The Fancott - Central Bedfordshire

Love this place food and drinks are always great and the train in the summer is always a blast…. I don’t care how old I am. But it was great to dine inside for a change and the standard is still high.

The staff at the restaurant were both friendly and efficient. There was a good variety of options on the lunch menu to choose from. Our drinks were promptly delivered to our table. The food was freshly prepared and there was a generous portion size. Overall, it was a good pub experience. The only downside was a group of four ladies who complained about the place as soon as they arrived. However, the young waitress handled the situation very professionally.

Our party of 12 former colleagues felt very welcomed at the restaurant. The food and service were excellent, and the prices were reasonable.

A group of five ladies visited this restaurant and found the decor lovely and the waitresses nice. However, they were disappointed with the poor quality of the food. While the starters, such as the homemade soup, were delicious, the main meals were undercooked. The homemade pies were particularly disappointing, with the chicken appearing undercooked and the pastry rock hard. The vegetables were not fresh and no one in the group enjoyed them. The chicken meal was the only decent dish, but the coleslaw was sour. The desserts were okay, and one of the ladies received hers for free due to the issues with the pie. Despite having had a good experience with Sunday lunch in the summer, the group was put off by the limited menu options and the empty restaurant. They may consider giving the restaurant another try in a few months after the winter menu is released.

We came as a family 4 for dinner on a Friday night. We booked last minute and asked if we could book for 7/7:30pm. The lady on the phone stated that they were going to be very busy but could squeeze us in at 7. However, we were there until 10pm and only saw 2 other tables the whole evening. We were the last table to leave the restaurant and considering it was a Friday evening it was not busy. The quality of service and the food was very poor. To order drinks and food the service was very slow considering how empty the restaurant was. A member of my family had ordered a steak and asked for no tomato. Instead it came with tomatoes and no mushrooms. We were told this was miss communication and this was quickly rectified and we’re brought out the mushrooms. We also asked for salt and pepper which we had to ask for 3 times before getting any. Once my family member started to eat the steak it was very undercooked. They had requested it to be cooked medium and it came out rare with blood dripping from it. The steak was full of gristle and couldn’t even be cut with the steak knife. We highlighted this to a waitress and she then tried to cut it and was also unable to. She then took it away and said she’d get it taken off the bill. Considering the rest of the family had nearly finished they didn’t want another meal brought out. The rest of us enjoyed our meals, we also had deserts and coffees. They did make another mistake and brought out the incorrect desert but we only had to wait a few moments for them to bring out the right one. When it came to paying the bill we noticed the steak was still on it. We asked the waitress if it could be discounted or taken off as we were not happy to pay the full price for what we received. Soon after, what I can only assume was the manager, came over. She was very rude. She said ‘so what was wrong with the steak then’ we explained what had happened and were confused as to why the waitress who dealt with this didn’t make anyone aware. It was then taken off the bill. We waited about half hour for them to bring the card machine over. In the end we had to go up to the bar to pay. As the waitress typed in the amount to the card machine a 10% tip was added on. The lady did not ask if we wanted to add a tip. When we explained we weren’t going to pay this, she questioned ‘oh why not?’. I find it bizarre that we were ‘expected’ to pay it and that it was added on without it being on the receipt. We won’t be returning. This is a shame as we have been multiple times and have seen it go downhill over the years. The service needs a lot of improvements.