My discovery of the Hampshire country-side continued as long as the British sun decided to shine.
Which wasn't very often.
Like a true Britain I had become a sun-scrambler. Waking up in the morning to peak through the curtains with eyes shut tight and everything crossed wishing and hoping and praying it would be a blue-sky kind of day.
As soon as my eyes lay upon the blue sky it was time to wake everyone up in the house, plead with them to get dressed and kick them out the door immediately.
This was one of those particular mornings.
I dragged my chap out of bed and into the car. It was glorious not having a cloud in the sky.
Twisting and turning through the bendy country roads stopping for a drink here and there, enjoying the sun with a big smile on my face.
We'd driven past this quaint pub quite a few times and loved the look of it so today was the day we actually got to go inside.
And inside wasn't too bad either... But don't read a book by its cover.
It was busy but what else would you expect on a Sunday afternoon?
One of my chap's friends joined us and we didn't mind waiting for our food to come. We had wine and sun and endless conversation catching up on life.
A platter of nibbles soon arrived.
Sausages, ribs and everything nice.
Boquerones with ali oli.
Pate and asparagus, garlic bread and dips.
The nibbles filled a hole and kept us quiet for a while.When the sun went down and the cold set it, we snuck inside to find a free table and some more wine.
Sauvignon Blanc is my Summer drink of choice (even if I order meat!) and the second bottle was going down a treat. I like it served iced cold, like it has just come out of ice pole.
Inside we were much more sombre, the sun was hiding behind clouds there was none of that earlier excitement and our tummy's were rumbling even louder now.
We'd pretty much finished the 2nd bottle of wine by the time food came out and we greeted it with a big sigh of relief.
Yes, food!
We ordered the sea bass and scallops, steak and lasagna and soon a quiet hum came over the table whilst we tuck in.
But that hum soon was interrupted. I could tell everyone else was thinking the same as I was, I can't eat this but I don't want to be rude and leave it so I will carry on pushing my food round the plate to pretend I am eating.
I hate to be negative on the blog but I would also hate to mislead you.
The food was atrocious. My fish was rubbery and tough, the scallops were slimy and it tasted like it had all just been re-heated up in the microwave. Try as I might I just couldn't bring myself to eat another mouthful. The steak tasted like dishwater and I don't think I need to mention the lasagna, you can see from the picture yourselves.
The only thing worth eating were the chips, at least they were hot and fresh.
We waited for over an hour for your mains, which is pretty unacceptable. We were warned there would be a long wait for food which we understood. Two of us had grown up in the hospitality industry and whilst we are all understanding and sympathetic towards busy sittings we didn't expect long waits in between courses too. We even got up to ask twice about the status of our food and twice we were told it was being plated up, well it doesn't take 40 minutes for food to be plated.
We wouldn't have minded if the food was out of this world amazing, but I can't remember the time when I have ever seen so much food wasted on a plate. Not one member of staff came over to check on us after we'd complained it was taking so long and we left without a staff member in sight.
What a shame that a restaurant that is so lovely looking, gets let down by staff and food, which are both pretty essential to any restaurant. I would avoid the Hatch until they have a complete refresh.
What about you? Have you ever been to a restaurant and felt embarrassed to leave your food or complain about it? What did you do? What's the protocol?
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