J D Wetherspoons (Restaurant)

****PLEASE READ BEFORE READING REVIEW****
I was a bit confused as to how to write this review. You see, with my previous restaurant type reviews I have been getting some mixed feedback, and members opinions vary greatly. I admit, most of the ratings I have been recieving recently are E's and I am very pleased with this, however some members feel my reviews include too much unneccessary information resulting in lower ratings such as Helpfuls. ...
...review a bit. Before you read my review, please decide wheather you only want to read about MY experience or if you want to learn about MY experience AND a bit more about the restaurant including menu, the restaurant itself etc. Thanks!


Wetherspoons
Wetherspoons was found in the year 1979 by Tim Martin. Wetherspoons is famous for its british food, just as much as its wide array of drinks. The Wetherspoons chain is based ... more

****PLEASE READ BEFORE READING REVIEW****
I was a bit confused as to how to write this review. You see, with my previous restaurant type reviews I have been getting some mixed feedback, and members opinions vary greatly. I admit, most of the ratings I have been recieving recently are E's and I am very pleased with this, however some members feel my reviews include too much unneccessary information resulting in lower ratings such as Helpfuls. So for this particular review, I decided to shorten my review a bit. Before you read my review, please decide wheather you only want to read about MY experience or if you want to learn about MY experience AND a bit more about the restaurant including menu, the restaurant itself etc. Thanks!

Wetherspoons
Wetherspoons was found in the year 1979 by Tim Martin. Wetherspoons is famous for its british food, just as much as its wide array of drinks. The Wetherspoons chain is based in Watford, however throughout the years, the chain has spread throughout the UK, and there are now more than 100 pubs in the UK.
Wetherspoons, unlike some restaurants, are extremely well priced. Not as cheap as some diners, but definitley at the cheap end. Drinks are really cheap, for example a large glass of lemonade was just over £1, which for about 500ml of drink, in a restaurant, I found too be really good. My large lunch meal cost around £5, again which was definitley a good price for the volume of food and I suppose the quality of the food too!

My experience with Wetherspoons
Last weekend, my grandma and I decided to do a spot of shopping in town as I needed to get a few bits and bobs, and she needed my help in chosing a birthday present for a friends granddaughter. I jumped at the chance to go with her as firstly, I love spending time with my grandma, secondly, I love shopping and thirdly, if you combine the two together, I more often than not end up better off when it comes to the money side of things. Anyway, we left the house at about midday, and after an hour of shopping, we decided it was time for a spot of lunch. Now, I hadn't been given any warning about this, and so my first reaction was to think "oh dear, oh dear, oh dear" but my grandma assured me it would be ok, and if I felt the portion was too big I could leave some of it and she wouldn't moan at me, so after a little persaution I decided to try my best and I agreed to have a bite of lunch with her in town. We arrived at our usual spot, Marks and Spencers Cafe, however the queue was incredibly long, with perhaps ten people in it, and there didn't look to be any seats free so we decided against this idea. It was then that my grandma suggested Wetherspoons, as one of her friends had eaten there the other week and had said the food was delicious. I, however, had heard some bad reviews about it, both here on ciao, and also from a friend who had a birthday meal there which I unfortunatley attend. So with a little pinch of doubt in my mind we set off to the Weatherspoons.

Only a two minute walk from town, we arrived there at around twenty past one in the afternoon, ready for a filling meal. From the outside, the restaurant, or rather pub, looked fairly attractive. A pale stone building, with large gold lettering on, stating 'Weatherspoons'. From the outside, there wasn't much indication as too what it would be like inside, so we entered fairly open minded.
As the two, heavy large glass doors swung open, we entered a large bar straight away, and as the door swung open, the punters sitting up at the bar turned there heads to see us, gave us a look up and down and turned back to guzzling down their beers, their beer-bellys expanding with every sip. We stood at the door for about one minute, not knowing where to go or whether we had to bring it to someones attention that we were actually there. Just as we were beginning to feel a bit awkward, a young woman from behind the bar came over to us and enquired whether we were in for lunch. We told her yes, and we were ushered around too the seating area round the corner.

The seating area was fairly large, perhaps 25 different tables, most of them already in use. We weren't allocated a certain table, it was left up to us where to sit which we thought unusal for such a place. We sat ourself down at a two seater table, next to the frosted window, and within minutes, the same girl who had 'greeted' us at first arrived at our tables, wondering whether we'd like to order drinks or not. We did, I ordered a diet lemonade and my grandma ordered a diet coke. Within two minutes these arrived. The drinks were fairly plainly presented, not overly exciting, in tall glasses, with a single straw sticking out the top. My lemonade was very fizzy, and very lemonish, actually very tastey, and my grandmas coke was very fizzy too, but nothing overly special.
After our drinks arrived, the young girl scooted away again, and we noticed her end up behind the bar again, chatting with three other members of staff and some of the punters, ordering yet more beer! (really!?). We had been sitting at the table for about five minutes, and still nobody had come to take our orders, or even hand us menu. It was only when I took a look around that I noticed that every table, bar ours, had menus sitting propped up right. We were pretty annoyed at this, but as there was nobody at the table next to us, I quickly stood up and nabbed the menus off the table. The menus were laminated, and the laminate was very sticky and covered in finger prints. My grandma sighed and tutted and was about to make a scene but I convinced her other wise. We took a glance at the menu, and decided since it was lunch time we'd only order a main course, and if we were still hungry afterwards we would order a dessert too.

