The Flying Horse, The Green Clophill, Bedford MK45 4AD
It used to be a Beefeater long ago (mmmm Beefeater…) but is now privately run. It’s a very nice place, when you walk in to your right is a cosy bar and drinking area and to the right is... a huge dining area which was bloody packed! Seriously, I’ve been to the pub part of this place a couple of times now and each time the restraint has been ram jammed thank you mam EVERYTIME. So bearing that in mind I was looking forward to what this place had to offer, it must be good… it’s ram jammed.
My friends and I were seated right away (we had booked in advance) and menus were handed out. A couple of mates were looking forward to things they had seen on the menu before but this time those options were sadly absent. Although there is not masses to choose from (to be fair it’s normally better when you’re slightly limited for choice, I always find the food is normally better) what is on the menu all looks good. I can’t remember what everyone had but Mrs Belly (Now with Baby Belly inside her belly) was also with us so I’ll just tell our story.
Both Mrs Belly and I ordered the Lamb Kofta's to start, when they came we cut them open to find the mince was not exactly cooked through, obviously raw meat and pregnant woman = BAD IDEA so I got the waitresses attention and explained the problem, I also explained that my wife was pregnant and that obviously any meat she eats needs to be thoroughly cooked. The waitress seemed to think that lamb kofta’s were supposed to be a little pink but not that pink (what, you mean they weren’t supposed to be served uncooked? Well how frickin’ knowledgeable of you!) so (and in hindsight I should have told her not to bother) she took our starters away and said they would do us some more.
15 minutes later they brought out some more kofta’s (obviously the rest of the table had finished their starters and were eagerly awaiting the main course that was now being held up by our 2nd attempt at starters. Not wanting a repeat both Mrs Belly and I cut in to our Kofta's to check everything was hunky dory, mine were fine but Mrs Belly’s were still a little pink in the middle so we just swapped plates and chomped away.
As I was about to take the final bite of my delayed starter I felt a presence behind me… it was the waitress with our main courses. Mrs Belly and I hurriedly finished out kofta’s so that there was room on the table for our main course!
Mrs Belly had the hamburger and I had the Rib-Eye steak. The steak was really good and the chips that came with it were excellent too, Mrs Belly cut in to her burger (just to be safe) and all seemed well. It wasn’t until Mrs Belly got ¾ in to the burger that she again (even though the staff had been told of her pregnancy and that meat needs to be cooked through etc.) pink meat. Mrs Belly just left the remaining burger and finished off her chips.
During the meal we had ordered some drinks and after about 20minutes or so they had still not carrived so we ordered them again with another waitress. As soon as the 2nd waitress had left to get our drink then the 1st waitress turned up with our original drinks order. We had to inform her of our 2nd order so that we didn’t get double and …. F’CHRIST SAKE!!!! Does anyone bloody listen to what we’re telling them??!”?!?!?!?! GRRRRRR
Dessert
YES! We had a dessert… nothing could go wrong with that could it? Well, I would like the cookies & ice cream:
“We don’t have any cookies”
“Seriously?”
“No, but I can do you a brownie.”
“Ok, I’ll have brownie and ice cream”
Yes, there was in fact Brownie and Ice Cream on the menu in fact two others at the table ordered Brownie & Ice Cream, so when they come you would expect 3 identical plates of Brownie & Ice Cream… wouldn’t you? No? Well… ok, perhaps I’m just being picky. My friends Brownie & Ice Cream has a chocolate sauce, powdered sugar and is cut in to triangles, Mrs Belly’s Brownie & Ice Cream has a chocolate sauce, powdered sugar and is also cut in to triangles. My Chocolate brownie comes and has no chocolate sauce, nor powdered sugar and is cut in to squares… Ah, it must be that they just replaced the cookie with the Brownie and since it’s 50p cheaper I don’t get the sauce & sugar, either that or it’s so they can tell which one they’ve spat on to serve me. I think it must have been that latter since they charged me the exact same as the other two! The brownie was very nice though, warm and soft and the ice cream was also very nice, had the rest of it not pissed me off so much then I would just say how good it tasted.
All in all I think the place was a little pricey (£17.95 for Rib-Eye steak & chips is a lot when you know you can get the steak platter at Beefeater for £19.99 which includes 3 more steaks of varying cuts) and although there were some screw ups no one else on the table seemed to have much issue with their food but we all experienced the drink fiasco.
The waitresses were very young and rushed off their feet and although I didn’t have the best experience that evening I think I would like to go back to give them another shot as the friends we were dining with have been numerous times before and said that this was the first time they had ever had a problem.
Hopefully when I return it won’t be as busy or at the very least there will be more serving staff at hand… and the chef cooks the meat all the way through!
