Reviews by Fin (22)

Royal Oak Inn, Aston Abbotts, Buckinghamshire

1/5 (minimum 1) on 23 Sep 2008
Qite the worst pub I've been to in years. On a long journey from East Anglia to the West Country we saw it advertised on a blackboard on the main road. A late lunchtime on a Monday wasn't going to be the busy time but the dull and disinterested welcome should have rang warning wells right from the start. The landlord was in conversation with two "locals" with the apparent landlady in the kitchen. We ordered a drink and sandwiches and found somewhere to sit in a side room. It was dirty and uncared for. Food was barely mediocre. But the worst aspect was the toilet. No soap, towel or paper. when I pointed this out to the landlord he grunted and went off, hopefully to deal with this whilst one of the locals said sarcastically "Oh dear". The whole time we were there we could overhear the conversation at the bar and he had been swearing constantly. We are broad-minded but this was just offensive. Don't go there - it is the most shocking example of English pub hospitality at its worst.

Hoglands, Perry Green, Essex

4/5 (minimum 1) on 06 Jul 2008
Sculptor buffs will know this to be the home of Henry Moore for the last 45 or so years of his life. The house and its extensive grounds are open to the public, (pre booking necessary) and give a real sense of the man and his work. It is well managed with lots of helpful, knowledgeble and genuinely enthusuastic staff. Seeing some of ths bigger sculptures in their field of sheep was a real highlight. Tea and cakes are available at the Reception Office/Shop and the local pub does an acceptable lunch.

Greys Tea Shop, Totnes, Devon

4/5 (minimum 1) on 06 Jul 2008
Right at the top of the town on the right hand side, this is a fine example of an English Tea Shop at is best. Its small and crowded but that is part of the charm. The service is first rate and the tea and cakes are excellent. The range of teas is impressive and they dont use teabags.. My meringue was perfect - generous with lots of clotted cream and decorated with strawberries.

Illnacullen (Garinish Island), Glengarriff, County Cork, Ireland

4/5 (minimum 1) on 06 Jul 2008
Garden lovers from around the world will know of this treasure of a island garden in Bantry Bay and there is much excellent information about it on the web. Just wanted to say that apart from the garden, which is wonderful, the most remarkable thing is the setting. We visited on a beautiful day in June so we were lucky but the situation is quite spectacular. A short ferry ride across calm and blue sea with stunning mountains all around, it seemed like some exotic tropical paradise until we saw the numerous seals enjoying themselves on the nearby rocks. The ferry ride is not cheap but well worth it.

The Gallery, Ballymacrown Homestead, Baltimore, County Cork, Ireland

5/5 (minimum 1) on 06 Jul 2008
This is one of the properties in the Imagine Ireland (see Revyu.com entry) portfolio. Its a delightful property designed for two and provides an ideal base for a relaxing holiday. Imagine Ireland gives more of the practical details but its seriously worth considering because of the special welcome you get from the owners who live next door. Dave and Joan take a lot of care over thei holiday accommodation business but do so with a delightfully light and good natured touch. They are friendly without being intrusive and are genuinely interested in you and your welfare. Their approach is epitomised by their “welcome pack”. Milk, butter, bacon, sausages, eggs, freshly home-made soda bread, coffee, jam and cooking oil. Mid-week Dave delivered scones fresh from the oven. They are true Irish hosts and one of the enduring and happy memories of a great holiday.

Imagine Ireland - Holiday Accommodation

4/5 (minimum 1) on 06 Jul 2008
If you want to find a self catering holiday place in Ireland, this English based company is one of the best. Their brochure and web site are comprehensive and they offer a good range of places from quiet cottages for two to big houses that can take two or three families. Their phone booking staff seem well trained and efficient and they deliver on their commitments regarding follow-up paper work. Their on-line and brochure information is accurate and very detailed and there is clear evidence that they inspect the properties very carefully. We got what we thought were getting. By the time we got home there was a questionnaire waiting in the post asking for our comments on their service.

