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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To say that pub roast dinners are crap?

185 replies

ThreeRingCircus · 28/03/2022 15:03

I know I'm being a bit unreasonable as you can't make roast potatoes etc to order so they're always going to have to be reheated at a pub..... probably the same with Yorkshire puddings but we went out for a roast for Mother's Day yesterday and although it was delightful in that I didn't have to cook the food really was disappointing.

Roast potatoes that aren't crispy on the outside, yorkshire puddings that are too soft, weird thin watery gravy and never enough of it. I don't think I've ever had a really decent roast at a pub even when it's a good pub and it's cost a fair bit of money.

I genuinely think I could have saved the £60 pub bill yesterday and bought a load of Aunt Bessie's stuff for a tenner and done it at home for zero hassle and it would have been a lot nicer.

Are there magical pubs out there that do amazing roasts or do I just need to accept that if I want a decent one I have to cook it myself?

OP posts:
BrokenNHS · 29/03/2022 07:40

Just to add OP, Mothers Day, Easter Sunday etc. are probably the worst times to go out for any meal in my experience!
Too many covers, rushed of their feet staff. Not relaxing!

mizzo · 29/03/2022 07:41

I genuinely think I could have saved the £60 pub bill yesterday and bought a load of Aunt Bessie's stuff for a tenner and done it at home for zero hassle and it would have been a lot nicer.

It must have been diabolical if you think Aunt Bessie's would be nicer. Aunt Bessie's offerings are terrible.

I have had some delicious roast dinners that weren't home cooked. Many places can't do Yorkshire puddings but I had some perfect ones in Scarborough.
There used to be a pub in my town that did lovely roasts but it got sold to a chain and now it's all frozen crap. The local gastro pub isn't bad, their veg is really nice.

stepmad · 29/03/2022 07:43

Yep have eaten a few in a supposed to be really good one in West London. The spuds were white and hard in the he middle underneath what appeared to be an entire cabbage other veg which was stone cold came in a separate dish. It was Christmas time asked and and pre checked with them also on the day that the pudding was nut free not allergic thankfully as it was full of huge chunks of the things.

Damnloginpopup · 29/03/2022 07:51

It's hilarious, I've been quoted so many times, and agreed with! The thing is I have a good selection of the right books, a bunch of good spices and ingredients and enjoy bashing around in the kitchen. Always have and my mum brought us up eating excellent and varied food (a mix of English, European, baltic and African) so I had standards to meet. My kids have been brought up to cook decent grub too and my eldest knocks up some cracking stuff at uni.

It's true though. Mexican and Thai I can match but enjoy going to both of those anyway, Indian I'm good at too but prefer the creaminess of a takeaway, Chinese I like a selection so it's not realistic and sweet and sour etc just isn't possible to match so that's another takeaway. My roasts are great (but don't match my mum's, obviously) but sometimes I do like to have a carvery as I can pig out on a good selection and load up with cauliflower cheese. Can't beat fish and chip shop fish and chips though, even though I've got a decent fryer. It's just never the same as a good chippy. I'll never order a steak, burger, pizza etc out as they are never worth the money. Tomorrow is a quandary too - I want to go to a local breakfast place for a fry up. I do better but it's my birthday and theirs is really good so do I don't I...

The best two purchases for my kitchen have been my Kenwood chef and my ninja foodi max - that's been used daily for eighteen months and I can't fault it at all.

Anyway, my shift is over and I'm heading home to bed. Just got to take the biltong off the radiator as it's ready now... 😁

HRTQueen · 29/03/2022 07:53

I had a really good roast at Toby Carvery a few months ago it was very cheap but the food was good we all really enjoyed it even my friend who was sniffy about going there

On Sunday it wasn’t too bad I have had better but always the way on big celebration days

Some good places around here

HRTQueen · 29/03/2022 07:55

I’m a good cook but my roasts are not great

It’s a lots of faffing to cook a good roast I don’t enjoy cooking it

JustJam4Tea · 29/03/2022 07:56

The best home cooked roasts beat the best pub roasts …. But I’ve had very sub par dinners at home and out.

I do cracking roasties and the roasties just don’t seem to work when out.

But rarely go out for a roast.

HELLITHURT · 29/03/2022 08:18

YANBU but DH does the best roasts ever, his roast potatoes and Yorkshire's are legendary.

Never had a roast on par when eating out.

Like others, I only eat food I can't do well myself when out.

So

Chinese
Indian
Sushi

Are my go to when eating out.

RockinHorseShit · 29/03/2022 09:10

It's not the pub lunch, it's the pubs chef who isn't getting it right.

We have a good choice of excellent pub grub around here & I'm very fussy

OverByYer · 29/03/2022 09:25

I’m lucky my local does a fab Sunday lunch. Much nicer than mine.

