Lovely but expensive food. I will go for the set menu next time, far cheaper and most of the items are on the main menu at far higher cost. Definitely a special event type of place.
Maria Hond
What a delightful experience. The service was optimum and the food sublime!
Jason Kavanagh
Went for my birthday... messed up my starter ..sent out the wrong thing ...but to be far they got out what I ordered very quickly.....then the main course I had mussels...as I was eating up the sauce I found in it a 4 inch piece of hard plastic !!......I think this place has gone down hill not just because of the plastic I found the three other people with me all had fish and chips..a few years ago it came with very thick triple cooked chips ..this time it looked likedsomeone had thrown on oven cooked chips .
Glyn Duff
Excellent service and very helpful staff. Devilled Kidney starter is fantastic. I had the fish and chips - mushy peas were a bit too puréed for me but that's just me. My wife had a crab - I think - pasta that was a bit too salty for her liking. Reasonable value for money. All in all a nice experience not to be missed.
Clare Marsh
Excellent all round, food was stunning ?
Linda Hammerton
Having a set menu lunch yesterday with a group us that had been booked well in advance our experience was more than disappointing. It took a while for someone to even take our drinks order and then an hour and a half for them to arrive. Still waiting for our starter we were worried about our car parking. Some of us had to move our cars and some had appointments and some starters didn’t even arrive. We eventually got fed after a long long while. We were there over 3and half hours and some left with out having anything !
Adrian Parker
We visited on a very wet lunch hour in mid Feb which might have swayed the ratings.I have visited the restaurant before, shortly after its initial opening. Further I have visited others too in the usual places. Given Marlborough is in the most charming of locations I always want it to be good. Further given £££ prices I expect standards to be high. Mostly they were.Given that it was a business lunch, and wanted to share a great experience with a client it was an obvious choice; in what is quite an undercatered area for foodies.Food was good, but not great. Some dishes were not tip top at the point of service. A sign to me of a stretched kitchen. The restaurant as a whole was quiet, hence probably not a full kitchen staff.Note: Good at Rick Stein'd is still great anywhere else. All fish dishes were superb. The curries incredible. But to nit pick:1 Welsh Rarebit was 'cold' on arrival, that 'yum' moment had passed. :(2 Chips were not uniform, and one of our group only had scraps (small chips) :(3 Tabasco Sauce was served with Oysters. The bottle EMPTY. Unforgivable in my opinion. Oysters are a luxury in the UK and to be served with the dregs of a bottle made the dish looks bad. A small but significant ooopsie at a fine dining establishment :(Service was good but not great. Not all staff knew what they were doing, that is ok but after training will improve. This is just a fact, but in a busy restaurant would have been a problem. (Atmosphere: We made our own, a private party. Point lost as really the restaurant was basically empty meaning others were not enjoying what is one of the gems of Marlborough.Summary. Rock Star treatment ( restaurant pretty much to ourselves) Excellent food, and service, but not quite brilliant.PS If you visit, and I recommend that you do. Park in the long stay for four hours. There is a walkway via Waitrose to the high street. The five minutes walk each way will do you good, and remove car park anxiety which most of our diners had. 2 HR parking is tight for a fine dining experience that is to be enjoyed.
mickyandchris
Went for the set lunch at £17.50 for three courses. Extremely good value for food that was very well cooked and tasty. Only small gripe was that the poached plums with French toast was not hotter than it was, otherwise a very enjoyable meal. Service was friendly and efficient.I do wish that 12.5% service charge was not added to the bill as standard though as I like to make my own mind up according to my experience.
Safari34618671214
We enjoyed our lunch. Beautiful decor, great service, nice wine & tasty food. Small portions & simple plates, but tasted good. Can keep the cost down by having a set menu if you want.
Keith J
We went New Years Eve 2023 and were treated to beautiful food, beautiful ambiance and a team that were very attentive. My wife has a nut allergy and the team gave her a menu highlighting all those dishes containing nuts (obvious or otherwise) to the extent that she was advised by the chef not to have the biscuits with her cheese as they may contain/ made in the same area as nuts but provided slices of warm sourdough instead. Thankyou Rick and your team for a thoroughly memorable New Years Eve.