La Jolie Brise, Baltimore, County Cork, Ireland

4/5 (minimum 1) on 06 Jul 2008
This is one of a row of bars and restaurants overlooking the busy little harbour. Baltimore is popular and warm days find the whole frontage of this row full of people having a relaxed time. The Jolie Brise is not sophisticated but they rightly claim to be big on pizzas and sea food. The fish special of the day depends on what has been landed and when we were there the boats hadn't come in so there was no special! I'd much prefer it this way than be palmed off with something substandard. I went for mussels. They were wonderfully fresh and cooked just right. I thought I had a generous portion and when I eventually finished I counted the empty shells – 85! Too many perhaps but it was great value.Young, friendly and knowledgable staff.

“Found Out” Cafe, Inishannon, County Cork, Ireland

5/5 (minimum 1) on 06 Jul 2008
Inishannon seems like a pleasant enough village/small town on the main road between Cork and Clonakilty and the far south west – but not necessarrily a place tourists would choose to stop. We did stop because we were hungry and were rewarded with a little gem. The cafe, named after some yarn about a “lock-in” gone wrong, is on the south side of the main street. It has no pretentions about being anything other than a cafe but they do excellent coffee, sandwiches and snacks and good puddings with great clotted cream. As so often in Ireland, what makes this sort of place really exceptional is the staff, and the waitress here was wonderful. Welcoming, quiet sense of humour, efficent, observant and using her job as a way of affirming the pleasures of helping people have a good experience.

Costa Coffee – Sedgemoor Services, M5 Southbound

1/5 (minimum 1) on 06 Jul 2008
Quite the worst Costa Coffee outlet I have been to. Dull, slow and seemingly disinterested staff, dirty serving area and tables littered with dirty crocks – and this was when it was quiet! Avoid at all costs.

Refectory, St Davids Cathedral

4/5 (minimum 1) on 06 Jul 2008
I think the Refectory is new in the last couple of years, but what is even newer in 2008 is their Summer Suppers, which are served until about 9pm. Meals and snacks are served in a quiet and peaceful environment tucked away at the back of the cathedral. But there is nothing old or stuffy about this place. The design is modern but seems completely in tune with the other buildings. The self service bar is on the ground floor with plenty of seating and then an open spiral staircase takes you to the first floor where there is seating for 60. This is the best place to eat as there is lots of light from tall windows and from the pale timber furniture and flooring.

The food was excellent when we were there at about 6.30pm on a weekday evening. We would particularly recommend the fish pie and the tapas which had very good olives and roasted peppers. Staff were bright and efficent. Altogether a great place to have a relaxed and fairly informal supper.

Bar 5, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire

4/5 (minimum 1) on 06 Jul 2008
Set just off the main square in Fishguard, this is as stylish a restaurant as any you will find in this lovely part of Wales. It is modern with a sense of light and space and has tempting views of the sea from the bar and the outside eating area. The staff are friendly and helpful and on the three times we have been there we were always made very welcome whether it was just for mid morning coffee or for a full meal.


Our latest visit, July 2008, was for a light lunch. The Welsh Beef sandwich sounded adequate but turned out to be an excellent and substantial choice and for under £5 was very good value. It came as an open sandwich with salad and crisps. The beef ans bread were delicious.

The contemporary design of the place shows a real flair and the particular colour theme used throughout the place and its literature, is picked up in the pipework in the toilet!

"Speedy" Tool & Equipment Hire, Torquay

4/5 (minimum 1) on 29 Mar 2007
I booked a scarifier for the weekend so I could remove all the moss and "thatch" from our lawns. The booking process was efficent and friendly and when I went to collect the machine I was given a thorough introduction to its workings. However, it didn't have a collecting box. (Its a bit like a lawn mower but generates ten times more material.) Not having a collecting box was a serious problem. I had planned my day around this activity so accepted the situation and decided to deal with it on Monday when the management team was on duty. The lack of a box was as much of a problem as I thought. 90 minutes using the scarifier and 120 miuntes racking up the rubbish. I explained the problem when I took the machine back and said I wanted then to compensate me when they returned my deposit. They were apologetic, polite and accepted that they were remiss in not asking me if I needed a collecting box when I made the booking. Futhermore they only charged me £16 when the catalogue price was £40. I'll use them again. The catalogue talks about their pride in the strength of their customer relationships - they get this right.

