Table Table Pub Restaurant Review thread

[AnnMumsnet]

This thread is for the 80 MNers who were recruited via the MN Research panel (sign up here if you're not yet a member!) to try out their local Table Table pub restaurant with their family.

Each MNer received a £50 voucher towards the cost of their meal and drinks. The restaurants knew MNers would be visiting.

You can find out more about Table Table here

They say "Our stylish, relaxed decor is perfect to get together with a few friends and chill out at the bar, share an intimate dinner for two, or enjoy a meal with the whole family in our contemporary purple dining room. Add to this our great value pricing and we think you'll agree this is one local you'll love. Kids always love our Kid's menu, with everything from Chicken Goujons and Spaghetti Bolognese to Ice Cream and Mini Chocolate Challenge."

MNers visited one of the following locations

Lynton Court in Bournemouth
George and Dragon in Marlow, Bucks
Bowling Green in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex
Lockyers Quay in Plymouth
Cheadle Royal in Manchester
Mill Lodge in Lincoln
Hunsworth in Bradford South
The Charter in Aylesbury, Bucks

So restaurant goers, please add your feedback below by answering these questions.

Don't forget to add your review to the pub/ restaurant listings on your local pages of MN as well.

~ When did you visit and which restaurant did you visit?
~ Who were you with?
~ What did you and your group choose from the menu?
~ How was the general ambience of the restaurant?
~ How knowledgeable were the staff serving you?
~ What did your children think of the visit?
~ What was the highlight of the visit?

Any other comments?

Thanks for taking part

MNHQ

I tried to add a post to the Local site for Buckinghamshire, it only allows 900 words, so I reduced the review down. I added a couple of photos, and clicked post but it keeps saying access denied??

Oh well, now it seems to come up three times!!!

MN- I can't find pub/rest section on local (lincolnshire), it could be hiding in plain sight but I really can't locate it...

When did you visit and which restaurant did you visit?
Sunday lunch at the George and Dragon, Marlow

Who were you with?
DH, DS1 (9) and DS2 (7)

What did you and your group choose from the menu?
Roast beef, scampi and chips, jnr ribs, jnr scampi, apple pie, Oreo pie, kids choc challenge and kids sweetie sundae
Food was OK but nothing special, bog standard pub food with little inspiration to choose from - it's not somewhere I would race back to. It was great to be able to choose a larger kids meal though as mine have out grown normal kids portions but aren't able to eat a full adult portion.

How was the general ambience of the restaurant?
Seemed newly decorated, ambient music not too loud, busy in the restaurant but dead in the bar, mens loos clean, too many bits of paper / menus on the table.

How knowledgeable were the staff serving you?
Fine
What did your children think of the visit?
Fine - not inspired by the food and they weren't offered an activity pack

What was the highlight of the visit?
Kids puds

When did you visit and which restaurant did you visit?
Sunday lunch at the Lynton Court, Bournemouth

Who were you with?
DH, DS1(10), DS2(5)

What did you and your group choose from the menu?
DH and I had roast dinners and prawn cocktails to start. I had both turkey and beef and he had beef because they had sold out of pork. DS1 had a junior size haddock and chips and DS2 had a kids meal burger. The boys had desserts-caramel apple crumble with custard and sweetie sundae.

How was the general ambience of the restaurant?
The restaurant was nicely decorated with inoffensive background music. There were too many menus on the tables and we were given additional Sunday lunch ones which weren't taken away.

How knowledgeable were the staff serving you?
The staff were very knowledgable and very friendly. We were greeted warmly on arrival. I don't think I have experienced such a high level of customer service recently.

What did your children think of the visit?
The boys absolutely loved it. DS2 loved his activity pack and making his own sweetie sundae. DS1 reallly enjoyed his meal and the whole atmosphere.

What was the highlight of the visit?
It was nice to have a decent roast dinner which I didn't have to cook and which didn't cost the earth!For the 4 of us to eat with 2 starters, 2 desserts, 2 beers and 4 soft drinks was under £50 and we were all very full up afterwards. I particularly enjoyed the roast potatoes.

