As a couple we went to the Temple Tree Restaurant several days back and the experience was very good hence we decided on taking two local friends there.
It was an unmitigated disaster from start to finish and thoroughly embarrassing.
On arrival we proceeded to the bar trying to check-in but the girl behind the bar could not hear a word we said due to the excessive volume of what one would loosely describe as canned "music". It was a nauseating din.
We made our way out of the bar area trying desperately to find an area where we could escape the cacophony eventually finding a corner that provided reasonable sanctuary. Once we had kicked away the cigarette ends and two used tissues from the floor under the table at last we sat down and could mercifully carry out a conversation.
We conversed for some time until realising that in order to get served you had to wave, shout or otherwise signal to catch a waiters attention. With that eventually achieved we ordered our dinner, two of the party wishing they had not done so.
One dinner was meant to have chicken with it. To be fair it did but after removing the bone the amount of meat left might, but only just, have filled a small egg-cup.
Another dinner boasted beef. It was clearly stewing steak that could have done with many more hours to render it fit for mastication. Even if that operation had been carried out it certainly should have been accompanied by a Hazardous Warning for those with Dental Bridge Work. It may have been appreciated by a Dobermann or even an Alsatian but that is where it ends.
The litany of disappointments seemed endless and it was such a relief to leave there before one fell into a deep, embarrassing depression.
It should be a quiet restaurant in pleasant surroundings where people can converse and contemplate unhindered by non-stop, shortcomings. Not a place akin to a discotheque pumping out a din through cheap amplifiers accompanied by food that would shame a Transport Cafe.