Travel Lodge, East Midlands Airport

4/5 (minimum 1) on 29 Mar 2007
What a difference a day makes!! Having had a god-awful experience at this hotel I asked the manager to ring me so I could give some feedback. I was surprised when he did ring as there was absolutely no evidence of caring about customers when we stayed at the hotel. He was polite, said he welcomed feedback and gave me good attention whilst I told my tale of woe. He apologised immediately, acknowledged that it was a bad experience for me and thanked me for alerting him to a serious training issue which he would address straight away. He then offered to give me a 40% discount in the hope that I would consider trying Travel Lodge in the future. I was impressed and will give them the benefit of the doubt. Pity I had to make a complaint in the first place.

Travel Lodge, East Midlands Airport

1/5 (minimum 1) on 29 Mar 2007
Knowing our flight back to EM would not get in until 11pm and home would be another 4 hour drive, we booked into the Travel Lodge for the night. The advertising was good and we imagined a basic but comfortable place to sleep, which was cheap and convenient. Cheap and convenient yes, but the room was dire. Essentially it was dirty. Cup marks all over the bedside tables, dusty phone, a very suspect brown mark on the bathroom floor which wasn't a permanent stain, a dirty comb tucked under the television. In addition the remote control had no batteries,and there was barely a quarter of a toilet roll. It was gone midnight and I didn't have the energy to make a fuss and decided I would deal with it better in the morning. When the morning arrived and I asked to speak to the duty manager, "He isn't at this branch today." As far as I was concerned this said it all - no management input and standards fallen to a hopeless level. I left asking the manager to ring me the following morning and vowing never to use this place again and with a very wary view of Travel Lodge altogether.

Riverford at Kitley

4/5 (minimum 1) on 11 Feb 2007
Kitley is to the east of Plymouth, on the road to Modbury and Kingsbridge. This set up is the younger brother/sister of the Riverford Farm shop at Saverton , near Totnes, which for many is the byword for great organic food. Kitley is more spacious and better laid out than Staverton. This is great but for some it wont have the heart of the original. The range of products is impressive with a fabulous selection of meat, bakery, dairy, vegetable and general groceries with an organic label on most of it. Kitley also has the bonus of a cafe. We were there on a Saturday morning in January and had an excellent breakfast. Delicious, as we have come to expect from Riverford, generous and nicely served by friendly and knowledgeable staff. The down side was that the cafe was very cold and at this time of year not the place to hang around. This was a pity as it sounds like they want to develop the breakfast theme, and we would want to support it, but it was just a bit too spartan in January.

We liked the breakfast so much that we went back for tea and cake. Oh - what a disappointment. Mean portions and dull staff. When I returned the hot milk they had seved with the tea I was told by the young woman who served me, in a disinterested way, "Oh, I thought that was what you asked for" - no apology or acknowledgement that this was careless. Not good and I hope the team at Riverford can sort this poor service out quickly, or they will seriously damage the set up's undoubted potential.

The Old Forge Tea Room, Chagford, Devon

5/5 (minimum 1) on 15 Jan 2007
This good teashop was a welcome find after the decidely off-hand reception we had at one of the pubs in the town centre. Its nothing amazing to look at but the low-key and friendly welcome was encouraging. We had drinks and cakes but other customers were having light lunches which looked attractive and plentiful. The rhubarb, walnut and raisin cake was spectacular and along with the very generous portion of clotted cream to go with it, I was set up for the next three hours. The filter coffee was £1.40 including refill. I asked for the first top-up and was offered the second. This seemed like great service and just reinforced the sense that they understood that customers want to be appreciated. Certainly worth a second visit.

Chagford

3/5 (minimum 1) on 15 Jan 2007
Chagford is one of chain of small towns around the eastern and southern edges of Dartmoor. Most of them owe their former prosperity and importance to tin or wool. Chagford announces itselt as an ancient stannary town and it looks good, tucked into the first hills of the moor. It's a solid, granite built town of about 1500 people ( according to a shopkeeper), more like a village in size but definitely a small town when you see what it has to offer .On a dull damp Saturday in January it was certainly lively with a busy square and most of the shops and businesses open. There are a least four pubs within a couple of hundred metres of each other, several restaurants/cafes (see separate review for the Old Forge Tea Room) and a whole range of craft shops, galleries, delis, plus two of the best hardware shops I've ever explored- and they are next door to each other! What quickly strikes you is that this isn't a typical small Devon market town serving a large rural hinterland, but the smart country shopping centre for an affluent, probably transient, population who have more than a wiff of Salcombe about them rather than Okehampton or Crediton. We of course were also part of what seemed like a weekend influx and the locals had certainly found ways of making money from them/us. We didn't have time to explore all of the town including some interesting small streets and alleys but look forward to doing so on an off season weekday when it might we easier to get a real sense of the place.

