Pear Tree Inn Whitley

We had a wonderful meal here a couple of years ago so we decided to take our family to celebrate my husbands birthday. What a difference those couple of years have made! We were informed the taps were off so we had to have bottled soft drinks. The starters were good but for £9 each were very small. Our main meal arrived and my risotto was devoid of seasoning and again very small and tasteless. My daughter’s partner was informed that his fish had been dropped and when it finally arrived lacked a crispy batter, it resembled more of a bread coating. My husbands £32 steak was overcooked and very under seasoned. He sent it back and celebrated his birthday with a small portion of chips.My daughters burger was overcooked and lacked any flavour. We all came home £206 down and had cheese on toast. Will not be visiting again.

We had dinner here and I ordered ‘Rolled Wiltshire Lamb Breast, Slow Roasted Tomato & Burrata Risotto, Bromham sprouting Broccoli, Sunflower Seed Mint Salsa Verdi GF £24’. What arrived was a pair of coiled strips of greasy lamb with vegetables. It could have benefitted from some potato. After uncoiling the strips and scraping off the fat there was not a great deal of lamb left. It was a disappointing unattractive overpriced dish. Definitely not to be repeated. There would have been more meat on a pair of lamb chops.

We had high hopes for this place as they have good reviews, but overall quite disappointing. We originally booked Tosca and Starkrimson for 1 night, but due to change of plans we emailed and ask if we could extend our stay to 2 nights. We stated that we would prefer to stay at the same room but don't mind switching rooms if necessary. Got a reply saying it was all sorted and a booking confirmation email, but it didn't state which room, so naturally we assume we are staying in the same room for both nights. However we were showed to different rooms(Bartlett and Comice), the rooms are nice but it was not we were expecting. The staff helping us check if she could move us back to the original rooms, but all rooms are booked obviously since it is summer. She said she could talk to the manager or get her for us when we come to dinner. Speaking of, we booked breakfast bed and dinner, nonetheless they asked if we are having dinner here, and apparently they do not have us on the list. Dinner was ok, great burger and ribeye, lamb a bit tough, chicken quite dry, orzo a bit overcooked. It was a busy night but still, dinner took us more than 2 hours. Service was really slow, took about 45 mins to serve starter, it was well over an hour when we received our mains. Second night's dinner was a lot quieter, only 3-4 tables including us, but service was just as slow. We ordered 2 craft beer which are in a can and it still took more than 15 mins, and 1 of the 2 is a different beer, we thought it was a new can design but when we asked, they brought us the correct one this time round. The Chicken Cesar salad and mac&cheese were very good. However our fish was so salty that we struggle to finish. Don't know if it's too much capers or the chef just over seasoned the fish. What a shame. Breakfast was good, nice homemade granola, full English and smoked salmon toast was good. Took about 10 mins for an extra cup of coffee to come, and we were the only table so we don't quite understand what was taking so long? What really made this experience disappointing was the staff. My partner went downstairs on the first night after dinner cos the shower water temperature wasn't stable. Manager said they could get someone to look at it in the morning but it wouldn't be a plumber, cannot guarantee if they could fix it. My partner also asked about our room situation, but felt like the manager was brushing him off. She was like the rooms are fully booked what do you want me to do. Well you tell me you are the manager? My partner said maybe a few drinks on the house and we did get free drinks at dinner on our second night. We understand it's late and maybe she was maybe doing some accounting, but her mannerism left a really bad taste. During breakfast on the day we check out, a neighbourhood cat came inside and the chef and we were petting it, another female staff came in and shooed it away, closed the front door and said it has to go home, that it wasn't allowed inside