Any recs for Hereford & surrounds?

[AnythingButPlainChocolate]

Next week I'll be in Leominster/Ludlow/Hereford and the surrounds. Does anyone have any recommendations for the area?

[sheepish]

Had a nice lunch at The Clive on the outskirts of Ludlow last year. Just up the road from the Ludlow Food Centre which is well worth a look for local produce. Very nice butcher in there.

[MaLO]

I have only been once. La Becasse. Very good it was too.

Possibly better than my previous visit to Hibiscus on the same site.

[david goodfellow]

Yes, we also enjoyed La Becasse.

The Stagg Inn at Titley, a Michelin starred roadside pub is another place we enjoyed. In the middle of nowhere, its good to see the locals still at the bar, at what is essentially a restaurant, not a pub anymore. It is a good while since our visit, and I remember some terrific game dishes skillfully handled.

[Pam Brunning]

We went to The Stag a month ago and were very disappointed - there was nothing to recommend it. It is unwise to report on places you havn't been to for a long time. We had heard good reports of it in the past.

[david goodfellow]

I'll consider that a telling off then should I Pam?

Has the chef changed?

They still hold a Michelin star, could it be that bad? and,

I know how hard you are to please Pam. So is it at all as bad as you make out.

[Pam Brunning]

Not long after they received their star we tried it get into The Stag but they were doing a refurbishment at the time so it has been a long standing ambition to go there. I was just reaching copy date for our magazine and I needed a good restaurant report as I already had a bad one see My link

I rang 3 week beforehand and was 'lucky' to get the last room that night. We arrived at 4pm and I asked if Nicola Reynolds was around and was told they were away. When we booked we were warned that the room was the last one and rather small so were prepared for that. The en suite was so small that the only place for the tiny bar of hotel soap was on the floor! The room was overpriced at £85.

A large jar of coffee in the room was encouraging but the dry aromaless ground beans it contained produced a flavourless liquid complete with a large proportion of grouts as the cafetiere was badly worn.

Our meal was disappointing. My foie gras was good but a very small portion for £10 served with a disc of rhubarb jelly. Himself had soft shelled crab which hadn’t been crisped up and squirted a watery and flavourless liquid when poked. My main course was lobster, I think it was described as with a madras sauce . A small half beast served with an overpowering sauce climbing out of a jungle of tough frizzy green leaf.

Lamb’s sweetbreads and kidneys on a soggy potato rosti had a sweetish, cloying sauce with nothing to cut the richness.

As we went to bed the manager presented us with a new jar of ground coffee as we had complained about our room coffee at dinner. He assured us that their coffee was ground fresh every day and what wasn’t used in the rooms was used in the restaurant - a good reason for not ordering coffee! We tried the new jar but it still tasted as if it had been ground a few months ago.

The coffee epitomised the meal. If a restaurant can’t get their coffee right what hope is there for the rest of the meal.

I may be a hard task master but there are restaurants out there that can get the job right. We have been to two in the past year that are worth returning to but if these places can’t get it right I would rather save my money and stay at home. I don't like writing negative reports so I gave this one a miss.

Edited June 12, 2011 by Pam Brunning (log)