Perfume:The Story of a Murderer

2/5 (minimum 1) on 15 Jan 2007
I seem to be one of the few people who hasn't read the book but this allowed me to come to the film with few expectations. This is just as well because I was seriously disappointed. Many reviewers seemed to have been worried about how the subject of smells could be dealt with on film. This proved no problem for me and I think this aspect of the film was successful. Where it really fell short was in the acting and the directing. The main character was excellent but the two main supporting parts played by Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman were two dimensional jokes. This may be how they were written in the book but they just don't work in the film. As far as the directing was concerned it often felt contrived and aiming for an impact rather than authenticity. The crowd scenes in particular were awful. The “orgy” scene was so over the top that I and many of the other viewers in a packed cinema were laughing. I came away feeling this was at least an hour too long and that a potentially fascinating and serious subject was spoilt by mediocre creative input which ended up giving us a just a piece of silliness.

Occombe Farm, organic demonstration farm, shop and cafe

4/5 (minimum 1) on 08 Dec 2006
This is a recent venture on the outskirts of Torbay. It deserves to do well. Its still early days and there does need to be more work done on the demonstration farm aspect of the set up but there is a well laid out farm trail which takes about 30 minutes and goes through some lovely countryside which you wouldn't expect so near busy Torbay.There is a good bird hide and charcoal making area. There are some cows and pigs to see but not many and on the second time we went the cows were a couple of fields away. If they really want to attract people with children they need to provide more interest and access to livestock. The shop is small but well stocked with good, mainly regional and local organic produce. Thers is a meat department and a bakery. The cafe is above the shop and gives good views across the countryside. Service can be a bit slow but main courses are imaginative, well prepared, generous and reasonably priced. Cream teas are very generous but they don't yet seem to have sorted out how to provide a good selection of cakes at most times. There is an excellent resource centre at one end of the cafe with computer access to a range of interesting farm related topics and a place for drawing and craft activities. Its relaxed and family friendly.

Stag and Hounds Pub, Winscombe, Bristol

4/5 (minimum 1) on 08 Dec 2006
This is a good place for food if you are travellling to or from Bristol Airport from the South West of England. Its about 7 miles SW of the airport. It's roadside advertising emphasises "two meals for one" and having driven past the place many times this seems to be a permanent promotion. Have only tried it out once and that was early on a saturday evening in November and it served its purpose very well. We had two good main courses for £8.95. The food wasn't the best ever but was tasty and ample. The pub seems very well managed with a team of bright, friendly, helpful and efficient young staff. The car park is huge. A good place to stop if you are on the road and need something to eat and drink. Its non-smoking throughout. Children seem very welcome.

Park Farm Parking - Bristol Airport

4/5 (minimum 1) on 08 Dec 2006
If you want to avoid the excessive fees for airport parking at Bristol, I'd recommend Park Farm. Just half a mile from the airport this small enterprise offers secure, covered parking for a good price. There is very regular transfer to and from the terminal and we have never had to wait more that five minutes for this. As it says, its based at a farm and the set up is not smart but it does the job very well and in its way is a slick and efficient set up.

Riverford Farm Field Kitchen, Devon, England

5/5 (minimum 1) on 06 Nov 2006
Building on the success of their organic vegetable box scheme(currently 35,000 boxes delivered every week across southern England), Riverford Farm has now opened a Field Kitchen where you can eat some of the finest organic food in an airy, relaxed, refectory style restaurant. The chef is formerly from the Carved Angel in Dartmouth and shares the same commitment and enthusiasm for high quality, local ingredients prepared with flare and simplicity. Go to the Riverford website to see sample menus. The sheer abundance, variety and imagination that is brought to the food preparation makes this an fantastic eating experience. Staff are efficient and friendly but you need to be prepared for other diners struggling with the idea of sharing food with the people sitting beside them who are likely to be complete strangers. Its not the place for a romantic dinner for two. You have to book in advance.

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