Gumption

Madeleine Rayner

Jul 31

It was a dreadfully wet Saturday night when we ventured to the Distinction Hotel for dinner in their restaurant.

It's been years since we dined there last because for the last couple of years, this hotel was a place where people who were being isolated because of Covid were housed.

The layout had changed, the bar had changed and the menu had changed. But there were options on the menu that sounded interesting, and we did approve that there were sides included with the meats on offer.

I chose Chicken Supreme - confit free-range chicken breast in charcoal oil with lemon & thyme and 2 sides of salad with mashed potatoes.

Let's start with the salad: garden salad with balsamic vinaigrette. It consisted of a few lettuce leaves and about half a tomato. The mashed potatoes had not been seasoned so were very bland. The chicken breast had a bone on it as can be seen in the image above.The chicken was dry, tough and overcooked. It was not good.

Barbara, who was seated alongside me chose: Jack Daniels Glazed Pork Ribs, marinated over 48 hours & slow-cooked for a further six hours; sweet, sticky & spicy Jack Daniels sauce.

She chose the salad as one of her sides as well as sautéed broccoli with smoked pork belly. Whist her ribs were tasty, the meat was dry (maybe overcooked?).

The one thing we all commented on (there were 7 of us) was that the food was luke-warm,

The standout of the evening was the service. It was amazing. When anyone asked anyone of our lovely waitress her answer was always "of course", and she delivered.

No one else chose the chicken - the ribs was the dish chosen by 3 friends, salmon by one, steak and fish and chips were chosen by the others. So I had no one to compare dishes with. Maybe it was just the version delivered to me. I did find it really odd that there was a bone on my chicken breast though.

Service:5/5 Food: 2.5/5 Ambience: 2.5/5 Total 10/15

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