~ When did you visit and which restaurant did you visit?
Today (Sunday 13th Oct) appx 11:45am. Mill Lodge in Lincoln

~ Who were you with?
ExDH, DD (5) & DS (6)

~ What did you and your group choose from the menu?
ExDH :Sharing Platter, Rump Steak, Oreo pie
Me: Sharing Platter, Ribs & Chicken, Baileys Latte
DD: Corn Cob, Pop in chicken, Chocolate Experience
DS: Salad Sticks, Pop in chicken, Chocolate Experience

ExDH's steak was lovely but I felt that ours (the fried food) was pretty bland. The Oreo pie & Latte were lovely. The kids enjoyed theirs but I would've preferred it if we could've chosen salad sticks as a side for their main course.

~ How was the general ambience of the restaurant?
When we arrived the restaurant was really quiet. Within 45 minutes it was pretty full. Couldn't hear any music but that wasn't a bad thing. I felt like the children could talk and it wasn't causing a disturbance to other diners. I was impressed with the decor and looks a lot fresher than when I'd last visited (a couple of years ago)

~ How knowledgeable were the staff serving you?
The staff were all very lovely and helpful. No issues with using the voucher at all.

~ What did your children think of the visit?
The kids loved it and really enjoyed the activity packs.

~ What was the highlight of the visit?
For the children it was being able to create their own desert with the chocolate experience.

Any other comments?
I really enjoyed having an afternoon out and think it's worth the money if you pick one of their offers (of which there were many!)

Trying to add review to 'local' but it's saying I need to chose an alias. Can't see where to do it?

@pornstarmartini

Trying to add review to 'local' but it's saying I need to chose an alias. Can't see where to do it?

Hi pornstar, thanks for flagging this up. We've reported this to tech as you should get a nice prompt to create a Local nickname from any review you're trying to post (if you haven't already created a Local nickname in the past).

There is a work around if you want to get it done though. Go to the Local site where you're going to post your review. Go into Local Talk. Click on the white 'start a new thread in…' button on the right hand side above the threads. You will then be asked to create a local alias (ie, a local nickname). Choose one and save it. You can then go straight off to post your review.

When did you visit and what restaurant did you visit?
We visited the Bowling Green pub restaurant in Clacton on Sunday 12th October at 1 pm.
I had booked a table and initially the girl who answered the phone didn't know about the vouchers and passed me onto her manager, who quickly checked and found that they had been emailed to him.

Who were you with?

Party consisted of myself (43), husband (47), daughter,11 and son, 7.

What did you and your group choose from the menu?

I had chosen to visit on a Sunday as fancied trying out the 'Sunday Carvery' offer- soup or salad with three slices of a choice of turkey, gammon or beef plus All You Can Eat roast spuds, Yorkshire puddings and vegetables. The soup was plain cream of tomato, which didn't really grab my fancy. I was expecting the salad bar to be similar to one at Pizza Hut but it was smaller and was not very inspired, only offering coleslaw, cucumber, sweet corn, tomatoes, beetroot, white cabbage, lettuce and croutons with dressings on the side. I had a small helping of the salad as found it a bit disappointing. My husband didn't have any starter as wanted to 'save' himself for the Carvery. Our son (7) chose the Kids' Carvery. I was glad that I hadn't had much of a starter as the portions of meat were very generous and we had all piled up our plates with roasties and veg. None of us could actually finish what was on our plates, which is unusual for us!

Our daughter (11) had chosen a meal from the Children's Menu, which was very good value- £3.99 for a main meal with two sides and a pudding. She plumped for pasta with meatballs and tomato sauce with skinny chips and tortilla chips as side dishes. She has a very healthy appetite and could only just finish her meal. For dessert she and her brother chose the Cookie Cup with ice cream, while us adults shared a raspberry cheesecake with cream. Probably one of the few times in a restaurant when I have been too full to eat a whole dessert myself!

What was the general ambience of the restaurant like?

We were impressed by the decor and ambience of the restaurant. It was decorated in a modern style with ethnic touches with large electric fires in each section (unfortunately, these weren't switched on as this would have made the atmosphere even cosier. Each table was set well away from others so you had privacy and couldn't hear conversations on the other tables.

How knowledgeable were the staff serving you?

We were greeted very warmly by the shift manager, who knew about the vouchers and was very knowledgeable about the menu and attentive to us. Our waitress, Demi, was attentive, friendly and didn't blink an eyelid when my son was making a den for his toy leopard out of the menus! She was knowledgeable about the menu and checked regularly on us to make sure everything was Ok. She also let us know that our daughter's meal was nearly ready, so we could all go to the Carvery and then we would all be ready to eat at the same time.

What did your children think of the visit?

