compleat angler

one of our dearest family friends tied the knot at the compleat angler almost 30 years ago! and a grand uncle had visited in the 60s (?) and half a century on, still gave rave reviews during dinner. being so near yet so far, we decided it was high time to make the trek one weekend. it's hardly a trek (that's just me being melodramatic) and it was a beautiful drive along the water. it's as if the hotel's been frozen in time, although it showed signs of a new-ish management that didn't quite appreciate its rich heritage. things like the largely foreign restaurant staff. again, not to be hating on foreigners (hey! we're foreigners too!) 

aside: was joking with a south african consultant about having to report to medsch weekly to make sure i was actually doing my degree. because, really, foreigners worthy of scrutiny give up perfectly good professional careers to be students. and he told me about how when he first came to the UK he was an 'alien' who had to visit the police station weekly to be tracked. glad i'm not a police station regular but can you tell i'm still grumpy about being monitored???)

but the waitstaff had difficulty understanding us and we had trouble making sense of what they were saying. service wasn't great. we arrived at the reservation time but was told the kitchen weren't ready. waited 20mins in the lounge but weren't seated when the restaurant did eventually open. had to go looking for the host and remind him that we were still waiting for our table despite the restaurant being half empty. also, the hotel thought it sensible to carry out noisy drilling and repair work at 1pm on sunday. smack in the middle of sunday lunch. so the picturesque river scene was punctuated with shrill drilling and banging of the non-amorous kind. not the peaceful lunch we'd envisioned! food was edible but overpriced and i get you're paying a premium for the settings but when you throw in the lack of quiet enjoyment, we weren't the most satisfied of customers.

i guess it's a nice enough restaurant...

hotel's definitely seen better days and wouldn't recommend nor return.