The Old Post Office, Wallingford

On Friday my husband, parents and I went to The Old Post Office in Wallingford for my Mum’s birthday.  http://www.opowallingford.co.uk/ , part of Oakman Inns & Restaurants

Having been before (a good few years ago) I was looking forward to the evening.  We arrived promptly at 7pm for our reservation and were shown to our table right at the back of the restaurant by the kitchen.  The service was great to start with (while it wasn’t busy) but it started to deteriorate as the evening went on.  Drinks were taken and delivered reasonably quickly, and our mains order taken quickly too.  But the main took a good 25 minutes to come out.

Food was nice, but certainly not astounding, I feel slightly over priced for what you received.  I ordered:

Pan Fried Monkfish Medallions ￡19.95

Wilted spinach, mussels, roasted vegetables with a white wine and saffron sauce

You got 3 small pieces of monk fish, with around 10 mussels (over cooked and crunchy) on top of your roasted vegetables.  The sauce was lovely, but what I think was roasted potatoe was hard and undercooked.  The Monkfish was nice, if a little chewy.

My husband had:

7oz Flat Iron Steak ￡14.95

Our steaks are 100% British, dry-aged on the bone for 21 days, seasoned with sea salt,

cracked black pepper and served with fries and a watercress, red onion

and cherry tomato garnish

My Dad had:

Saltimbocca di Pollo ￡13.95

Sage stuffed free-range chicken breast wrapped in prosciutto, scallion mashed potato,

roasted winter vegetables with beurre blanc

And my Mum had a special on swordfish, salad and fries around £15.

We ordered a Spanish wine priced at £20, and no other drinks.

When it came to dessert, we ordered around 8:30pm, we were advised they had no sticky toffee pudding or vanilla ice cream left, which I think at that time on a Friday night (it wasn’t even late) is extremely poor management.  How could you run out of vanilla icecream when 2 of your desserts contain vanilla icecream!!  My Dad really had his heart set on the sticky toffee pudding and I on the Banoffee Sundae (vanilla icecream contains!)

The boys managed to decide to order the White Chocolate Cheesecake ￡5.95, Served with dark chocolate sauce

However, this was not served with chocolate sauce as suggested but a rather bitter fruit sauce which neither of them enjoyed.  As we were sat next to the kitchen, we could see that the cheesecakes were sat on the bar waiting to be brought over to us for at least 10-15 minutes!

When it came to asking for the bill, we couldn’t get the waitresses attention for love nor money, eventually it was brought over to us, and we put down our card and continued to wait another 10 minutes for the waitress to come.  She did not.  We went up to the bar and paid as we got fed up of waiting.

The bill was around £113 which isn’t too bad for 4 people, but I would have expected better service, better quality of food and for the sauces to be as advertised!

I’m really disappointed with our experience, this is meant to be the nicest place in Wallingford to go out and I don't think I would go again.  If I did it would be mid week, not a weekend as I don't think they can cope with a busy restaurant. 

Shame.  We did however receive a £10 voucher for my Mum’s birthday.

If I do end up going again, I will blog!

Jx