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Nothing special: Eating at the crown at Stratton St Margaret was disappointing

AS we walked into The Crown Inn at Stratton St Margaret, we noticed it had been awarded five stars by the local council.

My wife and I had decided to look up the Crown for old times sake, as it was where she had celebrated passing her driving test more than four decades ago.

In those days eating out was for special occasions only and the Crown was one of just a handful of good pub restaurants in Swindon.

Everything was fine as we sipped our drinks and ordered food at the bar.

But when I handed over my bankcard, the barmaid said she would hang onto it in case we ordered dessert.

She could not understand that, in these days of card cloning, this was a no-no. So we paid for our drinks, starters and main courses and went without puddings.

My starter of a warm black pudding salad was very tasty even if the presentation left a lot to be desired.

Joy started with deep fried brie which came as two small, overcooked wedges with an overpowering garlic taste: the presentation was off putting before the taste.

For mains, Joy had pork chops with creamy cider sauce and a baked apple.

They were "nothing special" and, surprisingly for her, she did not finish.

My mixed grill of a double lamb chop, steak, gammon, pork, sausage and a poached egg looked as though it had all been thrown on the very small plate with the poached egg landing on top of the tough, overcooked and gristly, bit of steak.

An Internet review had said: "I will definitely be going back." Not in our case, well not for another 40 years.

I haven't mentioned the friendly young waiter who was on only his second day at the pub and who laid the table by holding each knife by the blade and the forks by the tines. No-one had showed him the right way.

As we walked out we wondered what the five stars had been awarded for.

Our bill was a reasonable £36.10p that included a pint of cider and a half of brown ale so that was reasonable.

However we won't be back.

Nigel Kerton

4:50pm Thursday 19th June 2008

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