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Can anyone recommend a nice place to take the Mrs for an anniversary meal?  We used to go to the pear tree in Purton before it went downhill and closed, and the Weighbridge which has always been a bit meh.

What type of food does she prefer?

It’s our 9 year anniversary tomorrow. If she’s lucky I might put on a garlic bread with the pasta bake.

Miller and Carter?

Miller and carter from me too.

Restaurant 56 outside Faringdon. Not far in a cab.

I am always baffled by the love that Miller and Carter gets, I have been twice and the food has been bang average both times.

it was ok when we went, quite nice but not sure it was worth the premium.

shit all over our weighbridge brewhouse experience though

the weighbridge has been going down hill for a long time.

this was allegedly at its peak though a fair few years ago.

very very variable from review around that time. the food was nice. the service could have learnt something off your average McDonald's employee.

The Weighbridge was an oddity - service, as normally recognised was awful.  Food was lovely.  I like taking my time and drinking more than I eat, and we had no problems calling for service, so it worked out ok.  I can see why others would have been put off though.  Now it is a chain though, no idea what it is like.

I went to a Miller & Carter in Glasgow, it was lovely.  Helped by the building it was in I think.

The Harrow got good reviews from someone I know - Little Bedwyn

Go to the Royal Oak at Bishopstone. Quality food.

thanks for the tip Sippo, will check it out next anniversary :)

@Rob, yeah it was slow, that was disappointing. it was the being ignored that really annoyed me. especially after explicitly strating I wanted to taste the micro brewery beers. still in the past now. Looking at recent TripAdvisor reviews it's got worse!

If you don’t mind a drive the Gurkha Restaurant at the Lion and Fiddle in Hilperton is brilliant.

The Potting Shed at Crudwell 5* or Casa Paolo at Peatmoor

Bit pricey but worth it, The Harrow at Little Berwyn !

The Savoy

I still suspect that slow service is almost entirely down to their aspiration that you will drink more whilst you are waiting, there was a place in Lancaster that was well known for not even seating you (even if you had booked) until you had ordered a second drink whilst waiting, an order of tap water used to speed them along!

aha. that's the point. not once did a waitress/waiter stop at our table to ask if we wanted another drink, ended up literally chasing one. gave up in the end.

also not once did they advise the main course was going to be a 90 minute wait.

Fuck... That!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzlqMNRavWQ

You must have the patience of a saint. Both the wife and I hate lousy service and I think we may have left the restaurant way beyond the time the board had come out for injury time.

I'd be getting extremely twitchy on 40 minutes or so. That's around the time I'd be expecting free drinks and stuff.

Ordinarily it would be a walk out, but we were taxi dependent - it was our anniversary so we thought we'd have some alcy-hol to celebrate.

T'was a few years ago now mind.

Think they may be safe there,   Lancaster would be one hell of a fare in a taxi.

Miller & Carter is literally just a posh Harvester? Surely at that price point you can do better than an M&B owned mega chain?

It’s our 9 year anniversary today. I have pushed the boat out. No pasta bake tonight. A wood fired pizza yellow labelled from marks and Spencer (£2.70 down from £6) and some aldi halloumi fries.

Definitely getting some tonight...

You old romantic