Original poster
ThreeRingCircus · 29/03/2022 09:52

So you're slagging off the gravy then saying there is not enough of it? Er, right.

Yep, both faults..... I'm pretty relaxed and as I said in my OP it was still lovely that I wasn't cooking but I do hate the trend for serving a tiny amount of gravy in a fairy-sized saucepan, and tasteless brown water is not proper gravy. It's a good pub and was £15 for the roast a head so I was disappointed in the food, but still had a nice time.

OP posts:
Original poster
ThreeRingCircus · 29/03/2022 09:57

@crosbystillsandmash

So fed up of reading shit like this. Millions of mums going out for dinner on Mother's Day because it's the only day they not 'allowed' to cook.

Why could your do/dh not make dinner? Or your dc if they're old enough?

DDs aren't old enough, they're Primary school/preschool age.

DH...... I do get what you're saying but the thing is I enjoy cooking and he doesn't. So naturally we've fallen into a pattern of me cooking him doing all the washing up. He'd happily have cooked if I'd said that's what I wanted but he'd have been stressed out and I just wanted it to be a relaxed day. Which it was, but I don't think I'll order a pub roast again.

OP posts:
WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 29/03/2022 11:16

It's the ambience you pay for, not the food.

It's both - and the food is the bit you directly pay form as the ambience is included/free.

For some reason, all this mention of carveries is just making me think of abandoned Ford Rangers and Buckaroo with Bergkamp Grin

Has anybody seen that episode of Futurama with the anchovies and Mom's robot oil? I always think of Aunt Bessie like that: she has this public persona of a kindly older lady whose greatest happiness in life is making others happy, with pleasantly full bellies; but at heart, she's a ruthless mercenary who would batter down your door and stand there wielding a cast iron rolling pin should her contacts (on every street corner) ever get wind of your intention to spurn her universal altruism and make your own roast potatoes. She will demand your boots, your motorcycle and your proper roast potatoes.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 29/03/2022 11:17

*pay FOR

Clockstooforward · 29/03/2022 11:21

It’s the gravy that makes a roast …it has to be juice from whichever meat that is served! Unfortunately many pubs have a generic gravy for all the roast meat. Generally the more you pay the better the roast !

QuizzicalEyebrows · 29/03/2022 11:43

I've always had lovely Sunday pub roasts all around the country so you were very unfortunate. Maybe due to the kitchen being overwhelmed, understaffed on Mother's Day

Hillarious · 29/03/2022 11:58

The advice we give to our friends from overseas on eating good British food is stick with a home-cooked roast dinner, but absolutely to have fish and chips out.

Blossomtoes · 29/03/2022 12:05

the more you pay the better the roast

Not in my experience. We live half a mile from a very upmarket hotel with matching prices, the roast potatoes and Yorkies there are rubbish. I’d be ashamed to put them on the table.

Hrpuffnstuff1 · 29/03/2022 13:30

@Hillarious

The advice we give to our friends from overseas on eating good British food is stick with a home-cooked roast dinner, but absolutely to have fish and chips out.
I think British food and good are an oxymoron.Grin

People in this country think Premier foods is the hallmark for flavors.
Toby Carvery, ahhhhhhhhhhh, noooooooooooooooooooooooo.

FayCarew · 29/03/2022 13:33

@Hrpuffnstuff1, I have no idea what Premier foods is, and I used to drive past a Toby Carvery but have never been in one.

I think British food is excellent

mydogisthebest · 29/03/2022 13:41

@Clockstooforward

It’s the gravy that makes a roast …it has to be juice from whichever meat that is served! Unfortunately many pubs have a generic gravy for all the roast meat. Generally the more you pay the better the roast !
Not for me or DH. Neither of us eat gravy. We both think it is horrible.

I don't get why people want their food to taste of gravy rather than the actual food or why they want food that is meant to be crisp like roast potatoes and yorkshire puddings to be made soggy by gravy.

Hairbrush123 · 29/03/2022 13:55

Where do you live OP? The pub food in my village in a leafy part of the West Midlands is fantastic!

Original poster
ThreeRingCircus · 29/03/2022 16:21

@Hairbrush123 I'm in the Home Counties/South East but a long way from Brighton (sadly, as many people on this thread say the roasts are great there!)

OP posts:
Partypoooooper · 29/03/2022 16:49

There are a few in my area that do a very very good roast, but still not as good as my own, we all like things different I guess, I prefer veg a bit hard and crispy yorkshires, my in-laws like it all soggy. Each to their own.

MegaClutterSlut · 29/03/2022 17:34

Much prefer my own roasts and its the fraction of the cost compared to paying for 4 people in a pub/cavery. I've not had a roast potato as good as mine yet which is disappointing when you pay out so much money and its just 'meh'

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