The Black Lamb Reviews Summary

Service

Pros:

• "Service was great and unstuffy and also gave good advice not to order sides as we didn't need them with our dishes and then we could have dessert."
• "Excellent attentive waitress(Natalia) accommodating us without a booking."
• "The friendly waiter got us quickly sorted with our drinks."
• "Abin was an excellent waiter. He was attentive and polite and answered the questions we had."
• "Thank you Katy for looking after us so well. A great evening!"
• "The service from Chelsea was exceptional and really added to the evening 👌🏼."
• "Staff were attentive, polite and friendly."

Cons:

• "The waiting staff could do with some training, no suggestions about menu/wine forthcoming."
• "We were met with a somewhat impatient response from the waiter."
• "Service friendly but slow."
• "Only let down was the service. Slow, patchy and some very disorganised members of the team with 2/3 picking up the dropped balls of others."
• "The waitress Ash seemed a bit out of her depth, throughout the evening placed dishes at the wrong table."
• "Service was poor to non-existent."
• "Had to wait 10 minutes to get anyone’s attention. Front of house all chatting and mucking about."

Food Quality

Pros:

• "The Beef was amazing and the potatoes were so delicious."
• "Delicious food - my stand outs were the chorizo starter, and the apple tarte tatin which was yummy."
• "The food was really tasty, the atmosphere lovely as always (we love the candlelight!), and the staff were so friendly!"
• "The pork tenderloin the best and tender meat I had since a long time."
• "Flawless food, super wine list with lots of by the glass options."
• "Absolutely delicious food. We started with the lovely fresh oysters followed by scallops with mouthwatering pancetta and langustine tails."
• "The food was absolutely fantastic...varied, inventive and delicious."

Cons:

• "The pork chop... was dry and tasteless, the broccoli was charred beyond belief."
• "The puddings were average and in my opinion overpriced for a mediocre chocolate sponge."
• "Dry roast chicken, almost unedible and so overcooked."
• "The pasta with veal ragu, it just tasted of dough and the fusilli was poor."
• "The actual meat however was overcooked – tough old pork chops in more than one case, overdone venison and just everything wrong with every meat."
• "The beef was as bad, decent looking meat, but had been sitting under the heater so was dry."
• "The seafood risotto was undercooked with the rice hard and powdery."

Atmosphere

Pros:

• "A divine evening at The Black Lamb - highly recommend."
• "Lovely chilled out, but swanky date night vibes."
• "We came early in the evening so atmosphere was a bit quiet but started to pick up throughout our visit."
• "All amidst a great, buzzy atmosphere."
• "The restaurant is very romantic."
• "Fabulous evening with fun atmosphere!!"
• "The atmosphere was fun."

Cons:

• "The atmosphere was dull, the restaurant was dark and we won’t be going back."
• "Really crowded, tiny tables, no room even for waiters to walk."
• "It’s a little dark inside and could do with some better lighting or removing the curtains from the front of the restaurant."
• "One star off for atmosphere as it was like a sauna in there."
• "While the restaurant had lovely decorations, the tables were quite close together, a common occurrence in London."
• "Incredibly disappointing experience at the Black Sheep."
• "The only downside was the waiter put a family with a baby on the right table next to us, and the baby was throwing things and made loud noise which was quite disturbing."

Value

Pros:

• "Great value for money on the Sunday on the farm office."
• "The portions were large, and the price excellent value for the quality and amount of what we were served."
• "Really delicious locally sourced seasonal beautifully prepared food and fabulous cocktails and sparkling wine from Sussex."
• "I can honestly say I have never had so much food all at such good quality and value for money."
• "Great value Christmas menu."
• "Love how it is all British produce and Nutbourne sparkling is worth a try."
• "We booked on The Fork - and used points for £50 off. No hassle here."

Cons:

• "We had dinner for two on a Saturday evening (£133 incl service)."
• "I’m also left resenting the fact we paid almost £300 (a lot for us) plus a babysitter."
• "£80 for a roast for two of us and one dessert very overpriced for the quality of food and service you get."
• "One would need a highly sympathetic bank manager to frequent this establishment on a regular basis."
• "£89 pounds for 180grams of beef wellington and 1.20 hours waiting!!!!!!"
• "However, the 13.5% service charge was unusual to me, and I must admit that our overall dining experience left much to be desired."
• "Overall we spent £200, for 4 mains, a modest bottle of wine (£45) and a 13.5% service charge. Avoid Sunday lunch here."

Management

Pros:

• "Rob the manager was on top of it and the staff were really good."
• "Special thanks to the restaurant for being accommodating with the booking which I needed to change a few times."
• "Many thanks to Katy, Ash & Sorin for taking such good care of us."

Cons:

• "Very poor management complete lack of any managerial structure."
• "The manager is so rude."
• "Manager was unapologetic, and instead told us that we could order mains, which we already did."
• "The chefs (cooks) and front of house require proper professional training, everything is a bit too slapdash and lacking in organisation and cohesion."
• "They messed up our reservation so we had to find another restaurant within the same day."
• "Unfortunately the maitre d with the earring, didn’t apologise for the way the beef Sunday lunch was served."
• "Incredibly disappointing experience at the Black Sheep."