Bath Priory Hotel

[chefsimon]

My first review on this site,unfortunatly not a good one!!

Being a chef and on my christmas break decided to take the girlfriend away for the weekend before i get back to it on monday so had to be somewhere for both so we chose bath and dinner at the bath priory on saturday night seemed the best thing to do.

It all started off well arrived about half past six to have a pre dinner drink, warmly welcomed and then sat in an even warmer/boiling lounge for a glass of champagne and canapes. Canapes not great crispy skin of some sort and an indian spiced aubergine puree, no memorable, champagne was nice louis roderer which i m pleased to say we have just started working with at my restaurant.99 vintage fantastic.

Given Menus, mine was printed with an empty ink cartridge, could hardly read so shared my girlfriends, a choice of five and five and no tasting menu for some reason, not very inspiring so we ordered the food a bottle of riesling and a bottle of mercury and proceeded to sit in the boiling hot room for another 20 mins with empty glasses until seated in the restaurant.

We were the only people sitting in one of the rooms, the amuse bouche arrived a pumpkin foam with pumpkin seeds and oil served warm, nice a bit weak maybe

but acceptable, cleared and then the starters came out and the wine was poured just after, a nice alsace riesling. The girlfriend had scallops with apple puree i think, scallops very small and over cooked, i had foie gras, a roulade with brioche and a puree very bland brioche was nice though, Wine and Water was not topped up once during starter and the only noise in the restaurant was of staff laughing and talking in a variety of languages from round the corner. The wine eventually topped up after starter cleared and then immediatly the main course came out, i m sure the staff enjoyed my half bottle of reisling left.

Mains were pork belly on a scewer for the mrs and a good bit of crackling, artichoke and not a lot else, i had slow cooked venison, celery a green puree of something and a jus poured at the table, again all very bland and not alot on the plate very disappointing, during this time no wine was topped up but the sommelier couldnt wait to take my half glass of white away.

Pre dessert was a shocking mint sorbet with bitter chocolate source, one of the worst things i have ever tasted, followed by assiete of apple and pear which consist of a sppon of apple strudel, pear or apple sorbet and a pear parfait with a soggy pear crisp, the girlfriend had sorbets and ice cream, a cop out on any dessert list, simply disjointed.

At this point i spoke to the restaurant manager, i m a michelin starred chef and i hate to complain but just felt i had to, he was very apologetic and said he knew the staff were sleeping a bit!!!Not acceptable he booked a taxi for me and out came the coffee and petit fours, and bill, greasy brandy snap tuiles and chocolate truffles where the ganash was not even melted and i nearly broke a tooth on a hard bit of chocolate, like i said the restaurant manager 'what more can i say??'

He then tried to make excuses, he complimented the champagne but £200 and i have never felt so ripped off in all my life, to be fair it ruined the weekend

i spent £400 with the same girlfriend at foliage last month and would of uite happily paid more.

Has anybody had any other experiences at the bath priory?

[fisherman]

Where do you cook?

[jayrayner]

Does sound dreary and terribly mediocre.

Now I'm not excusing anything that happened. I am genuinely curious: why would you want someone to top up the wine and water for you? People know this is a standard bugbear of mine but that doesn't stop me asking the question. in what way does it improve a meal to have someone pouring your drinks for you (when it is done so bloody badly and, almost all of the time, comes across as little more than upselling.)

You are a chef at a starred restaurant - I would be curious to know which though I imagine you won't tell us - and it must be something your front of house team do. Please explain the attraction - to you, rather than to your customers.

[Timothy Burke]

Does sound dreary and terribly mediocre.

Now I'm not excusing anything that happened. I am genuinely curious: why would you want someone to top up the wine and water for you? People know this is a standard bugbear of mine but that doesn't stop me asking the question. in what way does it improve a meal to have someone pouring your drinks for you

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I'm with you Jay. Apart possibly from the first glass I'd alway rather pour for ourselves and will generally tell our waiter so - that way we drink exactly how much we want at the speed we want to. The notion of sitting around worrying that no-one has filled up a glass strikes me as bizarre.

Sorry can't comment on the Bath Priory but from what chefsimon says it does sound underwhelming. At £100 a head - even allowing for champagne and mercurey - I'd want to be at least whelmed.

[chefsimon]

Does sound dreary and terribly mediocre.

Now I'm not excusing anything that happened. I am genuinely curious: why would you want someone to top up the wine and water for you? People know this is a standard bugbear of mine but that doesn't stop me asking the question. in what way does it improve a meal to have someone pouring your drinks for you

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I'm with you Jay. Apart possibly from the first glass I'd alway rather pour for ourselves and will generally tell our waiter so - that way we drink exactly how much we want at the speed we want to. The notion of sitting around worrying that no-one has filled up a glass strikes me as bizarre.

Sorry can't comment on the Bath Priory but from what chefsimon says it does sound underwhelming. At £100 a head - even allowing for champagne and mercurey - I'd want to be at least whelmed.

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[chefsimon]

Does sound dreary and terribly mediocre.

Now I'm not excusing anything that happened. I am genuinely curious: why would you want someone to top up the wine and water for you? People know this is a standard bugbear of mine but that doesn't stop me asking the question. in what way does it improve a meal to have someone pouring your drinks for you (when it is done so bloody badly and, almost all of the time, comes across as little more than upselling.)

You are a chef at a starred restaurant - I would be curious to know which though I imagine you won't tell us - and it must be something your front of house team do. Please explain the attraction - to you, rather than to your customers.

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Sorry i should have been more clear, my issue was not with the fact it wasnt poured i like pouring my own wine and water also sometimes but, it was the fact i couldnt get to my wine as it was in an ice bucket in the far corner of the room and there were no staff around to get it for me.

