If you'd ASKed me, I'd have said 'Go to the Full Moon'!
| Author: John Boles | Published: 27th September 2008 15:36 |
With two daughters who have (or should I say had?!) a thing for Ask restaurant, I have recently endured possibly the worst meal that I've had for a long time.
Time after time, I return to the Full Moon and it still amazes me what outstanding value for money I get there compared to the likes of Ask. So here I set out what we, as a family of four, had at both establishments ... and I'll let you draw your own conclusions!!
We'll start with the trip to Ask. Busy as ever, it took 10 minutes before someone even realised that we were standing by the front waiting to be seated, with a further 30 minute wait to be seated - nevermind, a good place is always popular and one must expect to have to wait ...
Eventually seated, I order a bottle of the cheapest white wine that I can locate on the menu - a mere £14, for something that would probably only cost £1.99 at the local supermarket and probably cost them even less - but hey you come to expect this nowadays - don't you?
The wine turns up and it is positively warm - hot, so obviously we cheapskates are not catered for ... I'm sure the more expensive bottles managed to be housed in a refridgerator.
Another 20 minute wait with plenty of gesticulating from your truly trying desparately to get the attention of our allocated waitress and I was starting to feel like the invisible man, but eventually we did manage to get her attention and place our order. I remembered that the garlic bread was of the thin and crusty pizza based variety from about 18 months ago (when, incidentally it didn't seem too bad!) so we ordered four lots ... what they didn't tell us was that the format had changed - instead of getting a dainty crescent shaped piece of garlic bread that left you wanting for more, out come 4 ruddy great big 9 inch pizza based sizes, which was quite enough to fill us for the whole meal!
It's rude to leave your food, so I manfully eat mine, and half of everybody elses, so I was well and truly stuffed, but based on the level of service before, I felt comfortable in the fact that I'd doubtless have to wait a good hour before the mains turned up, so I wasn't too bothered ... indeed time for a ciggie break outside.
Of course, when I returned, I found that the plates for the starters had been whipped away pronto and the main was already placed on my table waiting to be eat. In fact I think it must have been cooked before my starter, as my Pene Al Pollo al la Cassa was way overcooked and quite difficult to break into.
From the looks of the other faces around the table I wasn't alone with the over cooked food. But, typically British, we let it get taken away without so much as a slight moan and when asked if we'd like to see the sweet menu, I thought there'd be no harm in looking.
Oh what a mistake - I suddenly took on the persona of the invisible man again. This time, after what felt like an hour, but must have been nearer 25 minutes I walzed up to the bar and explained that we'd been offered a sweet menu half an hour ago and nothing had materialised!
Another ciggie break and when I returned the menu was there - good!
The sweets were shared between us 2 types of cheesecake 4 ways - absolutely no complaints there, they were georgous - on hindsight, I wished I had just ordered 2 sweets and nothing else!
Our quick meal was now 2 hours and I couldn't bring myself to wait for a bill so again I ventured to the bar. So what do you think the damage for that little lot was? I'll tell you, it came to a quite substantial £76 odd and stated that the tip was not included ... I left, giving them the tip that they should pay more attention to providing a good timely service and check the food that they delivered!
Next round - The Full Moon on Southover.
Now admittedly, this is a pub and as such it has a more limited menu on offer, or does it? Well actually, I didn't think it did. Ask is a place to get pasta and pizza and that's about it.
The menu at the Full Moon in it's fixed format is pretty varied and there are always a couple of specials on offer. Whilst eying the dishes that were eminating from the kitchen, I could see that the main courses were quite substantial portions (unlike Ask) so we decided to forego the starters.
I saw tenderloin of pork on the menu, which is one of my favourites and it came with a rich creamy sauce, but it had a look of chips with everything about it, so I braved the question 'would it be possible to have rice with it instead of chips?' ... not a problem at all (aparently people don't do rice much these days and prefer the potatoes). My partner had the country style chicken which came with another delicious sauce and I think the children went for something else altogether.
What a delight - plain and simple food cooked to perfection and plenty to satisfy ... that's all I personally ask from a meal. It was all washed down with not 1 but 2 bottles of beautifully chilled white wine at just £7 per bottle (so 2 for the price of 1 horrible bottle of luke warm wine at Ask) and it was followed by 4 generous portions of equally delicious puddings.
How much cash did I part with for that little lot? ... answer just £56 and well worth every single penny! Four happy, full punters exit pub full to the brim and just a little bit tipsy from liberal glasses of wine ... bargain!
Guess which one I'm returning to again tonight?
What do you think?
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Got a new bird then JB? x
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