My wife and i visited this place just after it opened a few years back and we had an average experience. There could of been a few improvements. One of them was that the peppercorn sauce just didn't taste like a peppercorn sauce (It never even had any peppercorns in it) At that time i asked if i could have some peppercorns put into it and was told by the waiter that i would just have to put some pepper in it.I put this down to poor training and ignorance. We decided to go back again last night. New years eve. And after looking at the menu we both had a rib eye steak and i ordered peppercorn sauce and asked the waiter who was very friendly if i could have plenty of peppercorns in it as i like it really strong with peppercorns .(i like to feel the peppercorns burst with flavour when you crunch into them) As you can guess the sauce never had a single peppercorn in it and it just didn't taste of peppercorns. Now if i see something on the menu that is described as a sauce with peppercorns in it then that is what i am expecting. I asked the waiter if he asked the chef to make it more peppercorny and his reply was they don't make it with peppercorns in it because they have complaints about it .My gripe with this is what would it of taken to put some extra peppercorns in it? No effort at all. They never put any peppercorns in it because i am guessing they never had any which is telling me it was pre made packet sauce opened and shoved in the microwave. Very disappointing again. So along with the fact that the chips were your average family choice cooked from frozen chips the sauce being a pre maid heat in the microwave effort and the toilet seat hanging off the toilet is the reason i have dropped 3 stars.I have left it as a 2 star mainly for the reason the service was fast and friendly. My advice is go to your favourite italian and get a much better quality meal for half the price. And Rick your by far from being a michelin star so stop charging michelin star prices and drop your mandatory service charge. Your letting your staff down
Mark C
Went for a late lunch with a family member, the food and service was exceptional. It's always a delight to dine there, superb.
D217VUchrism
We had a very disappointing experience on Boxing Day at this restaurant. I had booked it over three months previously for a family lunch; there were 8 of us. It is possible that I may have been told at that time that I booked that the restaurant needed the table back at 3p, but I certainly don't recall this. I book numerous restaurants and this would not have registered so far into the future. When we arrived at 12:00, no one mentioned this to us, or suggested that we had limited time. At 2:45 we were told that we had to leave the table by the manager as 'there were 20 people waiting for our table'. This was news to us. We were hustled out and downstairs to the bar which does not have sufficient seating for 8. My wife did not even have time to finish her coffee. We left extremely disappointed; a day spoilt by this restaurant's inability to manage what should have been a simple situation. We have used this restaurant many times in the past for Boxing Day lunch, but no more.
Helen S
We had a 2.15pm lunch appointment. On arrival we were seen to the bar and were left there until 3pm. The lady told us 3 times she was laying our table and in the end said our drinks were free. On being shown to our table we felt we had been sat there and left until I asked if we could order 15 mins later, so 1.5 hours before our starter. The food overall was lovely except my sister had a bad potato on her main. The waiter once we had his attention was very apologetic and all drinks were deducted from our bill. But it wasn't about the money, it was about the experience and we had absolutely no atmosphere at all. I asked what the problems were to be told short staff and things wrong in the kitchen. My advice is that they should tell the truth in the first place, had the lady said we are running late and this is how long you will have to wait we could make the choice and not be left sitting there for so long.
127PaulC
We've been to Rick's restaurants and pubs in Cornwall, but this was a first visit to the Marlborough restaurant. After driving around the town trying to find a place to park the car (I blame my wife entirely) we arrived just before our appointed booking. We were shown to our table in the downstairs part of the restaurant and took in the menu. For one reason or another I'm struggling to eat meat at the moment, so seafood is my choice. We started with lightly curried mussels, wonderful. My wife had chilli squid, she found the chillies a tad on the hot side. We both had the smoked haddock main, which was was a superbly balanced dish. Pudding of Tart Tatin brought a great lunch to a close. Loved the atmosphere and service, but the clear winner was the food.