In the restaurant i work at i have the front of house staff offer to pour but i feel it very much down to the customer and if they ed like to pour it themselves they do so, i m not saying its best but i think a lot of people expect wine and water to be poured when they paying a premium amount of money

[chefsimon]

Where do you cook?

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I had a star at a restaurant in surrey in 2005

then went to shanghai as head chef to opent jade on 36 in the shangri-la chef de cuisine was paul pairet, unfortunatly i had to come back to england last year and now have just opened a 45 cover restaurant and 25 cover brasserrie in surrey, opened in nov but unfortunatly my restaurant manager just took a f and b position in Dubai which he applied for middle last year so keeping low profile opening till get the right team in place out front

[BertieWooster]

Where do you cook?

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I had a star at a restaurant in surrey in 2005

then went to shanghai as head chef to opent jade on 36 in the shangri-la chef de cuisine was paul pairet, unfortunatly i had to come back to england last year and now have just opened a 45 cover restaurant and 25 cover brasserrie in surrey, opened in nov but unfortunatly my restaurant manager just took a f and b position in Dubai which he applied for middle last year so keeping low profile opening till get the right team in place out front

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Drakes on the Pond one assumes (well, google tells me, but... )

I don't mind normal filling up of glasses, its either when they keep topping up until the wine is over-flowing or, as you say, when they hide the wine somewhere that's annoying. More irritating than wine somewhere across the room is in an ice bucket by the table but just out of reach, so you still have to get up (mind its a good excuse for a scene).

Edited January 7, 2007 by BertieWooster (log)

[insomniac]

My husband, son and I ate at the Bath Priory in September to celebrate my birthday and we were also underwhelmed; ordered a starter which was described on the menu as including sweetbread which was, unfortunately, a brioche on the side rather than the offal as we imagined.

My main was a lamb dish which was chewy to say the least and when I mentioned this when asked the waiter, who was, by the way, very pleasant and obliging, told us it was new to the menu, but thought I meant it tasted like chewing gum, so a language difficulty there.

We could hear the staff talking to each other around the corner quite loudly which was not professional at all, especially when one of them complained very audibly about their treatment by the kitchen.

My son has been an apprentice chef at a Michelin starred resto for 14 months and was very disappointed, especially as it was his treat for my celebration.

Unfortunate, as in my opinion the ambience at the Priory is superb.

[Gideon Hollis]

Pouring can be a bit annoying. But what about sommeliers actually drinking some of your wine before you've had a chance to go there yourself? Have had that unfortunate experience in Some Conran Restaurants. Happy Sommeliers. Very unhappy punters.

[PoppySeedBagel]

Sounds to me like the restaurant manager needs to do some managing, if the staff have been chatting round the corner since at least September!

[SHEFF]

Im quite shocked but at the same time im not.

Myself and my partner stayed and ate back in august last year and had quite a supurb meal, tasting menu with wines to match.

In fact i enjoyed the meal that much i stayed for lunch the next day, which was equally as good.

I returned in october again for lunch with friends, the pork,venison and lamb were all over cooked, starters underseasoned and messy puds.

Sorry didnt hear the staff talking though.

[bakerestates]

'At this point i spoke to the restaurant manager, i m a michelin starred chef and i hate to complain'

'i spent £400 with the same girlfriend at foliage last month and would of uite happily paid more.'

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why eat overcooked scallops? Why not just send them back? Same for the wine, why allow half a bottle to dissapear?

Did you tell the restuarant manager you were a michelin starred chef and do you think it made a difference to what he was going to comp you? Would be interested to here your review of Foliage, though I suspect you may not remember it in detail given the £400 bill and same girlfriend!

Edited January 10, 2007 by bakerestates (log)

[Richard_D]

Has anyone eaten here recently? A friend is going today and coudn't understand the menu so I looked it up and found items such as

‘Paillette’ of Rabbit, forgotten hedge herbs and flowers of the moment

Cappucino mousse, dentelle and Dandelion decoction; goose grass

Collage of Fruit, some as nature intended; rhubarb essence

Admittedly I've picked out the worst, but what a load of pretentious twaddle. I'd thought about a visit as the place looks fab but the menu puts me right off. It gets very few mentions on egullet and reviews seem to be few and far between. NAy thoughts?

[chefmatt]

a friend of mine ate there recently and also declared it shocking, mousses and foams everywhere. Your meal sounds like the pits, real country house bollocks at its very worst.

I am intrigued by why you think ice creams and sorbets are a cop out, i love to have them and especially at le gavroche where they are served at table i look forward to it immensely. For me so much more enjoyable than a fiddled with dessert with seven different preperations of one flavour showing how technically able the chef is.

Are you still at Alexander's Simon or is the Drakes guess correct?

[brokentelephone]

Girlfriend stayed there age 12. Her response to seeing my reading of this thread "oh my god, i had food poisoning there as a child...."

Some things never change!

[chefsimon]

a friend of mine ate there recently and also declared it shocking, mousses and foams everywhere.  Your meal sounds like the pits, real country house bollocks at its very worst.

I am intrigued by why you think ice creams and sorbets are a cop out, i love to have them and especially at le gavroche where they are served at table i look forward to it immensely.  For me so much more enjoyable than a fiddled with dessert with seven different preperations of one flavour showing how technically able the chef is.

Are you still at Alexander's Simon or is the Drakes guess correct?

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I left Alexanders the beginning of July

[Richard_D]

Well, the friend went and was very impressed. Outstanding service and fantastic food. The menu was understandable, unlike the one on the website, and the prices extremely reasonable. As both of the party are unable to eat several items the kitchen happily swapped items or dishes.

After teh glowing reviwe that I was given I certainly think it might be worth a try.