They definitely enjoyed the food and it was great service was so quick, despite it being busy. They were not offered the Table Table activity packs though, which we only noticed on our way out of the restaurant. They looked good, especially the 3d glasses.

What was the highlight of the visit?

I think the highlight was the Carvery, it was really tasty and was a big hit with our son who is a roast dinner connoisseur!

Other comments?

I visited the loos a couple of times, which were very clean and nicely decorated.

Despite trying, we did not manage to spend the whole £50. All in all, a very good value meal for the price, nice ambience and friendly humorous staff. The shift manager came over to check that everything was OK. I had wondered if we might get specialised attention, as they knew we were reviewing the restaurant but staff seemed to be giving good service to everyone, which was reassuring to know.

We visited Mill Lodge, Lincoln on a busy Saturday night on 12th October 2013. As a real change for us, this was a chance for just the two of us to have some adult time away from the kids and enjoy a good meal together.

For our food, as starters, we opted for the Hot sticky chicken goujons, which were really meaty and served perfectly fresh and hot. The Prawn Cocktail was beautifully presented, tasty and a very generous portion as well.

On the main courses my wife had a lamb shank which is new for their more wintry menu and with mint sauce was apparently fantastic. I had a sirloin steak cooked rare, which wasn’t the best steak ever but was cooked to perfection and made a great looking plate.

The restaurant could only be described as busy, buzzy happy and warm. A really nice place to be on a filthy Saturday night.

When we arrived, we were greeted by the restaurant manager who was excellent, chatty, friendly and gave us some great insight to their new menu. Serving staff were also noticeably good and all had worked there for some time, which is always a good sign.

Normally, we would have eaten with our children too, but they loved the experience as they got left at home with their grandparents for them to be spoilt and driven around to parties!

The highlight of the visit was the Hobgoblin beer was in exceptional condition, as nice as any beer I’ve ever been served and the red wine we chose to have with our meal was also excellent and very reasonably priced.

In Summary
It was a very full restaurant with lots of big groups and incredibly efficient service. Waiting times were very short and overall, I think it offers a great value, good quality, warm safe place to eat with your family. We’ll be back. No doubt about it!

For the benefit of disclosure, we were given a voucher to spend in the restaurant, but as we were having so much fun, we spent over and above this and it all felt like great value.

We visited The Hunsworth - Bradford South on Friday 11th October. I originally booked the table for myself, husband and two boys aged 18 months & 5 years.

We actually ended up arriving later than planned and with grandparents in tow as well but the staff were brilliant and took it all in their stride, really helpful on the bar and also our waitress who was really attentive.

First impressions of the pub/restaurant was really good - nice and bright, welcoming and clean with lots of room around the tables as well - not crammed in like you can get elsewhere. The staff had already laid the table out for us as well which was nice and the kids got stuck into their activity packs straight away!

The menu offered a great pub style choice to suit most tastes I would say, the only point I would make is that I struggled to find anything that was really a healthy option...even the salads and fish dishes were deep fried versions so personally I'd like to see a little more choice in this area.

I was really impressed with the kids menus though -great choice and amazing value the youngest DS had meatballs and pasta with corn on the cob and garlic bread and the eldest DS had macaroni cheese with garlic bread and peas! They both wolfed it all down in record time and then finished off with the chocolate creation dish - which is a brilliant idea for kids...they loved it! And an amazing deal for 99p as well!

I opted for the steak and ale pie, hubby had a cheeseburger with all the trimmings and the grandparents had buffalo wings and french onion soup to start followed by ribs and chicken combo and a steak. Puddings were the chocolate sundaes for hubby and I. Overall I think the food is of a standard that I'd expect for the money - without sounding harsh, it's perfectly adequate for a 'chain' location. Not outstanding for me in any way good or bad.

The only slight criticism I would make is that the only kids drinks available were Fruit Shoots. This does happen everywhere we go to be fair, but I really wish that restaurants would offer a better alternative for kids (especially toddlers) to have as I'm really not a fan of them at all! It is a bug bear of mine though :)

Staff wise, couldn't have asked for better the chap on the bar that greeted us was lovely and really helpful and our waitress on the evening was brilliant, really knowledgeable friendly, chatty and nice to be served by someone that enjoys their work! Great asset!

Also I think the cleaniness should be commended, how nice to have a lovely clean highchair and not have to clean some nasty sticky mess off before you can use it! Also the loos and baby change were really clean and tidy.

