The Caernarvon has long been our regular pub for a Friday night sherb prior to the Indian takeaway. It has a transient clientele on a Friday, the after work brigade, the pre-hit the town crew, the early doors brigade and the regulars. We spend a couple of hours putting the world to rights and doing a bit of people watching, and then wander home.
They do have a large restaurant and occasionally we will eat there. The pub is part of the Greene King empire so the menu is made up of staple pub grub like ham egg and chips, steaks, burgers and fish and chips. There are specials occasionally like lamb shank and salmon. The waiting on staff are always miserable and you wonder why they bother coming in to work, but at least they are consistent.
It must be a pre-requisite for working here because the bar staff all used to be miserable as well, but they have definitely become happier under the new landlord. They still fail to spot the order in which people come to the bar though. I have commented previously about how annoying I find that.
On Tuesday I decided to save SWMBO from the kitchen, and we ventured up to the pub for a taste of their cuisine. We ordered a jumbo burger for number two son, two chicken burgers and a cheese burger for the rest of us. You pay at the bar and then go and sit at your table patiently waiting for the gastronomic feast to arrive.
Eventually it did. It all looked fine. There were, however, little plastic containers full of side sauces. Well actually they weren't full, they were half full. So we asked for top ups of bbq sauce and guacamole, which arrived a bit later. We also compared portion control as it applied to the chips. There were anomalies with one meal having a 'normal' portion and the other three having 'small' portions. Certainly things had been cut back since we were last here for a meal.
Anyway all the food was fine and got eaten, but I did feel the need to point out that we were disappointed by the portions of chips.
'It's all regulated by the brewery' came the reply to my comments.' We are a Greene King pub you know'. Well I indicated again my disappointment and pointed out that the independent pubs close by were more generous in their helpings, and I got a very offish response. Why do English catering staff ask if everything is alright, and then get the right hump when you say that it isn't and point out their failings?
Well I am sure we will be in there again as a last resort, however if you find yourself in there don't expect loads of chips, and try to avoid the Hunters Chicken, its a horror fest.
