Playing Catch-up...

Backblip


The celebrations continued this afternoon as Agnes and Adrian, David and I went to Gleneagles to have Sunday lunch in the Strathearn Restaurant.  

Meanwhile Lola went to have a playdate with her brother Ted.  Janice very kindly offered to take her whilst we had lunch and offered to bring her back,  which meant we could have wine with lunch.  Lovely.

Now whilst we had a lovely time at Gleneagles, it was a rather odd experience.  I've been lucky to eat twice in their Strathearn Restaurant this yes (lunch and dinner) and on both of those occasions the food was to die for and the service impeccable.  Today missed the mark a bit on both.  A shame since it was a celebratory lunch.

Things started off well.  We were shown to our table and got settled.  We were given menus then and asked if we would like water with our meal.  Said yes and water was brought to the table and poured.  The waiter left and we expected him to return to take a drinks order but nope...no one returned.  David eventually flagged down a waiter and drinks were ordered.  

After a while a waiter returned to take our food order (he was wearing a jacket so I assume he was restaurant management and not a waiter as the waiting staff were wearing waistcoats.)  We placed our orders, chose a bottle of wine and all was well.  

We had a slightly longer wait for our starters than anticipated, but that was fine.  We were enjoying our drinks and the ambiance and our company.  When the starters arrived, they were absolutely delicious and very much enjoyed.  

Starters cleared away, we began the wait for the main course, again this took slightly longer than necessary.  Just before they arrived Agnes glanced at her cutlery and noticed she'd been given a steak knife.  Not a good sign for a vegetarian.  There was only one vegetarian main course on the menu (Wild mushroom, mustard espuma, cep crisp, truffle) which we were hoping she wouldn't require a steak knife to eat!

When the main courses arrived (David and I were having lamb and Adrian duck) the lamb got put in front of Agnes, the duck in front of me and the cabbage in front of Adrian.  We pointed the error and they quickly began swapping the plates round, this time but in the confusion got it wrong again.  Once we had the correct food in front of us, they moved the cutlery and I ended up with the steak knife, they then realised Adrian should have the steak knife so hastily sorted that.  

There was then a slight delay in receiving our vegetables (we ordered a cauliflower mornay, carrots and two serving so potatoes) and when they did arrive, the forgot the potatoes.  In an effort to give us something, a waiter appeared with a serving of roast potatoes which consisted of three roast potatoes.  Agnes and I generously agreed to share one.  The potatoes did eventually arrive but by this point, we were three quarters of the way through our main course.

Late potatoes aside, David's, Adrian's and my main course were absolutely delicious.  Agnes's less so.  Given that this is a five star, fine dining restaurant, I would have thought they could offer a better vegetarian option than half a savoy cabbage, quartered, with one side of each quarter charred by rubbing it with oil and holding it against a hot plate for a few minutes.  Agnes said the accompanying sauce was delicious, but there's only so much virtually raw cabbage one can eat and she only managed a quarter.  Also for the price charged, I consider that a bit of a piss take.

The dessert course thankfully went without hitch and we ordered tea and coffee.  Agnes wasn't going to bother with tea till I told her they bring a little tray of petit fours and you can choose two or three (depending on how greedy you are  ;-) to have with your tea, so she changed her mind.

Two Americanos with hot milk on the side, a latte and tea were ordered.  They were served up but no milk was brought to the table.  Again we had to ask.   And to our disappointment, no sign of the petit fours.  

We finished our tea and coffee and were just thinking about asking for the bill when a waiter appeared with four little dishes with two tiny(and I mean tiny) truffles and a peach flavoured jelly round, full of apologies that we hadn't received them with our tea and coffee and said they wouldn't charge us for the coffee.  

We should've asked him for the bill as after he disappeared it took a while to get the bill (David finally managed to flag down a waitress) after which, there was another delay till they returned to take the payment.  

After doing so, she quickly disappeared with no offer to get our coats and after sitting for a few minutes with no one coming near, we made our way to the restaurant entrance in the hope someone would be there to get our coats (we had no idea where they'd been put) but nope, there was no one about.  David flagged someone down to ask and they went into the restaurant to get someone but by this point we'd spotted them on a hanger in an ante-room just off the hallway outside the restaurant and helped ourselves.  We had jackets and scarves on before someone appeared.

So all in all an odd and disappointing experience.  If I hadn't already been, I would be thinking twice about ever going back (maybe I still will.)

I had decided not to make a formal complaint as we all have off days but reading all that back, I think the whole experience falls far below they very least we could expect.  And it was a double celebration (birthday and wedding anniversary) so was even more disappointing from that angle.

Lola, meanwhile, had a perfect day at Ted's (as the photos show :-)

Spoiled rotten by Ted's mum Janice and with 10 acres of garden, glen and woodland to play in OFF LEAD, she was in her element.

She also got to play in a ditch and Janice even washed and brushed her before bringing her back home.  Excellent.


Agnes and Adrian stayed over another night so we settled down to catch up with Strictly, IACGMOOH and HIGNFY.


A lovely, relaxing end to the day.