written by on 16/08/2009
On my third visit in five years to The Cabinet at Reed, a Saturday night in August 2009, I was accompanied by 7 friends, two of whom were celebrating their 57th birthdays. I had told them to expect really good food based on my previous experience prior to this but the reality was very different. Two of us ordered lemon sole which, on arrival, we requested the chef to de-bone. It took rather a while and when the food arrived back, it was lukewarm and in one case, the bones had been piled up on the side of the plate (an unappetising sight) and in the other case, the deboning had only been partially completed, leaving the diner to munch through more bones - awful.
Meanwhile, the mixed vegetables we had ordered for the whole table turned out to be four dishes of cabbage! Cabbage is something I rarely cook at home when broccoli, carrots, etc are a far tastier alternative so we were very disappointed at this. Nobody wanted to make a fuss as it was after all a birthday celebration but I couldn't keep my frustration in when I was asked by one of the staff as the plates were removed, if everything was OK? I replied that it wasn't OK for several of us at least and that bowl after bowl of cabbage was a far cry from what had been expected. I received no comment, merely a removal of dishes! We moved on to pudding hoping for the best. Strawberry meringue with shortbread at £8 per serving. The meringue was hard as rock and not soft inside and the shortbread very average.Disappointing in the extreme. When the billl arrived, all wine charges had been removed but no apology had been made at all for the poor dining experience. That's a disgrace. We shall not return.