No. 4 Clifton Village - Restaurant review

10/04/2014 - No. 4 Clifton Village 

Those of you who follow this review blog will know that my reviews so far have been largely positive, with no real awful experiences. Unfortunately the No. 4 Clifton Village restaurant ended this run of good luck - ironic considering it prides itself on being an "award winning" restaurant. 

The whole experience was shoddy from start to finish. I didn't realise the restaurant was part of a hotel but this in itself is not an issue, what was an issue however was the fact we were dumped in the corner of the hotel bar without a menu or any explanation of what was happening. 20 minutes later, after we had finished our drinks, we were escorted into the restaurant and to our table with a menu. The dessert menu.

Try as I might I could not catch the servers' eyes, two waitresses for a full restaurant of around 20 - 30 people. One waitress was dismissive and curt, the other obviously stressed but as polite as can be expected from someone so arduously overworked. In the end, another 15 minutes later, we managed to ask for the main menu and quickly settled on our food. 

The choice of food on offer was disappointing and none of the mains really jumped out at me. I ordered goats cheese to start, followed by pheasant breast for main. The starter took an hour and fifteen minutes to arrive. For goats cheese. An hour and a quarter. Come on, seriously?!

The goats cheese was very nice to be fair to the chef, a light brulée on the surface gave it a delicate crack before a melt in the mouth. Although I will admit I was disappointed at the lack of creativity it exhibited, for an award winning restaurant I would have liked a little more from this dish.

Brulée adds an extra crack to the soft goats cheese

The main was also not what I had hoped for. Bordering on the dry side, the pheasant breast was not enjoyable and the accompaniments were not thrilling either. I ate it due to the fact I had waited two hours for it, and again I was disappointed. 

When the waitress finally cleared our plates and asked us if we wanted to see a dessert menu I felt no remorse in saying no immediately, apart from the fact that I had been given the opportunity to study the dessert menu in intense depth at the start of my meal, I wanted to try and salvage what was left of my evening!

Scores (as much as I hate to do this):

Food: 3/10

No. 4 Clifton village is award-winning, so I am grading it as such. Don't get me wrong, compared to some other places it is great but judging it by the standards it sets for itself I had to give this a paltry 3.

Atmosphere: 7/10

Admittedly the bar and restaurant are well decorated with traditional period features and rustic tables and chairs. If I wasn't seething at the time we had spent waiting I may have reviewed it more highly. 

Service: 3.5/10

No communication. Not enough staff. Not welcoming. It gets 3.5 points as the staff were not directly rude and one waitress did seem to be doing her best.

Value for Money: 0/10

Don't waste your money.

This review was hard to write, I don't want to discourage local restaurants from doing well, that's not why I do this, but I feel like a warning is warranted. Try if you must, but you may be clearing an entire evening for mediocre food.

Over and out
- the EnFoodiast