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The best restaurants serving French food in Caddington Central Bedfordshire East of England
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882 Opinions in 5 websites
I received a Buyagift voucher from a friend for an experience I had previously done, so I paid the difference and went to the Luton Hoo for a 3 course lunch plus drink for 2! What a mistake, and one not to be repeated! I had heard so much about the Luton Hoo, people raving about the place and live only 25 mins from there so it seemed the perfect choice - WRONG! From my initial attempts to book my experience (I was on hold over one hour at one point and after multiple attempts to contact the venue and get through layers of recorded messages, I finally gave up and emailed despite being told I have to call to book this experience in. Some time later I received a reply confirming they had booked me in per my email request and not so much as a common courtesy to acknowledge my comments in my email on not being able to get through to anyone on the phone after multiple attempts! Upon arriving at the venue we were seated at the table and quickly advised on the things we could not have, namely alcohol! The voucher afforded us soft/cold drinks only. Which brings me to the first issue, we were advised we could have tonic water! We asked for a London Essence Pomelo and Pink tonic each, after some faffing and the waitress getting out every bottle in the fridge to see if any of those bottles were the one we requested, it was apparent they had none. We chose another and I asked if they had alcohol free gin I could purchase to go with my soft drink (I was driving), to which I was advised again I could not have alcohol on this booking. I gave up at this point as there seems to be a disconnect in communication (I since found out they do an alcohol free beer only). We ordered starters and mains, and was advised we could decide on a desert after! (which to be honest would be more than common practice not to have to order the desert at the start of the meal....). Starters came out after some time (the restaurant was starting to empty out by now as our sitting was at 14.00hrs yet it seemed to take a long time for courses. We both ordered steak for mains - we were advised to have the Bavette steaks medium as they can come out tough. Medium was fine for us as this is what we both have anyway and the steaks did arrive and were indeed tough, to the point I had jaw ache chewing and left a fair chunk of it, as did my friend! For £23 on the menu, whilst it came with fries/beef tomato, watercress it was absolutely not worth that. We asked for the remainder to be wrapped for my friends Labrador, as she would appreciate it, and has the teeth suitable to chew it! We had no less than 4 people serve us as our waitress left, and two other people appeared and came over to take orders when we had already ordered. It was all a little disjointed and more so this made no sense as we were the last two people in the restaurant by the time we were mid way through our mains. I did feedback on the steak but the waiter just stared at me like he did not know what to say. I think asking for it to be wrapped for the dog after we had finished, and having given the feedback on how tough it was, should have indicated it was not edible! The cheese board had a camembert on there which was rock hard. The cost of this "experience" was absolutely not worth the money paid. Overrated to say the least and I wish I would have read reviews myself prior to booking. Service, ambience, food quality all below par, and you can go to many other places and get a much better experience. I would not go back. At least Nettle the dog enjoyed her supper and appreciated the tough cut!