Back after a very long absence! Cant believe I've only written one review in nearly 2 years! Anyway ...
Back after a very long absence! Cant believe I've only written one review in nearly 2 years! Anyway back now and hope to be reading, rating and writing lots!
The Crown Inn is one of a chain of Harvesters in the city, including Snuff Mills in Frenchay, Lamb and Flag in Cribbs Causeway and the Red Lion in Westbury, but it was decided on the Crown Inn because the Snuff Mills has a fishpond in the middle of it and the kids get more interested in the fish!
So off we go at 6.30pm on a sunny Sunday, the place was very quiet, so we were surprised when the waitress said she was rushed off her feet. You see they also have a garden where you can also order your meals, I'm sure the fact that the indoors is now completely non-smoking assisted!
They have an rapidy shrinking and unimaginative menu, the starters cost from £2.95 and include soup, the immortal prawn cocktail,
chicken wings and more. Harvesters are known mainly for their spit roast chicken and steaks so the menu is mainly based around these two. A good one is the half a spit roast chicken and mash with onion gravy, at around £7.95 , you can also have chicken and steak mixes, beef skewers is another particularly good one. They also do several fish dishes, mainly fish in batter and scampi. Vegetarians are also catered for with vegetable, fajhitis stuffed mushrooms, etc. All meals come with seasoned fries or jacket potatoes.
Included with every meal is limitless visits to the salad cart, you go and help yourself to items such including lettuce, beetroot, peppers, potato salad, pasta twists, pineapple and loads, they also do a range of sauces including blue cheese, thousand island and low fat ones. You can also help yourself to rolls and butter. There is also an extensive kids and drinks menu.
And what does the food actually taste like? My partner had the emperor steak which comes covered in a red wine and baby shallot sauce, fries, mushrooms and tomatoes. The average size steak was cooked to his taste and he was well satisfied. I thought the price a little high at £9.95. The kids had fish and fries and sausage, egg and fries, £3.75 and £4.95. They are big enough for any size kid and would probably suffice an adult with a smaller appetite. I had the Farmers Feast which at £11.95, consisting of fries, steak, gammon and, sausage and egg was a bit steep. The fries weren't anything special, the meat portions very meagre, certainly not representative of the price, the gammon seeming to consist more of fat then meat. I'm not fond of places that try to fill you up more on fries than anything else.
The standard and even excitingness of the food is fast beginning to wane, occasionally it can be a lottery as to how your food is actually going to turn out, different chefs also seem to have different ideas about the amount of food you should actually be given! Its a sad state of affairs when the most exciting thing on the menu is beginning to be the salad you make yourself!
The highlight of Harvesters are their desserts, costing £2.95 each. The most intimidating is the Rocky Horror, a huge glass filled with a huge piece of chocolate fudge cake, filled with ice cream, topped with whipped cream, chocolate sauce and flakes. I chose the 7 chocolate trifle made with chocolate sponge, brownies, mousse, flakes, chocolate sauce, needless to say it was worth the weight (sic!). All the desserts mostly comprise of chocolate and ice-cream, although they are branching out into a few cheesecakes, key lime pie, etc.
Other negatives though include the drinks, my average Tango cost me £1.20, partners mega orange juice and lemonade (a pint full) cost only 35p more, in fact ¾ pint of lemonade cost 35p because it was classed as a dash and my daughters mega Pepsi only 95p. When I questioned this I was told this was the prices of the brewery and there was nothing they could do about it!. The service was average, no more, in fact it can be damn right awful at times. the decor pleasant and there was a good atmosphere. However I don't like the fact that the tip is now left open on the bill if you are paying by card so you have to sign it in front of the waitress, making you feel guilty if you weren't going to leave a tip at all, or less than the 10%.
So therefore I do recommend the Crown Inn, however there are similar places that offer much better value for money and thats not the Wishing Well pub down the road!
I wrote this before my little visit to Tamworth a while back. Being stuck in Slough we headed out of the dump and found this place on a little country road. It didnt look any different from a normal Harvester but the service was very pleasant. I ordered my usual chicken and was happily munching through until I tried the other side and it was raw!! I mean raw, not cooked at all! Not wishing to have food poisoning I called over the manager who couldnt have been more helpful, I must apologise to all those people who had to wait longer for their meals whilst the rotisserie was checked to make sure it was cooking the chicken properly! To give him his due, the manager did give me my meal free and provided us with two free desserts, which I was happy to take. In fact it turned out to be a cheap weekend away as we also got our pizzas free in Pizza Hut because they forgot to cook them and then gave them to somebody else!
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