Overall our impression was really positive. For an everyday meal/night off cooking it's a nice place to visit with a decent choice of food and offers really good value. The total cost for 4 adult mains, 2 starters, 2 desserts and 2 kids meals (all with drinks) was just over £80 so not bad at all!

We'll be visiting again for sure, than you and keep up the great work! :)

When did you visit and which restaurant did you visit?
We visited yesterday, Sunday 13 October and we went to the Hunsworth, Bradford South.

Who were you with?
It was me, my husband and our 18 month old and our neighbours and their almost-1-year old.

What did you and your group choose from the menu?
We all had the Sunday carvery except my neighbour, he had the mac and cheese 'cause he HATES veg.

How was the general ambience of the restaurant?
It was nice for a pub chain, and admittedly I have low expectations of chain pubs and just hope that they don't smell of pine bathroom cleaner. But the Hunsworth was really very nice and very clean. The other diners were all in good spirits and it was nice to see other families there.

How knowledgeable were the staff serving you?
They were crazy good - from our server to the chap doing the carving at the carvery, I asked loads of ridiculous questions (I don't embarrass easily) and they never batted an eyelid and answered me straight away.

What did your children think of the visit?
Well as much as I can try to read the minds of 1 year olds, it is difficult... but I'd say they very much enjoyed the pattern on the carpet. The server was lovely towards my daughter and managed to crack a smile from her even though she is teething and super grumpy so that was no mean feat. Both kids absolutely gobbled up the turkey (no pun intended), gravy and mashed potatoes.

What was the highlight of the visit?
To be honest it was when our server (Rosie) brought the bill and she didn't take the voucher off because she had no idea we were there as part of the review, which meant that she was genuinely that nice and helpful and wasn't just being so for the sake of trying to get a good review. She went and got the manager and he took care of it straight away, he knew about the voucher as did the person who took our phone reservation. That was another good point, I was dreading making the reservation because I was expecting an argument with a snotty 17 year old who'd be all 'Vouch-a? Dunno about a vouch-a, what do you mean?' but whoever took our reservation knew all about it.

nickinoonah We also went to Bradford and I was really impressed with the choice of kids drinks. They had flavoured milkshakes (which DD2 loves), fruit shoots, bottomless fizzy drinks and plain milk.

When did you visit and which restaurant did you visit?
We went to the Lynton Court restaurant in Bournemouth on wednesday 9th October

Who were you with?
It was me, my husband and our 2 daughters who are 4 and 5

What did you and your group choose from the menu?
Hubby had T bone steak, I had salmon and the girls chose pizza and burger. Food was fresh and beautifully presented. Husband said his steak was cooked to perfection. Kids portions were suitable for under 12s easily, not the very tiny plates some places serve.

How was the general ambience of the restaurant?
Very nice, spacious and clean. Child friendly restaurant environment. Tables not too close together so didnt feel "on top" of anyone and plenty of room if you wanted to bring a buggy. Pleasant decor, warm feeling.

How knowledgeable were the staff serving you?
Absolutely amazing. Nothing was too much trouble and they could answer anything we asked,

What did your children think of the visit?
Loved it and have been asking to go again already. Activity pack was great (including 3d glasses and poster) and they wolfed down the food.
Their favourite part was the sundae which came with little pots of sauces, sweets and popping candy.

What was the highlight of the visit?
All of it was so good its difficult to pick one thing. Very good service and very good value. Despite having T bone steak and salmon, and starters, drinks etc the bill for 4 was under £50. Great deals including kids eat free before 5pm.

Any other comments?
Can't recommend this restaurant enough, its fantastic!

When did you visit and which restaurant did you visit?
We went to the Lynton Court Table Table in Bournemouth on the 11th October.

Who were you with?
DH and DC (4 and 1)

What did you and your group choose from the menu?
DH - Mixed Grill with Calamari

• oreo cake.

DC (4) - pizza beans and garlic bread

• min choc challenge.

DC (1) - macaroni cheese, veg

• warn cookie cup.

Me - baked cod with tomato sauce and greens, garlic bread.

• bread and butter pudding.

We were pleasantly surprised with the food, as we hadn't had super high expectations with it being a chain pub. My meal was fresh and delicious, the husband had a big enough portion and the meat was cooked as ordered. I was very impressed with the childrens menu, although mine ended up ordering "kids food", there was a very good variety of options.

How was the general ambience of the restaurant?

