Knife and Cleaver

Food

I was amazed that we were actually brought an amuse to start, consisting of Prawn ball and Relish on Toast, and while it wasn’t spectacular, did keep us busy while we debated what to order. We also munched on some delicious Seed Bread and Foccacia while we waited for the meal to arrive. The Smoked Haddock Chowder (£5.25) With Parmesan Cheese Straws was very lovely, fishy and creamy, with delicious Parmesan cheese straws. The Deep Fried Whitebait, Gremolata (chopped parsley, lemon, garlic olive oil) (£6.00), sounded more interesting than it tasted, although the gremolata sauce was great.

For mains, we got the Gourmet Steak Burger (£9.75) Home Made Bun, Crispy Pancetta, Chunky Cut Chips with Tomato Relish which was simple and done well, while the South Coast Dab Baked Whole with an Anchovy and Shrimp Butter (£12.25) was a welcome departure from the usual way that fish is served in restaurants. As well as the mains, we got an accompaniment of ratotouille, potato gratin, buttered leek, which was really tasty, showing they know what they are doing in the kitchen. Slokky finished off the night with some Cafetiere Coffee, which tasted like any other coffee we get from a restaurant – terrible – no matter how good the food is.

Rating - 7.5

Atmosphere

hmmm...dead. Besides us, there was a loved up older couple who were obviously staying at the hotel and enjoying a night out, dressed to the nines. It was cold and the cold and wind outside made it kinda scary. We didn't hang around.

Rating - 1.5

Service

This is definitely a family run, or casual affair. Basically the person running the front desk of the hotel, is also running the bar and is the waiter in the restaurant. At least she wasn’t the cook as well…Since there were only two tables of customers, that wasn’t a problem. The food was great, she came in a few times to check on us, otherwise she stayed in the front room of the hotel. This works well for me.

Rating - 3

C-factor

The portions were huge and so cheap.

Rating - 2

Brownie Points - 14

Info

The Grove
Houghton Conquest
MK45 3LA
Phone +44 (0) 12 3474 0387
Website