Older but not wiser (Pubs in Berkshire in general)

Member Name: ermintrude

Product:	Pubs in Berkshire in general
Date:	07/08/02 (484 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Close to M25, so good alternative to service station stop-off, okay food, reasonably priced

Disadvantages: Food nothing special, service could be better, noise of planes from Heathrow

The Ostrich in Colnbrook may have a formidable history, and a big stuffed ostrich to boot, but my friends and I weren't really that impressed when we dropped in for Sunday lunch on our travels.

First of all, it was rather quiet in that vaguely worrying "is this place any good?" sort of way, but we were getting towards the end of lunchtime, so dismissed it. Secondly, it seemed rather dim and dingy, but we put that down to the amount of old wood and small windows.

We spent a while looking at the menu on the wall (not particularly long, but a fairly good selection) only to be told that Sunday is roast dinners and nothing else. Ho hum. Well, the food was okay for six quid, there was plenty of it at least, the meat wasn't too fatty, and the veg weren't cooked to a pulp. It was your average pub fare, really. Unfortunately there were several flies buzzing around, and waving them away rather detracted from the pleasure of eating.

While waiting for our food, we witnessed the service two women were getting at a neighbouring table. Well-meaning is the best I can think of. They ordered desserts, one of which was crumble, and requested ice-cream as opposed to cream. The fruit crumble duly arrived with... chocolate ice cream, as there was no vanilla left. This was sent back as being too bizarre. When a dish of plain crumble finally arrived, the women were scooted out of the way so that someone could be let out of the front door, which they were sitting against.

The table the other side fared no better. After about three tries they finally all ordered something which was still available, but one dish came with lashings of cream when they'd asked for cream on the side, and the last portion of one dessert was split between two people who had ordered it. I think the waiter did reduce their bill, though.

We skipped dessert.

Overall, the pub is great to see just because of its age, and so it's worth st
opping for a drink. To be fair, we went in at the tail-end of lunchtime, so maybe didn't see it in its best light, and with it being a Sunday we were denied the chance to sample the full menu, which did look tempting. Sadly, but I appreciate this is far beyond their control, the planes roaring over from Heathrow every couple of minutes didn't really add to the ambience, and maybe this is what really disadvantages it compared to other, more rural pubs I've been to. But I really felt that the food and the service didn't quite do justice to the history of the place, which was a shame.

Summary: