Prospero - Stratford-upon-Avon

W, what a precious stone, embedded in a less than notorious againstd in the center of stratford. the greeting, the service and the eating were really extraordinary. katy and their staff are attentive and friendly hostess. I had escaped that was well cooked (I still mean pink,) and the most tasty dish I had for years in a restaurant. we were advised that eating would take a while as it was cooked by scratches (and we could say it was) and were offered free nibbles while we waited. my friends had lamb and seabreams they enjoyed. it is a real scandal for prospero that they had full bookings, but many people have not turned around or canceled. this restaurant deserves to be there in the top restaurants in stratford.

The food was fabulous, the staff welcoming, and restaurant itself warm and nicely laid out. The only small negative is the location and frontage. If the restaurant was located 200m further east, it would be in a smarter area, and the frontage itself needs refreshing and uplifting. Indeed, we walked by it 4 times (the OpenTable location is not that accurate) and was even on the verge of not going in once we found it! Do yourselves a favour and look past the neighbouring shops and enjoy a decent meal. After reading some other recent reviews, we were a little worried, but this was unfounded. We had scallops to start, and were cooked to perfection, lightly seared and subtlety seasoned and cooked with samphire and smoked ham. Our mains were the lamb rack, which were very tender, beautifully pink and super tasty with mustard dressing. To finish we had the creme brulle and chocolate mouse, both were really good. All in all, this was a really pleasant evening meal. I can't comment on other people's experience, but for us it was really good and would like to see these guys do well. We have eaten at several other locations in Stratford over the past few evenings, from the Michelin star Salt, to Loxley's and then the Alveston Manor, and Prospero is certianly is not out of place when comparing quality and price. Thanks and good luck.

Food was poor quality, scallops were tiny and not fresh,, not worth £10. Duck breast ok but served with cold vegetables and inedible dauphinois potatoes. Skate wing was awful. Service was pleasant but main courses took forever, and would have been better not to have arrived. Decent wine and beer. The senior waiter was embarrassed, and reduced the bill very substantially. However that did not make up for our disappointment. Last time we were there two years ago, it was delightful. Very sad, for the nice front of house staff.

Less “Prospero”, more “Comedy of errors”! We visited on a quiet Wednesday evening and the restaurant has only been open a few weeks. There was one table of 6 already seated and about to order and another table of 2 about to finish. We were given a pleasant welcome and shown to our table. When we received our menus it was explained to us that a couple of the dishes had been changed following feedback that they’d received in the preceding couple of weeks: all good. We ordered the scallops and the pork cheek tortellini to start and two portions of duck for our main course. The scallops were short of seasoning so not great, and the tortellini were tasteless and flabby. We then had a long wait for our mains to arrive which came with the explanation that the table of 6 had arrived late leading to a delay in the kitchen: I’m sorry but if you have a restaurant that is capable of seating 30 and you only have 10 people in it (2 more people had arrived a little after we did) then I don’t accept that having a table arrive late is a reasonable excuse for the kitchen not being able to cope! Anyway, we tried to eat the duck dishes that we had ordered only to find that we could not cut through the duck breasts with our knives! I’m sorry to say that we returned the dishes and left. This restaurant advertises on its front door “Fine dining” and it certainly doesn’t do this, either in atmosphere or in service (though this was fine it certainly wasn’t “fine dining” standard) and definitely not in food.

A little more expensive than I remember (we've been quite a few times, just not recently), service was ok (I think we had a newish staff member serve us) but the food and drinks were very good. A good evening. We will be back.