Guest User
June 12, 2024
We were so looking forward to our meal in the Avenue as was a Christmas present from my wife to taste the food from Tom Hamblet. Unfortunately the experience was not what we expected. The Hotel and grounds are stunning and with even more excitement we were shown to our table. We were both surprised the finer details of a tablecloth on such an occasion was not present, fixtures and fittings had seen better days, but that didn’t bother us as we were there for the treat. We ordered the Lobster and Pigeon breast to start. Lobster was an extra £10 on top of the £85 meal. However we were both really disappointed. The Lobster was over cooked, tough and tasteless, the pigeon was similar. All I could taste was the chocolate sauce and not the pigeon on top of that the celeriac was hard and not cooked through so we half complained and mentioned the staters were only ok. The mains came Lamb and Turbot, our two favourite meals. The Lamb was so fatty and not what was expected, it was completely tasteless as we were told it was sous-vide, I guess the turbot was done the same way. It was salted as that was all you could taste. Additionally the asparagus you could not cut as it was so stringy and the side of new potatoes were not cooked through. So complaints were made and were told in no uncertain terms we are the only ones complaining, however the two tables either side of us were not impressed, but I guess people don’t want to make a fuss. We were asked if we wanted something else, but after what we had eaten we lost confidence in the kitchen. My wife kept saying that no way was Tom there….we proceeded to pudding and thankfully the cheese was good and the chocolate and peanut was fabulous. We asked to see Tom as we had travelled from Nottingham and you would of thought that having unhappy diners he would come out, we were told he would after service was finished, but no show and when we asked again he had apparently gone home. In the end we were not charged for the starters and mains, but we would of much rather of had the experience we wanted and we left deflated and disappointed.