Weavers Mill Pub/Restaurant

...called Camperdown Park with the Weavers Mill Bar/Restaurant sitting right on my doorstep, it seemed the obvious choice.

The Bar/Restaurant sits right next door to the Premier Travel Inn (where I was staying) in Camperdown Leisure Park. It also sits next to a few other fast food outlets, a Cineworld and an Ice Skating Rink. You could certainly make half a day out of visiting the leisure park itself as there is plenty to see and do in ...
...are intending to eat out.

My Rating: 7/10 forgetting about the not so good service and remembering they have a cute little waitress.


Weavers Mill
Camperdown Leisure Park
2 Dayton Drive
Dundee. DD2 3SQ

01382 880170  ... more

While spending time in Dundee for a weekend break from my daily routine, it was inevitable that I would have to find somewhere to dine, and being as how I was staying on the outskirts of the City near a place called Camperdown Park with the Weavers Mill Bar/Restaurant sitting right on my doorstep, it seemed the obvious choice.

The Bar/Restaurant sits right next door to the Premier Travel Inn (where I was staying) in Camperdown Leisure Park. It also sits next to a few other fast food outlets, a Cineworld and an Ice Skating Rink. You could certainly make half a day out of visiting the leisure park itself as there is plenty to see and do in this area.

Even though it is on the outskirts of Dundee City, it is easily accessible by bus which runs from the City Centre to the Leisure Park around every 30 minutes. I never used the buses as I preferred to use taxis instead to get to and from the City, but with a journey time of around 10 minutes by car, it’s not that much of a drive and there is plenty of parking too.

INSIDE

During my first night, I did make my way to the bar area and never really took much notice of the restaurant itself. The bar area is done up to look very old fashioned even though you can tell it is in fact a new build with ancient wooden beams used to give the desired effect. I found the bar fairly quiet to be honest, but then this isn’t really a drinker’s bar because of the restaurant and the location it is in.

I went to the restaurant on the Saturday after attending the ‘Ciao’ meet that was organised by member ‘Belfin’. I have to say, the design and layout is simply fantastic, certainly not something I have ever come across before. Even though it is inside, the whole thing is designed as if you are outside. Trees can be found slap bang in the middle of the place with all the outside walls appearing to be the outside of what I can only describe as castle. So the setting is like you are in a courtyard of castle grounds. Very imaginative indeed.

MY EXPERIENCE

I arrived at the restaurant side of it and was greeted by a young man who showed me to my table, he passed me the menu and explained that a waitress would be over in a few minutes to take my order and that if I wanted a drink I would have to go round to the bar and order it myself with my table number.

Well as you would expect, of course I wanted a drink with my meal, but I did find it very strange that you had to go get it yourself. Surely the time difference in ordering it yourself and ordering it with the waitress doesn’t make any difference. I didn’t mind going to get the drink myself, but to me it kind of defeated the object of having a waitress in the first place.

After getting my drink, I returned to my table and a few minutes later a cute little waitress came over and asked if I was ready to order. I had hardly looked at the menu, but then I didn’t really need to as 1, I had one in my room and 2; these types of menus are usually very similar to restaurants of this type.

I decided to stick to what I knew and ordered Breaded Mushrooms for starter and Steak & Ale Pie for main course. My starter arrived quite promptly and I soon tucked in. To be honest, for a starter it was quite large and by the time I finished it, I knew I was going to struggle with my main course. After finishing my starter I waited around 5 minutes just to let it go down, after this 5 minute period I kind of expected the waitress to come back and take my now empty plate. Another few minutes passed and still no waitress later, I decided to go out for a cigarette and pop to the toilet. I came back still to find my starter plate on the table.

Another few minutes later, the cute waitress finally came to take my plate away and shortly returned with a huge plate containing a Steak & Ale Pie complete with Mash Potato and Peas. I knew straight away I was not going to have desert, which is a shame, because when I go out to eat I normally do the whole hog and even finish with a coffee.

After finishing the meal, I waited about 10 minutes before the waitress came over and asked if I would like desert. Telling her that I was full and wanted the bill, I proceeded to wait another 20 minutes before I finally received it. Although the meal was delicious and plentiful, the service could have been a little more timely and better.

PRICES

The prices here are very reasonable. Let’s go through my meal, what I got and whether the value is there. For my starter, I had Breaded Mushrooms; this consisted of 10 breaded mushrooms, a side salad plus a Heinz Garlic Dip and was priced at £3.45. Not bad and certainly worth the value.

For my main course, I had Steak & Ale Pie with Mash Potato and Peas. You have a choice of whether you want Mash Potato or Chips. I decided to go with Mash Potato as I had chips earlier on in the day time. This consisted of what you call a ‘Pie for 1’, although personally, I would call this a ‘Pie for 2’, but then saying that, it would have looked really silly cut in 2 and served. A great big dollop of Mash Potato, there was definitely enough for 2 people here and of course plenty of peas. The price of this meal is £8.75, which personally I find to be a bit on the expensive side, but then you do certainly get your moneys worth.

Even though I was too full by the time it came to choosing a desert, if I wasn’t, I would have gone for the Apple Pie which costs £3.45, having not seen the desert, I can’t really comment on whether that’s good value or not, but to me, this is a reasonable price to pay for desert. So let’s break down what my total meal would’ve cost if I had eaten desert, including a drink.

1 Pint of Coke £2.30
Breaded Mushrooms £3.45
Steak & Ale Pie £8.75
Apple Pie £3.45
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TOTAL: £17.95
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On the whole, this is not a bad price to pay for a 3 course meal and one of things that unfortunately I did not fall into the category of was the 2 for 1 offer they have on pretty much every meal they have. The menu is quite varied and there is plenty of choice for everyone’s tastes.

MY OVERAL OPINION

Even though my service was not the best I have ever received whilst eating out (probably due to it being rather busy) it certainly is a great place to eat out. Even if you don’t really like what I call ‘pub food’ the place is worth visiting just on the basis of the setting, it’s very novel.

The bar side of things does tend to be on the quiet side, but I guess people do only go to this place because they either intend to eat in the restaurant or intend on going ice skating or to the cinema. So it does tend to be just a stop off point. Mind you, this makes it an ideal place to take the kids

That’s another reason to go, if you don’t wish to be hassled by the little ones, you can leave them in the play area at the back. Not that that’s something I recommend without supervision.

If you are in the Camperdown Park area of Dundee, then this is definitely a place worth considering if you are intending to eat out.

My Rating: 7/10 forgetting about the not so good service and remembering they have a cute little waitress.

Weavers Mill
Camperdown Leisure Park
2 Dayton Drive
Dundee. DD2 3SQ

01382 880170 

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