November 27th, 2007
While visiting Dusty’s parents we decided to have lunch at The Crown of Crucis, near Cirencester. The car park was empty as we pulled up at around 1 o’clock on Saturday the 3rd November. We had booked ourselves a table in the restaurant thinking it would be the best part of the hotel to eat in. We’ll come to why this was a silly assumption later. We were shown to our table having walked past quite a tempting display of deserts set out on a nicely laid but uncovered table. We ordered some drinks and sat down to study the restaurant menu and very comprehensive plastic bar menu. Part way through studying, we also discovered a dish of the day menu on the table alongside the paper napkins.
The bar menu was something else. Indian, Chinese, Italian, English and Mexican dishes were all on offer. The restaurant menu was mainly fish. We think they need to take some advice from Gordon Ramsay on simplifying. Anyway, Dusty set off to the Bar to place our order (even though we were in the restaurant!) and was barked at by the owner who could only be described as frightening. We started to see why the place was so quiet. Anyway the food was ordered and Dusty regained his calm composure and we waited. It was only at this point that we realised the restaurant was actually the poor relation compared to the rest of the place. The bar area was actually quite nice. It was cosy, had a great fireplace and looked liked some thought had been put into its design. The restaurant however was plain, soulless and cold.
The food arrived at our ‘now fixed’ wobbly table and we tucked into, Gammon, Egg & Chips (for me), Lamb Kaftas (for Dusty), Chicken Tandoori (for Walter) and Ham, Pineapple & Chips (for Mavis). The food was OK and scored between 2 and 3 on the rating scale for the individual meals.
It was time for desert and we set of to look at the tempting array set out, as mentioned earlier on the tables as you enter the restaurant. Two staff stood behind waiting to take my order and the matronly owner hovered barking orders at her staff to ‘hurry up’. As I arrived, she was scolding her staff for having served ‘too large a portion’ of Strawberry Gateau to Mavis who had gone up before. They looked nervous as I approached. Having quietly chosen, the owner barked again, telling her poor staff how to serve my desert. Even I was starting to feel scared by this point as was pleased to get back to the safety of my table. The deserts were quite nice but by this point, the staff were under orders now to set the restaurant tables for the next guests. Loudly shouting orders, we knew our time was up and we needed to leave.
An interesting visit all in all, if only to be scared a little by the overbearing owner. Even the bloke serving behind the bar rolled his eyes a few times as his boss/wife strode around giving instructions.
Give it a go if you fancy a meal with a difference and let us know what you think.
Score: 2 Stars. Visited November 2007.
Tel: +44(0)1285 851806
Posted in Food and Drink