Lovely but expensive food. I will go for the set menu next time, far cheaper and most of the items are on the main menu at far higher cost. Definitely a special event type of place.
What a delightful experience. The service was optimum and the food sublime!
Went for my birthday... messed up my starter ..sent out the wrong thing ...but to be far they got out what I ordered very quickly.....then the main course I had mussels...as I was eating up the sauce I found in it a 4 inch piece of hard plastic !!......I think this place has gone down hill not just because of the plastic I found the three other people with me all had fish and chips..a few years ago it came with very thick triple cooked chips ..this time it looked likedsomeone had thrown on oven cooked chips .
Excellent service and very helpful staff. Devilled Kidney starter is fantastic. I had the fish and chips - mushy peas were a bit too puréed for me but that's just me. My wife had a crab - I think - pasta that was a bit too salty for her liking. Reasonable value for money. All in all a nice experience not to be missed.
Excellent all round, food was stunning ?
Having a set menu lunch yesterday with a group us that had been booked well in advance our experience was more than disappointing. It took a while for someone to even take our drinks order and then an hour and a half for them to arrive. Still waiting for our starter we were worried about our car parking. Some of us had to move our cars and some had appointments and some starters didn’t even arrive. We eventually got fed after a long long while. We were there over 3and half hours and some left with out having anything !
We visited on a very wet lunch hour in mid Feb which might have swayed the ratings.I have visited the restaurant before, shortly after its initial opening. Further I have visited others too in the usual places. Given Marlborough is in the most charming of locations I always want it to be good. Further given £££ prices I expect standards to be high. Mostly they were.Given that it was a business lunch, and wanted to share a great experience with a client it was an obvious choice; in what is quite an undercatered area for foodies.Food was good, but not great. Some dishes were not tip top at the point of service. A sign to me of a stretched kitchen. The restaurant as a whole was quiet, hence probably not a full kitchen staff.Note: Good at Rick Stein'd is still great anywhere else. All fish dishes were superb. The curries incredible. But to nit pick:1 Welsh Rarebit was 'cold' on arrival, that 'yum' moment had passed. :(2 Chips were not uniform, and one of our group only had scraps (small chips) :(3 Tabasco Sauce was served with Oysters. The bottle EMPTY. Unforgivable in my opinion. Oysters are a luxury in the UK and to be served with the dregs of a bottle made the dish looks bad. A small but significant ooopsie at a fine dining establishment :(Service was good but not great. Not all staff knew what they were doing, that is ok but after training will improve. This is just a fact, but in a busy restaurant would have been a problem. (Atmosphere: We made our own, a private party. Point lost as really the restaurant was basically empty meaning others were not enjoying what is one of the gems of Marlborough.Summary. Rock Star treatment ( restaurant pretty much to ourselves) Excellent food, and service, but not quite brilliant.PS If you visit, and I recommend that you do. Park in the long stay for four hours. There is a walkway via Waitrose to the high street. The five minutes walk each way will do you good, and remove car park anxiety which most of our diners had. 2 HR parking is tight for a fine dining experience that is to be enjoyed.
Went for the set lunch at £17.50 for three courses. Extremely good value for food that was very well cooked and tasty. Only small gripe was that the poached plums with French toast was not hotter than it was, otherwise a very enjoyable meal. Service was friendly and efficient.I do wish that 12.5% service charge was not added to the bill as standard though as I like to make my own mind up according to my experience.
We enjoyed our lunch. Beautiful decor, great service, nice wine & tasty food. Small portions & simple plates, but tasted good. Can keep the cost down by having a set menu if you want.
We went New Years Eve 2023 and were treated to beautiful food, beautiful ambiance and a team that were very attentive. My wife has a nut allergy and the team gave her a menu highlighting all those dishes containing nuts (obvious or otherwise) to the extent that she was advised by the chef not to have the biscuits with her cheese as they may contain/ made in the same area as nuts but provided slices of warm sourdough instead. Thankyou Rick and your team for a thoroughly memorable New Years Eve.
