The mushy peas were not especially mushy and were minted. I love minted mushy peas with lamb, but am not hugely keen on mint with fish. But they were fresh tasting and clearly freshly made. The fish itself was moist and succulent, the batter wonderfully crisp.
For pudding DW ordered Milk Chocolate creme brulee with boozey winter berries and toasted marshmallows and I had the Chocolate Brownie with vanilla ice cream (instead of the coffee which sounded a bit too rich for my already over fed tummy!) DW was very pleased with her choice, she kept telling me the following day that I should try it that evening! I found the brownie a bit too heavy going, very rich; nutty and delicious, but after the cheese and huge fish it was far too solid.
While we received good service this night, we were aware of another table having problems with the girls serving them and another table of older guests were getting rather rowdy!
We both felt terribly over fed and struggled to get to sleep that night - clearly eyes bigger than stomachs!
In the morning we made it downstairs in time for the 10am New Years Day breakfast. Breakfast is a part-DIY, part-served to table affair, We were shown to a table in another dining room with a strong echo, and noisy furniture-on-brick-floor ambience. The woman serving breakfast was rather surly and rude initially. She clearly realised that more effort was needed on her part, as the following morning she apologised and was far better. We felt that she just gets a bit flustered and likes guests to fit in with her priorities.
The bread was again homemade, fresh and delicious. We both ordered the English Breakfast - excellent, the poached egg was just spot-on. However I did feel that the breakfast was incomplete, it needed something like fried bread, or hash browns. The sausages were particularly good.
That evening we proceeded downstairs with the intention of ordering lighter options and not sitting in the same vibrant dining room - we failed on both fronts! We were surprised that having so clearly expressed a dislike for the colour scheme they chose to keep us in the same room; it became apparent that they were not interested in where we wanted to sit.
We were served by two utterly hopeless girls, who clearly couldn't be bothered with customers, and probably resented having to work over new year.
We had to ask to see the wine list, and upon her presenting it, it became clear that neither girl had any idea whatsoever about wine. Having taken our order the girl came back to tell us that it was out of stock. She could not offer any suggestion for an alternative. We settled on a Rioja. When it arrived it was thrown down on the table, pre-opened and we were not invited to taste it.
Our starters arrived after a fairly lengthy wait, with still no sign of any bread. We asked for bread and it duly arrived with the butter dish sitting on top of the bread, where it remained until we removed it ourselves. The butter had clearly come straight from the fridge as the dish was cold and drenched with water - soggy bread. The bread basket was dumped on the table with the waitress leaning right in front of me. This unusual technique was applied for the rest of the evening.
DW had ordered Crab cakes which were well-received, and I had a Garlic prawn and pancetta salad, which while lighter was entirely run of the mill, nothing exciting about it.
DW ordered Guinea Fowl for her main course while I had the 8 oz prime steak burger, bacon, cheese, red pepper ketchup, French fries. DW enjoyed her Guinea fowl but was disappointed that having asked to have the braised endive replaced with an alternative vegetable, it arrived simply with the endive removed - it seems the message never reached the kitchen! My burger was excellent, but was heavily laden with onion. Readers of previous entries will know onions are hardly my ingredient of choice, but I accept they are a normal constituent part of a burger. But please, list it in the menu so we can request it without! The fries were crispy, but in need of seasoning, and the red pepper ketchup a great alternative to tomato.
The starter plates were not cleared from the table until the main course arrived.
In addition to our wine, we were drinking tap water. We struggled to get the attention of our waitresses, upon succeeding we asked for more water, and were tartly told that we would have to wait for her to clear an EMPTY table not needed until the following evening. This was incredibly poor service. DW got up and went to ask someone else, more water duly arrived, but no one remarked that it was odd that we had left the dining room to ask for more water.
For pudding DW ordered an interesting item composed of zabaglione ice cream, orange posset and topped with a soft Italian meringue - again this was a great success although DW suggested it would have been better served in a different style (it had arrived in a tall ice-cream sundae type glass) and I opted for a simple chocolate and vanilla ice creams both of these were flavoursome and had an excellent texture.
We were a little perturbed to be told that we must be down for breakfast by 0915 on a bank holiday. Anyway, as mentioned earlier, our welcome at breakfast was warmer than that of the previous day and perfectly pleasant.
We took great care and spent some time filling out their comments sheet and handed it to reception as we checked out, we volunteered the knowledge that our wine from the second evening was not on the bill and paid for it - clearly the waitresses had forgotten to charge it to our room. We are somewhat surprised not to have heard anything from the proprietors regarding our comments, we offered great praise where due and politely pointed out failings where necessary. I wonder if having discussed some of the short-comings with the receptionist our envelope was quietly filtered out and never made it to the proprietors?!
It seems success had gone to their heads, they have failed to train and supervise their staff adequately. A shame given that the kitchen is clearly one which prizes excellence.
I have decided in this case to split the review down into different areas:
General service - 5/10
Waiting service night 1 - 8/10
Waiting service night 2 - 1/10
Breakfast service morning 1 - 4/10
Breakfast service morning 2 - 6/10
Food at Dinner - 8/10
Food at Breakfast - 7/10
So I suppose that results in an overall rating of vaguely 5/10, which is just so disappointing when you consider how good the food actually is!
www.roseandcrownsnettisham.co.uk
