Smithy's Restaurant & Wine Bar

We booked a table larger than 10 people, but because it was near to christmas they made us pre-order our food a month in advance. When we arrived there were only two other tables except for us so seemed pointless that we had to order so far in advance - this also meant that everyone forgot what they ordered anyway and made everything confusing.

Even though it felt almost empty in the restaurant we felt like we were rushed to eat and leave. One of the guests even had a waitress standing over him waiting to collect his plate before he had finished his starter!!

Because the starter and mains came so closely together we had to ask for a break between the mains and dessert rather than stuff ourselves with 3 courses in a timescale of something like 40 mins. When the desserts did arrive they were cold (the chocolate cake was supposed to be warm), so we had the impression they were made when we were eating the mains and had been sitting out and getting cold when we had a break.

The service was poor, the waitresses were not particularly pleasant, they didnt ask us if we wanted drinks for the meal and we had to chase down a waitress to order wine.

When we settled the bill our party split the bill, we all put in an equal amount roughly split between us. Bear in mind there is an 'optional service charge' that was included - when all the payment was arranged, the waitress had the gall to come back ask for more money as we didnt pay the full service charge!

The only saving grace was that the food wasnt really really bad - it was just ok.

But for the price.....

Lets say, i'll never go back there again and i'll never recommend anyone else to go there either. £500+ could have been better spent elsewhere.