Willow Farm Pub/Restaurant, Cramlington: Cheap for a reason

20th August 2013

Having dined at the excellent Beefeater down the road and seeing the stream of families going in at 5.30, we tried this pub restaurant for a cheap meal. The place is huge, and is a modern versions of a pub restaurant to traditional style. The front area is more pub, and the back more restaurant carvery. We had no previous experience of this brand. This was a blind choice with no research.
Arriving at 7.30, we were told that the carvery was closing at 8pm ( a fact recorded on the web site, but unknown to the casual visitor), and a quick look showed that it was on its last servings. Having said that it was standard looking stuff, and seemed very good value for money if you want a carvery. So we went for the a la carte, which incidentally stops serving at 9 pm. The menu, which is not on the web site http://www.willowfarmpub.co.uk/index.htm is typical fare.
We had a mixed starter, which seemed to be the price of two other starters. However the plate of fried fare including potato wedges, chicken wings, musrooms etc was probably big enough as a starter for 4, and the couple on the next table were having it as a shared main meal with a plate of chips on the side.

I had the steak and kidney pudding for main course. Huge. However the pudding was largely suet crust, filled with gelatinous gravy with finely chopped meat and kidney. None of the chunks that typify a good s and k pudding. 

My wife's penne with chicken and chorizo sauce (which you can see in the background) was largely pasta and very little sauce. Whilst quantities were huge, the quality of food was below average for this sort of restaurant. However after that amount of food we did not go hungry. Drinks are bought separately from the bar and are pub prices.
One of the features of this restaurant is that you order your meal at an ordering point by the bar, and pay up front. This leave little scope for complaint once you have paid (they may have had problems in the past),and also leaves the serving staff exposed. We did not leave a tip as we thought the quality of the food was very poor, and even though it was not the fault of the serving staff, we did not feel like hanging about. There was a pub quiz going on, but we were not tempted. (the questions were actually quite challenging).
So it was really cheap costing about £23 for the meal for two with no desert and pub prices for the drinks. But cheap turned out to be a bit indifferent. You get what you pay for in this case. My wife was given a comments form, and has mailed her displeasure about the poor quality of her meal to the main offices. I will not be going to this brand of restaurant again, unless I want something really cheap.(This review also appears on TripAdvisor)