Pretentious places to eat.

Pretentious? You'll all know the sort when I describe this.

A run down pub, which goes in for a refurb, and tries to make the run down or dated look deliberate, with a smattering of modern features. They then rebrand as a "Bistro" and offer you the same chicken burger they did before, but for 3 times the cost.

Went in one the other week, £6 a pint for Stella!! Foooooook me.

A local I go to in Lymm has a £2.70 San Miguel.

@onesea I had no idea the New Forest was so popular. It is just a Forest isn’t it? Round here there isn’t anywhere good to eat. It’s all very poor quality so you have to drive to Bristol or Bath. The southwest is relatively poor area and nearby Weston Super Mud is racked out with elderly care homes and drug rehab folk. The tourists that come this way are after an icecream or candy floss on the pier, maybe some fish n chips so there’s lots of sticky vinyl seat cafes selling whatever Booker has on offer cos it’s past it’s sell by date.

@S-Westerly It’s gone onto my avoid list. It did taste good, they know how to cook but they’ve moved from thinking they’re superior to demonstrating by giving you no choice but to choose from cabbage, cauliflower or carrots as a main course.

I’ve just looked at the menu and yesterday there was no quail on offer it was a small ramekin of strings of beef or the dot of cod. Today I have stomach ache, unsurprising given eating large quantities of cauliflower isn’t my thing

Don't know exactly where in Somerset you are but the Queen's Arms near Sherborne and the Swan at Wedmore used to be decent gastro pubs. Haven't been there since we moved up to Gloucestershire so may have gone to seed since.

@onesea I had no idea the New Forest was so popular. It is just a Forest isn’t it? Round here there isn’t anywhere good to eat. It’s all very poor quality so you have to drive to Bristol or Bath. The southwest is relatively poor area and nearby Weston Super Mud is racked out with elderly care homes and drug rehab folk. The tourists that come this way are after an icecream or candy floss on the pier, maybe some fish n chips so there’s lots of sticky vinyl seat cafes selling whatever Booker has on offer cos it’s past it’s sell by date.

@S-Westerly It’s gone onto my avoid list. It did taste good, they know how to cook but they’ve moved from thinking they’re superior to demonstrating by giving you no choice but to choose from cabbage, cauliflower or carrots as a main course.

I’ve just looked at the menu and yesterday there was no quail on offer it was a small ramekin of strings of beef or the dot of cod. Today I have stomach ache, unsurprising given eating large quantities of cauliflower isn’t my thing

Don't know exactly where in Somerset you are but the Queen's Arms near Sherborne and the Swan at Wedmore used to be decent gastro pubs. Haven't been there since we moved up to Gloucestershire so may have gone to seed since.

The Swans not bad, had Sunday lunch there a few weeks ago, sometimes it can be a bit hit n miss though. I’ve never tried the Queens Arms nr sherbourne, maybe on the next day the sun appears I’ll ride over.

Gloucestershire is fantastic for pubs that do good food, you must have loads near you.

We went to a Jamie's Italian (not my idea),

a family outing to the Para athletics in London.

terrible! overpriced, poor service, luke warm food.etc.etc.

I didn't complain because I didn't want to spoil the others' day but it's

been grating on me ever since.

We went to a Jamie's Italian (not my idea),

a family outing to the Para athletics in London.

terrible! overpriced, poor service, luke warm food.etc.etc.

I didn't complain because I didn't want to spoil the others' day but it's

been grating on me ever since.

Yep, checked one of those out when one first opened in Norwich. Rubbish. Had some sharing platter thing. There was a skin on one of the dishes as it had been sitting under the heat lamp, just one piece of chicken in another and a bottle of beer was stupidly expensive.

It’s closed now......

[mention]rennie[/mention]

Other people have told me the same thing about there so you're not alone.