The restaurant felt warm and welcoming. It was very clean, and nicely lit.
It didn't feel too chain-like with a variety of decor and furnishings.

How knowledgeable were the staff serving you?
The staff were fantastic. They introduced themselves and were great with the children. Quick service, friendly and very helpful. A highchair was quickly found for the youngest and they were happy to take the order from my oldest!

What did your children think of the visit?
They thought it was fantastic. I have never been anywhere with such good activities for children - there were 3d glasses, stickers, colouring, puzzles. It kept then busy until the food came and before the desert. There were a good mix of activities - they particularly liked putting stickers on the monster.

My eldest daughter also liked the picture-menu, and that she was able to choose and order for herself without me having to interpret for her.

She really enjoyed the chocolate challenge pudding!

What was the highlight of the visit?
Seeing the children so settled and happy while waiting for the food. And of course the food itself!

Any other comments?

We genuinely had a lovely evening and plan to visit again!

Tech have now fixed the glitch on Local and anyone who goes to post a review will now be prompted to create a local alias (local nickname) if they haven't already set one up.

~ When did you visit and which restaurant did you visit?
~ Who were you with?
I visited The Charter in Aylesbury on Sunday 13th October, with the table booked for midday when they opened. I went with DH and DS (almost 6)

~ What did you and your group choose from the menu?
DH picked garlic mushrooms and blue cheese dip, a T-bone steak and a banoffee sundae. I had nachos, spinach and ricotta lasagne and raspberry cheesecake. DS had child nachos, pizza and the mini chocolate challenge. We don't usually do all three courses but decided to go for it!

~ How was the general ambience of the restaurant?
Very few folk when we first got there, as we were some of the first arrivals. We were in a corner overlooking the very rainy carpark, and didn't realise that the place was getting packed. We were put under a speaker with music blaring out and we asked for it to be turned down a bit. The place filled up rapidly and there wasn't a table to be had by the time we left.

~ How knowledgeable were the staff serving you?
Pretty good. I am useless at remembering names but the lady we had was very good. I made a point of watching her with the other groups in our section and we weren't just getting good service because of the vouchers, everyone was treated the same. We got a book of new offers and a card, and I think that we may be using it again.

~ What did your children think of the visit?
He thought it was fun, though didn't much like his pizza as it was a home-made oval base (unlike the picture on the menu) and it was extremely solid! Even I couldn't cut it! Liked the poster and the activity sheet.

~ What was the highlight of the visit?
We all ate too much enjoyed the food, and DH was very impressed they cooked his steak right!

Any other comments?
I loved that the veggie symbol was also by the desserts. I wish I had a pound for every time I've had to ask whether a dessert has gelatine in...

When did you visit and which restaurant did you visit?
We visited Mill Lodge in Lincoln at 5pm on Saturday evening although I had difficulty booking as they didn't pick up the phone. I eventually booked online and that worked brilliantly.

Who were you with?
I went with OH, DD1 (16) and DD2 (7)

What did you and your group choose from the menu?
I had the sirloin steak, OH had the roasted vegetable linguini, DD1 had the chicken curry and DD2 had popping chicken, chips and beans. We also shared a side order of onion rings.
My steak could have been trimmed better but it was cooked rare as I ordered it and they replaced the peas, mushrooms and tomato with a side salad when I requested it and didn't put tomatoes in the salad in case I didn't like them but offered to go and get me some.
DD1 thought her rice was dry on the top like it had been hanging around for a while but the curry was delicious. OH really liked his pasta, and the server had been quite sheepish when he'd tried to offer salmon or chicken with it and OH had declared himself to be veggie. DD2 loved her chicken, beans and onion rings. The chips were used to pretend to be a vampire only though as she doesn't eat chips - it would be great if onion rings were a choice of side dish on the children's menu. The kids shared a chocolate brownie sundae and OH had the raspberry ripple cheesecake.

How was the general ambience of the restaurant?
It was very busy, much busier than I'd imagined but it was still quiet enough to be able to have a conversation. I also met one of my tutors from a course I did a few years ago so managed a quick catch up.

How knowledgeable were the staff serving you?
Paul served us and he was just the right balance of attentive and leaving us to get on with it, although when I went up to pay there was a 10 minute spiel to get through about the breakfasts, reward club and feedback links. I just wanted to swipe and go by that point.

What did your children think of the visit?
They were really pleased with it, DD1 was home for the weekend and so it was nice to catch up. Both loved the dessert and the main courses were good.

