The Quay Bar & Restaurant

The Quay caused to give me a lot to reflect on. I’m a foodie, but not averse to a cheese slice on a hangover day. I’ll admit, there are days when I just need a greasy pickmeup. But there are other days where I want to appreciate and enjoy my food. The Quay doesn’t give me such pleasure. I will say though — this place does provide great (albeit slow) service — after complaining about one dish, we were automatically given 10% discount without even asking us, and the number of apologies we had were numerous. It did feel like they cared, and it was refreshing to see as even in the nicest of places, it doesn’t always mean they care.
The menus themselves were grubby and the offerings were dated — this is not haute cuisine — fish and chips, macaroni and cheese, etc. There is a large smattering of Indian dishes as I believe this is run by an Indian family, but I was bemused to see such offerings as chana masala — containing chicken (what?). I only hope that was a typo, but I was afraid to ask. So I ordered vegetable pakora, followed by veggie lasagne. To be honest, the vegetarian offerings were pitiful — macaroni cheese, spaghetti bolognaise (with quorn), lasagne or mushroom salad. The pakoras came out semi-​raw, hence the complaint, however I would note that the order itself was piping hot and freshly cooked.
The mains were different. One suspects they sat under food warmers because of the delay with my starter. The boys burger was dried out and burnt. The chips were nasty cheap frozen ones made out of reconstituted potato. My lasagne had definitely been through the microwave judging from the state of the vegetables and pooling with grease. None of it was enjoyable. Drinks took forever to arrive — we cancelled our second cup of tea, lamenting it’s non-​arrival.
We won’t be back, but I suspect it won’t matter, because The Quay was heaving. If Jamie Oliver was dead, he would turn in his grave, or any chef who has made a mission of trying to improve the average standards of food. This was poor quality pub fare, and it’s a shame, because if the meal was as good as the service, I would be raving in a much more positive manner, but I’m not, I’m simply raving mad that people still pay for food this poor. Go down to a lot of cafes these days and you get much higher quality for the same price.
I felt rather ill when I left, just sickened by the experience. We had visited the place on several recommendations, said sources have now been ex-​communicated from the foodie inner circle. Stay at home and have cheese on toast instead, (make it a decent cheese and a nice loaf) you’ll save yourself some money.