Though a couple of years ago we went on a cruise which had a Jamie Oliver's on board and the food was amazing

Southernhay house in Exeter, Michael Caines place, ultra pretentious and over priced but the worse one I’ve ever been to was Heston Blumethals Fat Duck evening tasting menu. Some of it was awful, the fermented congealed pigeon blood (called blood pudding) was the nastiest most metallic tasting thing I’ve ever eaten and the pigeon meat was so old it tasted really rancid. My husband got up and left saying he didn’t feel well and went to the pub down the road, the landlord said they have a lot of people in complaining. The restaurant was silent like some library where everyone was pretending it was great but no-one was smiling, the silence was due to it being godawful.

My friend dared to say when the waiter enquired that one of the courses was not to his taste to which the haughty waiter replied his palate wasn’t developed enough to appreciate it.....

Like you [mention]rennie[/mention] I didn’t want to spoil their 10th wedding anniversary so sat there seething that this jumped up turd made my friend feel inferior, the whole kings clothes experience everyone was buying into for hundreds of pounds left me feeling conned. When my husband finally rocks back up they present him with the plate he had left earlier to which he said in his a booming I’m not amused type voice “urgh good god no it’s disgusting take it away. I saw a quite a few equally unimpressed diners sniggering into their mock turtle soup.

Some of it was brilliant though, the gold pocket watch that dissolved when you poured the water from the teapot, the grass that looked like real grass but tasted amazing, the sand and the icecream made of mustard. Very clever and very very over priced.

@rennie

Other people have told me the same thing about there so you're not alone.

Though a couple of years ago we went on a cruise which had a Jamie Oliver's on board and the food was amazing

Depends where n when. Gave up eating there a couple of years ago. You can’t run an Italian and keep serving up over cooked pasta. I understand his chain is failing and he’s having to prop it up with money from his own pocket. I have a feeling they don’t know where the moneys gone and someones been helping themselves to their funds.

Pretentious? You'll all know the sort when I describe this.

A run down pub, which goes in for a refurb, and tries to make the run down or dated look deliberate, with a smattering of modern features.

Another is locally caught grown/ sourced, even better "Grass Fed Trumpton Farm Rump steak" I always want to ask if they know which field its raised in as the south field gets more sun so the grass is sweeter... Or if its the locally reared Lamb Chops if it was from the heard of Dorset or Horn or Hampshire sheep as I find the Hampshire sheep a little bitter in flavour.

You know when they say it's "New forest Award Winning Sausages" they when bought at Sway Butchers, it maybe 10 years ago now but they were award winning....

You cannot beat a Tripadvisor well rated Gastro Pub

a lot of the time you are better going to a pub or a café instead of fancy places more down to earth and cheaper

Depends what you like to eat. My OH is a truly excellent cook so unless we are away we only eat out of its likely to be either different or better than at home. So cafes are out and only gastro pubs get a look in. Food snobs? probably yes. That said when I'm out on the bike I am a keen aficionados of bacon butties. Also when I'm at work I eat some utter shite on occasion due to there being bugger all choice.

Pretentious? You'll all know the sort when I describe this.

A run down pub, which goes in for a refurb, and tries to make the run down or dated look deliberate, with a smattering of modern features.

 

Another is locally caught grown/ sourced, even better "Grass Fed Trumpton Farm Rump steak" I always want to ask if they know which field its raised in as the south field gets more sun so the grass is sweeter... Or if its the locally reared Lamb Chops if it was from the heard of Dorset or Horn or Hampshire sheep as I find the Hampshire sheep a little bitter in flavour.

You know when they say it's "New forest Award Winning Sausages" they when bought at Sway Butchers, it maybe 10 years ago now but they were award winning....

You cannot beat a Tripadvisor well rated Gastro Pub

No no no..... You need to know what it's name was...... Don't you heathens kno anythink?????

As far as Gastro pubs go, the nearest I've ever been is gastro-enteritis....

What's the opposite of a food snob?

Whatever it is that's me!

I like plain simple food cooked well and presented in a friendly manner

Not pretentious just dumbass.

Me and OH went to a local pub called The Boat at Stockton a few years ago for lunch, during the week and we were the only people in there.

Looked at the menu and one of us wanted something off the bar menu the other off the specials board.

Went to place our order to be told we would have to sit at different tables because they were off different menus

Needless to say we took our business elsewhere.