Restaurantji Recommends
My wife and i visited this place just after it opened a few years back and we had an average experience. There could of been a few improvements. One of them was that the peppercorn sauce just didn't taste like a peppercorn sauce (It never even had any peppercorns in it) At that time i asked if i could have some peppercorns put into it and was told by the waiter that i would just have to put some pepper in it.I put this down to poor training and ignorance. We decided to go back again last night. New years eve. And after looking at the menu we both had a rib eye steak and i ordered peppercorn sauce and asked the waiter who was very friendly if i could have plenty of peppercorns in it as i like it really strong with peppercorns .(i like to feel the peppercorns burst with flavour when you crunch into them) As you can guess the sauce never had a single peppercorn in it and it just didn't taste of peppercorns. Now if i see something on the menu that is described as a sauce with peppercorns in it then that is what i am expecting. I asked the waiter if he asked the chef to make it more peppercorny and his reply was they don't make it with peppercorns in it because they have complaints about it .My gripe with this is what would it of taken to put some extra peppercorns in it? No effort at all. They never put any peppercorns in it because i am guessing they never had any which is telling me it was pre made packet sauce opened and shoved in the microwave. Very disappointing again. So along with the fact that the chips were your average family choice cooked from frozen chips the sauce being a pre maid heat in the microwave effort and the toilet seat hanging off the toilet is the reason i have dropped 3 stars.I have left it as a 2 star mainly for the reason the service was fast and friendly. My advice is go to your favourite italian and get a much better quality meal for half the price. And Rick your by far from being a michelin star so stop charging michelin star prices and drop your mandatory service charge. Your letting your staff down
Went for a late lunch with a family member, the food and service was exceptional. It's always a delight to dine there, superb.
We had a very disappointing experience on Boxing Day at this restaurant. I had booked it over three months previously for a family lunch; there were 8 of us. It is possible that I may have been told at that time that I booked that the restaurant needed the table back at 3p, but I certainly don't recall this. I book numerous restaurants and this would not have registered so far into the future. When we arrived at 12:00, no one mentioned this to us, or suggested that we had limited time. At 2:45 we were told that we had to leave the table by the manager as 'there were 20 people waiting for our table'. This was news to us. We were hustled out and downstairs to the bar which does not have sufficient seating for 8. My wife did not even have time to finish her coffee. We left extremely disappointed; a day spoilt by this restaurant's inability to manage what should have been a simple situation. We have used this restaurant many times in the past for Boxing Day lunch, but no more.
We had a 2.15pm lunch appointment. On arrival we were seen to the bar and were left there until 3pm. The lady told us 3 times she was laying our table and in the end said our drinks were free. On being shown to our table we felt we had been sat there and left until I asked if we could order 15 mins later, so 1.5 hours before our starter. The food overall was lovely except my sister had a bad potato on her main. The waiter once we had his attention was very apologetic and all drinks were deducted from our bill. But it wasn't about the money, it was about the experience and we had absolutely no atmosphere at all. I asked what the problems were to be told short staff and things wrong in the kitchen. My advice is that they should tell the truth in the first place, had the lady said we are running late and this is how long you will have to wait we could make the choice and not be left sitting there for so long.
We've been to Rick's restaurants and pubs in Cornwall, but this was a first visit to the Marlborough restaurant. After driving around the town trying to find a place to park the car (I blame my wife entirely) we arrived just before our appointed booking. We were shown to our table in the downstairs part of the restaurant and took in the menu. For one reason or another I'm struggling to eat meat at the moment, so seafood is my choice. We started with lightly curried mussels, wonderful. My wife had chilli squid, she found the chillies a tad on the hot side. We both had the smoked haddock main, which was was a superbly balanced dish. Pudding of Tart Tatin brought a great lunch to a close. Loved the atmosphere and service, but the clear winner was the food.