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Dominic Chapman?


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It seem that Dominic Chapman is no longer cooking at the Hinds Head Hotel. Does anyone what he's doing or the circumstances of his departure?

i ve been told he has gone to micheal parkinsons pub, The Royal Oak, near Holyport i believe,i was also told he just decided he d had enough at the hinds head

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Thanks Simon, doesn't exactly sound like a great career move though. Shame, I've heard he's a good person.

Yeah not really i dont know him personnally but i heard the same from a good friend who still does a bit of work for heston but from what i been told he wants to do his own pub thing, so not really sure how this is helping unless he now has a financial involvement,

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Ate there at the weekend for the first time, so have nothing to compare it with. But distinctly underwhelmed. Dodgy slow service, wrong orders, wrong bill, food v.v. boring in one case, cold veg, etc etc.

Not within spitting distance of good country food-pubs (Star, Angel at Hetton, Five Mile House, Blacksmiths)

It no longer exists, but it was lovely.

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Okay, booked for Sunday lunch during a five day trip round the Cotswolds and surrounding, was going for the fat Duck, but as we were eating at LCS on the Tuesday night, went for the more traditional pub stuff.

Late by fifteen minutes due to the impossibility of parking in Bray (not that we weren't warned, so no fault of anyone). Slight confusion over table booking, as they'd got the wrong name, sorted quickly. Drinks order given downstairs. restaurant upstairs 2/3 full, including table of eight who'd got in there just before us. However, though orders were taken after them, the one nice thing was jumping us ahead in the serving stakes which was cool and sensible.

From the current menu at the website.

Ten minutes later still no order taken, or, indeed, anyone approahced us. Drinks arrived after about fifteen, then came to take order. We could see into the area where the servers were, it was clear that the two very nice lasses employed weren't allowed to take orders, which left it all on one bloke. I had smoked salmon, can't for the life remember what Mrs W. had. Both were fine, salmon as good but straight-forward as you'd expect (missed others' addition of scrambled egg!). Consulted over Mrs W's dairy problems, they said they'd get back to us, and no one did--chased, things fine, but would have been nice to have been told.

It being Sunday, Mrs. W. had the roast lamb special for mains, I had the bream plus some of the famous 'only contribution to British cooking' triple-cooked chips. Arrived after twenty minutes. No chips. No chips. No chips. Lamb WAS superb, excellent slices, rare, juicy everything meat-eaters like. Roasties were numbered just two, veg with it was tepid at best. No chips. The bream was beautifully cooked but, well, boring in the extreme (okay my fault, it did what it'd said on the menu). though the fennel was great.

The chips arrived about 2/3 of the way through. okay. Ordered second round of drinks about half way through, which never arrived.

No dessert, ten minutes trying to attract someone's attention to get the bill. The bill includes extra drinks (in no way ironically not even the drinks we'd ordered and not got). New bill. Home.

Possibly because we'd been so looking forward to it I accept, but distinctly less than it could or should have been, and, indeed, less than many other pubs that do food. Uninventive, the delays didn't help. Etc. Maybe we should have gone for the puddings and hotpots, but Sunday lunch is roast time innit?

It no longer exists, but it was lovely.

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Bugger- we are due to go there on a Sunday too.

Agree parking is horrific in Bray. Which is why if we are lunching elsewhere in Bray, but staying at the Waterside. I rather cheekily pitch up early and politely ask them to park the car in their car park. (Paranoid as we had the car broken into in the Hind's Head car park a few years ago and lost loads of personal stuff).

Can highly recommend that Hot pot for next time though.

Cheers for the info Bertie, will discuss with the senior partner about lunch.

Edited by Bapi (log)
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Had a Sunday lunch experience there in September which was almost the exact duplicate of Bertie's. Absolute chaos. Pre-lunch drinks only arrived when the starters did; the goats cheese, onion and red pepper tart contained no red pepper and explosively hard puff pastry (most of it ended up on the table or floor on contact with the knife). Put in a request for a glass of wine each to go with mains when they cleared the starters - only 5 minutes for food to arrive, but waited... and waited... and waited... I found the lemon sole with spiced butter actively unpleasant - suspect someone had been a bit heavy-handed with the cinnamon.

After numerous, desperate attempts to flag down the waiting staff (when they chose to take notice of us, we were repeatedly told, "I'll find out what's happening with the drinks") 25 minutes later - uneaten sole now very cold, and husband's roast beef pronounced "nothing special" - the wine finally arrived. Apparently it was my large glass of red wine that had caused the problem; they had "run out of" large glasses and had studiously poured the 250 ml measure into 2 smaller glasses for me. We complained and, to their credit, they took the uneaten sole and first drinks off the bill.

As Bertie said, we'd been looking forward to it so much, the whole experience was just such a great disappointment. Front of house simply couldn't cope - maybe overstretching themselves on Sunday lunchtimes? Other tables seemed to be having similar problems (drinks not arriving, wrong drinks arriving etc.)... Hope you have a better experience, Bapi!

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The inherent problem with gastro pubs is staff. I think every gastro pub in the country has one person saying it is wonderful and another claiming it is dire and both are probably right. They are just so inconsistent.

It is hard to attract staff because most chefs and front of house want a good restaurant on the cv not a pub. so you are stuck with well meaning but ultimately pretty clueless local lads and lasses.

Another problem is the lack of control you have over bookings in a pub, people just will not be dictated to like they can in restaurants (however much people complain about staggering tables and having to eat at 7pm, its what makes restaurant services run smoothly)

So on this note why do they charge so bloody much?

Matt Christmas.

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Wasn't wonderful at all when I went. Dreadful bread and abysmal wine list stick in the memory.

I can't agree about the bread - they bake their own, twice a day if necessary, and as I recall it was delicious. However, I've got a copy of the wine list in front of me and iI have to agree that its not the most impressive document I've ever seen, with quite a lot of names familiar from the supermarket. Not on a par with the quality of the food for sure, but then I'm sure they'd argue that " we're only a pub" star or no star.

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all you need is head chef's day off, a bit busy and it doesn't get baked twice a day.

Well i guess that depends on your staff, maybe that happens where you work chef matt

people do say some unfounded ridiculous things some times!!

On what information are you basing that comment

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but "that depends on your staff" just backs up my point about gastro pubs, it is so much harder to recruit quality experienced staff for a pub.

Whats your definition of a Gastro Pub, everybodys is different!

I m sure Heston would not call the Hinds Head a Gastro Pub

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i have to admit have not been to hinds head but it is on my list. But going on what people tell me i would certainly class it as a gastro pub, it is a pub where the the focus is on food. Anyway was referring to Andy Lynes mention of the hand and flowers (haven't been there either so my bread comments are non-specific!! don't want to offend anybody!!)

Matt Christmas.

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