Pretententious was a Rick Stein pub near Padstow, the whole wooden platter nonsense.

Food was good though.

Anything attached to Rick Stein is pretentious. Spent a week in Padstow once due to being weatherbound and it's like he owns the place. After the first insanely expensive meal in his cafe we made an effort to eat elsewhere.

We went to a Jamie's Italian (not my idea),

a family outing to the Para athletics in London.

terrible! overpriced, poor service, luke warm food.etc.etc.

Yep, went to Jamie's in Cambridge (quite) a few years ago. It was shite and expensive. The only saving grace was it went on the work Amex.

I believe the ponciness of a place can be easily judged by the menu - if it uses terms such as "From the land/air/sea" then you know it's right up it's own 'arris.

Went to the Jamie's Italian in Bath not long after it opened. Had to queue and what a disappointment. Overcooked and overpriced. Never been back and I think it's closed. No surprise if it has.

Other things about restaurants: if it's empty when you arrive, unless it's just opened, walk out. Second if the menu is long the food will be crap.

I had the best squid ink risotto Ive ever eaten at that Rick stein place in padstow. I was half way through it when I remembered I’d forgotten to pack my toothbrush, my mouth and teeth were a gory black that made me look like an extra from pirates of the carribean.

Mind you I had consumed enough wine not notice any pretentiousness.

Ooh this all reminds me of a place in Portugal I went to, there were two options on the menu, 7 courses or 10. We went for 7 but they brought out surprise mid course bits anyway so it was a bit immense. I didn't even eat much of it, a lot of it was sea insects with shells and stuff - but they were bloody good hosts and did their best to accommodate my underdeveloped pallette. When they found out I'd struggled through a few courses of prawn things with ocean foam, seaweed soup cleansers and the like, but enjoyed the bread and butter course they tried to kill me with extra heaps of bread and butter - the best bread and butter.

Anyway, it was pretty pretentious, my OH's hat was given its own velvet footstool for the duration.

Wine pairing was a good idea, shellfish maybe not. I was quite ill by the morning and I dont think it was the wine, 2 others were very ill the next day too. Not sure if that works out for food poisoning or not.

Still, 8/10 I'd go back just for the butter, but maybe just ask for a single course of that and a wine paring.

I think run of the mill places that pretend to be pretentious are even worse. There seems to be lots of chain restaurants these days with delusions of grandeur.

A few mentions of Jamie's Italian here. I've only went to the one in Bath once with work, my only memory was that the chips I ordered came stacked like a bloody game of Jenga.

@onesea I had no idea the New Forest was so popular. It is just a Forest isn’t it? Round here there isn’t anywhere good to eat. It’s all very poor quality so you have to drive to Bristol or Bath. The southwest is relatively poor area and nearby Weston Super Mud is racked out with elderly care homes and drug rehab folk. The tourists that come this way are after an icecream or candy floss on the pier, maybe some fish n chips so there’s lots of sticky vinyl seat cafes selling whatever Booker has on offer cos it’s past it’s sell by date.

 

Were in "day trip" reach of London and people expect it to be an expensive holiday destination and those that don't learn that it is!.

"The New Forest is enjoyed by millions of people every year, the majority of visits (13.5 million) are by day trip visitors, including those who live within the forest.

Almost 1 million visits include an overnight stay (3 million nights) and the majority of those are by UK residents. Tourism creates over 7980 jobs in the forest and generates nearly £400 million in tourism expenditure. The quality of life in the forest is the primary reason for visits and people come to enjoy the clean air, recreation and tranquillity."

Its pretty its got animals that walk on the road (that can cause some cracking traffic jams), there are only a handful of main roads in lots of campsites for Caravans and motorhomes and related traffic jams... Its a National Park lots of reasons for people to come and sit in traffic

http://www.newforest.gov.uk/article/5197/Tourism-and-Travel

For a while @magpie84's mum lived with her partner in Lymington and we had to drive through the New Forest to get there. My overriding memory every time was getting stuck in a massive traffic jam in the one way system at Lyndhurst, no matter what time of day we tried to drive through.