The Priory, Wellingborough
Restaurant: The Priory, Bourton Way, Wellingborough, NN8 2LF
Style: Pub Date Visited: 17 Feb 2008
As a family of two adults and two young kids, we had previously had an unexciting, but OK lunch here one day and chose to take mother-in-law and son out for Sunday lunch with us and give their carvery a try with our party of 6.
The pub was heaving .... usually a good sign and we had to wait around 10-15 minutes for a table.
The ordering was the usual pub arrangement where you take your table number and pre-pay for the meal. I hate paying before you have tasted the meal, but accept that is often the norm in pubs these days.
The daily menu was also available and we mixed our order across the carvery and standard menu opting for:
2 x Carvery
1 x Steak & Kidney pudding
1 x Cod & Chips
1 x Pizza (kids) - (no chips) but with vegetable/salad side
1 x Fish Fingers (kids)
The waitress who first served us was a delight; she made us feel really welcome and wore a big smile throughout all aspects of her service although it was extremely hectic - very sorry that I did not get her name as she was a credit to the establishment.
The first problem that we encountered in ordering from both carvery and the main menu is that it is nigh impossible for you all to sit down together to eat as there is no early warning for carvery diners that other mains will be coming out - the first sign that dinner is served is when it arrives at the table necessitating that the carvery diners then join the back of the Priory's carvery queue - a 5-10 minute warning would be nice and perfectly possible since all orders go through the same ticket.
The first problem we had with our meal was that the kids pizza was burned and when we pointed this out to the server - a young gentleman this time - he seemed unconcerned and enquired whether we would like it replaced? Of course!! It was ridiculous to serve it in the first place. It was also served with chips (not ordered and detested by my young diner).
The Fish & Chips seemed OK and I left my wife to her Steak & kidney pudding, Mash & Veg whilst I and my step-son joined the carvery queue with our raffle tickets proving that we had pre-purchased the meal.
Some one minute after joining the queue, I saw the gentleman server returning to our table with a fresh pizza .... well, I say fresh, but that was miracle working to cook a new pizza in that time (more to follow).
Anyway, my step-son and I collected a generous plate of roast beef, gammon and all the trimmings from the carvery and returned to our table.
We then realised that the S&K pudding was clearly bought in and the mash was inedible being the consistency of glue.
My daughters new pizza was only slightly less burned on top, yet cold and soggy underneath ... leading to the thought that it was previously microwaved to cook it and was simply flashed under a grill to warm it for the table.
For the carvery part, I must admit that the beef was tender and delicious having received meat from a fresh joint that was brought out - the earlier joint was definitely on the well-done side and on this occasion the queuing worked for us.
The same cannot be said for the Gammon joint; there is no question that the centre of the Gammon was still in a raw state and should not have been served. Food with Passion does not believe that there was any health hazard with this because a gammon is preserved and protected via the curing process, however this was not an appetizing part of the meal.
It was also a severe disappointment that all the vegetables, including the roast potatoes had been cooked from frozen bought-in products. The trimmings of yorkshire pud and chipolata (cheap, cheap rusky sausage) all bore the hallmarks of creating a meal on the cheap.
The meal was inexpensive (around £40 for food for the entire party), but too many mistakes to justify a repeat visit.
I know that many people will be happy with what they received for the price involved, but Food with Passion comes from a position of seeking out quality food and being prepared to pay a fair price for it; but this was not quality food ... it was lacklustre, couldn't-care-less food and we will not return.
Author : Food with Passion
Food with Passion gives permission to republish this article so long as it is published unedited, in its entirety and properly attributed as "originally published by Food with Passion"
