Places to Avoid

Places to avoid dont deserve their own thread, so please put any you find into this one, together with its own titled post

The BlueBell is an old favourite on Parliament Street that has decided to 'upgrade' its cullinary image, presumably to compete directly with the cheapo production line nosheries close by, such as bigwok and the new teppanyaki. Sadly (as its a great little meeting place), its fails miserably. They have what on first glance, looks a super offer- a starter and main for under a tenner, all (neo) a la carte style. The paté admittedly is stunning, but the main courses are terrible. Overly flavoured to the point of sickly and very dodgy cooking times saw the meal being sent back to the kitchen and a barman apologising for the standard. Unforgiveable though, was that the chef did not come to find, or attempt to find out from his barstaff what exactly was wrong, which suggests that he either knew he was serving below par dishes, or that he couldnt care less, which for an establshment trying out a new approach sounds very dodgy. Its obviously that old adage of being able to serve anything if youre in the centre of a city. Ah well, not to us they wont

Another city centre restaurant on test saw the food being delivered superbly. No complaints on that score. However we must have just caught them on staff change times. We ordered Irish coffees as an après and promptly cancelled it when the barman was noticed looking up how to make one. It was brought to us nevertheless and smartly despatched back to the recipe book as we said that they were not being paid for. Yet again an example of awful service that passes for city centre hospitality, where apparently all staff can do what they like as its the city centre

(Fingernails down a blackboard) eeEEEK! Bloody horrible things!

Overpriced, overestimated and over here.

Last year, this Italian restaurant on Mansfield Road in Sherwood was short listed as a possible venue for the MMs christmas bash. Since then, after a change of decor and staff, it has gone rapidly downhill. Audible sighs and groans when the overpriced cheap wine was rejected, followed by a total lack of understanding that a cream sauce should not be the consistancy of a Pot Noodle led us to walk out in disgust. Probably the worst Italian restaurant in Nottingham.

We decided to try this one out as our favourite chef from Trattoria Roma was found to be doing the food on a few days in the week.
The menu looked really nice, plenty of variation and choice, well above the usual 'pub grub' type of menu. Thats where it all ended though. The food was dry and stale, the mark of a pub getting its food in weeks in advance and not considering freshness. The barmaid had to be shown where the Amoretto was as she had never heard of it, and the meal was duly returned after two bites.
We'll put this one down to it being in Hucknall.

The 'any variation' in the title applies to all like establishments, F&B, Charlie Parkers, Baltimore Diner etc, that are always full of people that know nothing but presume that expensive must mean good.
These are no more than up-market Little Chefs, and the bland food and watery drinks that go down so well with uneducated pallates are boring boring boring, as are the copious amounts of screaming kids.
The only excitement in these types of places is the mad scramble for more cash from the ATM when the bill arrives - avoid!

A lovely looking pub in Crich, Derbyshire. Has olde worlde decor with real beams and arts and crafts adorning the walls plus a super garden, but the food although supposedly being homemade is straight from the microwave, and the landlord/chef really does need to read up on his gourmet styles if they insist on a gourmet section. Super place to come to for a stop-off, but The Red Lion has to be placed in the 'places to avoid' section until the food improves.