What was the highlight of the visit?
Being together for a meal, it doesn't happen that often anymore. We'd been to this restaurant many years ago and don't really know why we haven't been back as we live only a few miles from it and pass by the junction everyday on my way to work.
All together with drinks, our bill came to £66 which was a bit extravagant for a weekend meal out but I would have chosen a cheaper option and only had one glass of wine if we had been without the voucher. We will definitely be returning in the near future.

~ When did you visit and which restaurant did you visit?

I visited the Bowling Green at Weeley, near Clacton on Sea on Wednesday 9th October. We went for an early tea and arrived at just before 5pm.

It had taken 4 calls to get through to book the table .

~ Who were you with?

DD age 3.9, my mum and dad (both in their sixties)

~ What did you and your group choose from the menu?

DD had the kids meal deal which was very cheap n cheerful at just £3.99 - we did however have to send back the garlic bread which arrived burnt. She liked her meatball pasta but said the peas were hard (they were!). She was VERY impressed with the chocolate cookie cup pudding though
I had fish and chips - fish was not vile but nothing special ... the chips were dire
Mum had the Salmon and bernaise sauce with veg, said it was nice
Dad had the steak & ale pie with chips, he wondered what on earth they'd done to them to make them that bad. They somehow managed to be dry but not crispy... he said the pie was good though.

Dad had the choc fudge cake and icecream which he rated 5/10.
Me and mum shared a sticky toffee pudding with custard which was the tastiest thing that evening.

Including drinks, our bill came to £59.37. The food and drinks were quite slow to arrive once our order had been taken.

~ How was the general ambience of the restaurant?

Not great. On arrival, there were loads of fag butts littered around the plant borders/car park. It obviously hadn't been thoroughly swept for some time. As we went through the main entrance door, there was toilet tissue in the doorway (which was still there when we left!).

A table before the bar said "please wait here to be seated" - I stood there for a few minutes with 2 members of staff looking at me and I then just went straight to the bar and explained to the guy standing there behind the bar that we had booked a table. Despite there being no other customers at the bar, the bar was dirty. We were shown to a dingy table near the kitchen, I suggested we move to the empty and more comfortable-looking, airier table in the conservatory-style bit. The table although "set and ready" was sticky to the touch

Our drinks arrived. Mine was served in a dirty glass. I asked for a clean glass and this arrived.

My parents arrived and their drinks took ages to arrive. I later heard our waitress inform her manager that people's main courses were arriving before their drinks and I could well believe it.

The elderly couple on the table next to ours commented that we'd be waiting a long time for our food and they were right! They left soon afterwards.

We visited the ladies toilet and it was reasonably clean (some tissue on the floor and the sink needed a wipe over, but with no obvious grottiness/smells). However the disabled toilet/baby change was in a very shabby state with liquid (wee? water?) all over the floor and bits of tissue as well.

As me and my daughter went back to our table I noticed that the phone was ringing and ringing.

Dad commented that the gents was reasonably clean also.

Unlike other restaurants targetting the family market (eg Pizza Express) there was no focus on the children - no colouring packs etc were provided. I'd taken a new comic and a few toys but with the long wait for our order to arrive from the kitchen she did get a little hungry/fractious and then overtired.

~ How knowledgeable were the staff serving you?

Our waitress (Nicola) was working her socks off. She was looking after a large section and was checking in with everyone, making sure everyone had what they needed and wiping tables in between.

The barman (Matt) who "welcomed" me and showed me to our table was very quiet, didn't seem like he really had much confidence.

Another member of staff was by the doors to the rear of the bar, squeaking "I dunno how to use this phone, what do I do?" which didn't really come across as professional.

We did like the kids menu with all the pictures of the food on it though.

When I went to pay the bill I said that there was a voucher being kept for me, I assumed that since I booked the table in my name that it would be with the booking. He looked a bit blank then asked if it was via head office, I explained that it was for the Mumsnet family visits to test the TableTable offering. At that point he went a little grey and said that he was supposed to have been told when I arrived and asked how they did. I explained my concerns about the general cleanliness - people expect their children to be able to eat/play in clean surroundings and on the night I visited, I felt that restaurant was NOT as clean as it should have been. It does sound like they've taken this on board from the other poster's comments upthread.

~ What did your children think of the visit?

