The Blue Bowl Inn Reviews Summary

Service

Pros:

• "The staff are always so friendly and it's a warm and cosy place to be."
• "Excellent service and great value for money."
• "Outstanding!! Attentive and friendly staff, smart surroundings and the food was incredible."
• "Could not fault service staff very pleasant and easy to talk to when available."
• "Staff polite and helpful."
• "Staff friendly and gave excellent service."
• "The team were absolutely brilliant, friendly and accommodating."

Cons:

• "Very disappointed in service and a let down from what we have always liked about this place."
• "Staff offer basic service skills and don't handle complaints very well."
• "We must have waited for five minutes by the counter whilst staff failed to acknowledge our existence."
• "A member of staff confronted us and was incredibly rude after a meal had been sent back for being cold."
• "Service was appalling, waitress could not remember an order of drinks for 2, served main course and wasn’t even given cutlery."
• "Poor service, all I have to say really."
• "The Landlord was very unwilling to cater for any request and was very rude."

Food Quality

Pros:

• "The food is brilliant, we've never had a bad meal here."
• "The choices are great and the portion sizes are definitely better than average!"
• "Lovely food, specifically the items catering to chilli heads like myself. Loved the Carolina Reaper chips."
• "Food and service were both great."
• "Had food this evening and it was great. The starters and mains were a decent size and very tasty."
• "Food was absolutely lovely, location lovely."
• "The food was first class and the waitresses could not have been more helpful."

Cons:

• "Food is an acquired taste (cheese comes with lots of menu items). Most of the food is bland and would suit an older palate."
• "The 'famous' blue bowl bake, was absolutely awful. Chicken was pink and chewy, borderline raw, sauce was watery with a gloop of Stilton at the bottom."
• "This week the meal I had was truly awful."
• "When my linguine pasta came it had one prawn and lots of bits of white fish in it really wasn’t very nice at all."
• "The food was questionable overcooked tasted more like microwave meals."
• "First time visited since the change of ownership. The food was terrible and expensive with no presentation."
• "The pudding wasn't much different, just served without the biscuit containing gluten."

Atmosphere & Amenities

Pros:

• "Parking was good- big garden looked nice and big with small playground."
• "When the weather is more benign, there is an extensive and well kept garden area."
• "Also dog friendly with treats and doggie ice cream which is a nice touch!"
• "Great pub with fantastic views from the garden."
• "This is a friendly, welcoming pub/restaurant/B&B, with a great atmosphere."
• "Restaurant area is large, bar area smaller, however log burning fire which adds to the atmosphere."
• "Lovely clean room with a very comfortable bed."

Cons:

• "The play area was dangerous for the little ones even it was meant to be for them."
• "children's play ground shut though."
• "spoilt only by poor road surface making it a little awkward to push a wheel chair or push chair over it hence 4 star instead of 5."
• "Walked in and told they only take bookings. The place was half empty."
• "No atmosphere."
• "No friendly welcome."
• "Just popped in for food and drink. Checked out the bathroom first.....very disappointed and the smell!!"

Value for Money

Pros:

• "Good value for money and service was upbeat and friendly."
• "Excellent quality of food with some local dishes on the menu."
• "Great pub food! Great service, great atmosphere and prices are standard for eating out."
• "Visited for lunch with some family friends while on holiday and was really impressed with the food and portion sizes and quality of the offering they serve everything we ordered was fresh and cooked to order, very fair prices too."
• "Prices were reasonable and sizes were good."
• "All staff were friendly and helpful."
• "Great pub food! Great service, great atmosphere and prices are standard for eating out."

Cons:

• "Left 80% of the meal and after paying £50, would expect at least one of us to be satisfied."
• "It's very, very expensive, especially given how clapped the food was."
• "Overall was quite expensive for what we had."
• "Food? To expensive for what they offer."
• "First time visited since the change of ownership. The food was terrible and expensive with no presentation. No staff so even with it being very quiet with diners it took ages."
• "The owners responses to other reviews are comically unprofessional, maybe if they knew how to take criticism instead of being defensive and argumentative it wouldn't have been so bad."
• "Food was good service was good BUT no social distancing was taking place outdoors."