I asked my DD if she wanted to go again. She said she prefers the "doughballs restaurant" (Pizza Express!). She said she liked her dinner though.

~ What was the highlight of the visit?

Pudding!

I was picked by MNHQ to review this product/ service, which I received for free. This review is in my own words and reflects my true opinion

Hi MNHQ - just noticed that the text formatting on the local site (Essex) doesn't seem to be working the same way as the main site, particularly for embedding links in posts, and making italics etc???

I forgot to add to my review that I paid extra for bearnaise sauce which when it was served had split. Not the most difficult sauce to cook and as a consequence it was pretty greasy tasting.

We visited the Cheadle Royal Table Table on Saturday 12th October at 12.30pm

I was with my partner and our daughter who has moderate LD and physical health needs

Choices:
Partner: Buffalo Wings, Lamb Shank, Cheesecake, Costa Americano
Myself: Nachos for one, Chargrilled Veg & Chilli Linguine, Brownie, Americano
DD: Child Nachos, Child Fish Fingers, Chips and Beans, Child Cookie Cup and Ice cream plus a babycino.

The ambience was good, i think it had not long opened when we arrived as there were only 3 other families/groups that we could see. There were plenty of friendly staff around and it was warm both in temperature and ambience.

Sam our waiter was really helpful and could not have attended to us any better (he did not know about the voucher)

DD loved it as we rarely get to go out to a family meal where we can acutally eat and not worry about finances

Spending time with my loved ones somewhere new.

When did you visit and which restaurant did you visit?
We visited yesterday, Tuesday 15 October
George and the Dragon, Marlow

Who were you with?
Me, DD (8) and DS (15)

What did you and your group choose from the menu?
Starter - We shared the warm bread trio - FAB garlic butter, didn't taste like the usual processed stuff you get but the 3 rolls tasted the same (they were supposed to be different flavours) and one was cold in the middle
Mains -
DS Gamon steak (2 eggs) with cheesy garlic bread on the side -
"better eggs than the Harvester, fat chips good, gamon a bit fatty,
GREAT garlic bread"
DD jacket potato, cheese and beans
"Great" - potato, if done in a microwave, done well
me 1/2 roast chicken and skinny fries - lovely. The side dish of salead had great salad dressing on it too, Great presentation too
One strange thing the ketchup, served in little pots was freezing!

Puddings -
me - sticky toffee pudding & custard only ok
DS & DD Rocky Horror sundaes - "marshmallows hard and ice cream not the 'Mr Whippy' kind but tasted like cheap alternative
Drinks -
Pepsi refills for me and DS (offers kept coming!)
Orange squash for DD

I thought it was refreshing that they didn't have a separate Kids Menu and DD chose her absolute favourite (jacket potato!) so was delighted.
But at the end of the meal I saw on another table the Kids Menu so thought it an unfortunate oversight that DD hadn't been given one as looking through it, it had some good things on it

How was the general ambience of the restaurant?
It was very quiet when we first went in but this was 6pm on a Tuesday night, it did get busier as we left - good mixture of couples of all ages and family groups
It was quite cold in there - manager did put on the heating (I didn't ask)
It was VERY clean and so were the toilets (made a particular point of looking) as other family chains can be sticky - tables and floors!

How knowledgeable were the staff serving you?
Special mention to Sarah the manager and Iwona our server.
Iwona was so knowledgable and friendly I cynically assumed that it was because of the voucher but she was like this with all her other tables too!
There were alot ofoffers - I went away with my handbag full of paper! and Iwona suggested that we use the 'cheap' menu to save £1 which I hadn't noticed

What did your children think of the visit?

Comparing to somewhere like Toby, Harvester, Pizza Express/Hut they said it was nice but the puddings let it down
DD loved the childrens' entertainment pack - poster that opened up with lots of activities on it, 3D glasses, pack of crayons - well thought out

What was the highlight of the visit?
I think it wasn't the food rather than the attention to detail;
"what sort of milk with the tea"
piling plates away from the table rather than doing a circus balancing trick!
Great Kids pack - would keep a child entertained for ages!!
The food did seem fresher and not processed that you can often get
and the attention shown by the staff that made it more of an eating out experience that other other similar family restaurants where you may feel you are on a conveyor belt

I'm not a tester but I'd like to say that Table Table's quorn veggie burgers are a-mazing. DH and I took our 3 boys to the one in Colchester and it was excellent; great food and great service. Really sad that there's not one near to us in SE London. .