The menu was fairly extensive, with all the usual pub food on. Set out nicely on the menu it was easy to see what was up for offer, and after a short while we eventually decided on what we wanted for our lunch. I decided on a chicken and bacon grilled panini, and my grandma decided (eventually) on a baked potato with cheddar cheese. After deciding on what we wanted to eat, we sat at our table for a further five minutes, before noticing the queue at the bar. We realised then, that we were expected to go and order our own foods. So my grandma went up to the bar, slightley annoyed and I sat at the table and waited. I only had to wait five minutes before my grandma returned, so this was a plus point. We had a nice chat while waiting on our food to arrive, and around ten minutes later, a nicer looking chap arrived with two steaming hot plates of food. He plonked the potato down next to me, and the panini down by grandma, before we kindly told him he'd got it the wrong way around. He was very apologetic, and then disappeared, leaving us too tuck into our lunches. My panini was massive, basically two different paninis. It came served with crisps and salad. The crisps were what tasted like ready salted walkers, quite nice actually but very salty so I only managed half of them. The salad was alright, nothing special, the lettuce was quite crunchy, but the cucumber was tasteless, and the tomato was pretty much non existant. The panini however was a different story- it was delicious. The grilled bread was soft, yet very crispy, a lovely wholemeal taste, although the panini was actually white. The chicken inside was boiling hot, very soft and tasted very much of roast chicken my mum makes for dinner sometimes. The bacon was few and far between to be honest, only a few small rashers, however it was just the way I liked it, quite soft but well cooked. There was some melted cheese and mayo on the panini which surprised me a bit as it hadn't been stated in the menu however it was quite nice, the mayo very creamy and the cheese a fairly mild taste, adding a slight pizza flavour too the sandwich. My meal on the whole was fairly nice, but nothing too special.
My grandma was very pleased with her baked potato meal. It was huge too, a massive baked potato layered extremely high with a mixture of white cheese and bright orange cheese. It came served with a salad which looked similar to mine, only my grandma actually got two decent chunks of tomato with hers. The steam rising off the potato was enough to suggest it was roasting hot and my theory was right. As my grandma shovelled her first forkful into her mouth she let out a quiet yelp, as it burned the roof of my mouth. However this was the only minus to the meal, apart from that, the skin was lovely and crispy, the potato was lovely, light and fluffy, and the cheese was very strong and melted on the tongue apparantly. I must admit her lunch did almost look more tempting than mine.
All in all the main courses were alright, nothing too special, but not as bad as I personally had been expecting. My grandma was also very pleased with her lunch, and actually wants to go back again one day.

After we had finished, we were required to return to the bar again to be charged for our meal. We actually quite liked this because sometimes sitting in pubs, waiting on the bill coming is a bit intimidating espesically with all the punters around. Our meal was a decent price. Two drinks, and two lunches cost under £15, which we thought was quite decent. Compared to some places these days, the price was actually very cheap considering some shops charge you £4 for a ready made, limp salad, and scrounging on the filling sandwich!

Overall, we were fairly impressed with our lunchtime experience at Wetherspoons. The meal was nothing too special, but definitley taste. The service, and staff weren't anything special, most of the were too busy having a laugh with the gents at the bar to give a flying toss about the people who were dining in the restaurant area, however this actually suited as fine because we were left to our own devices during our lunch without being disturbed too much.
I would recommend Wetherspoons for a quick bite of lunch, but I wouldn't recommend for a formal dinner or a working lunch.

Menu
The menu in Wetherspoons is extremely varied, with plenty of food to suit everybodys taste, with the traditional pub lunches, to some more interesting and perhaps unusual meals. The menu was set out extremely well, with everything set into different catogries so it was really easy to seperate which dishes you fancied and come to a decision eventually.

One of the most popular sections of the menu in weatherspoons is the BURGERS. There is a huge choice of burgers, including chicken burgers, veggie burgers, and various beef burgers with different toppings including bacon, cheese, and mayonnaise. I only saw one person in the whole restaurant with a burger, and I have to say the meal looked huge. Served with chips, onion rings, and salad, the burger was equally as big. I'm not too sure if the onion rings and chips come with the meal or cost extra.

Now of course, it may not be lunchtime, or even dinner time you pop in for a drink and a bite too eat, it may infact be breakfast time. Wetherspoons realise this, and there menu hosts a fairly plentiful list of BREAKFAST foods. Of course, there are the cooked breakfasts, which come in two varietys; traditional breakfast and then the good old scottish breakfast, these include the regular eggs, sausage, hash brown, mushrooms etc. There are also varies on the regular cooked breakfasts including the vegetarian option. If you don't feel like a huge cooked breakfast, you could always opt for the morning roll, with fillings of bacon, sausage, or eggs, a "breakfast baguette". If you want something again a bit lighter you could choose the eggs on toast, beans on toast, or even the chocolate chip muffin or the blueberry flavour. Nobody in the restaurant had any of these that I noticed so I can't comment.

My grilled panini came from the DELI part of the menu. The deli section is again split into 3 different catogries; panini's, wraps and ciabatta and baguettes. I opted for the chicken and bacon panini and it was very tastey. However if this flavour doesn't float your boat, the other options include, cheese and tomato club and ham and cheese. Each panini as far as I know comes served with crisps and salad- crisps are usually ready salted I assume.
If a panini isn't for you, you could choose a ciabatta or baguette lunch. The fillings range from cheese and pickle, tuna mayonnaise, BLT, club sandwiches, and crayfish. I think these also come served with crisps and salad.
There are two different types of wrap on the menu, the chicken wrap or the club wrap. Our particular restaurant had a huge promotional poster on the wall boasting there delicious, warm wraps but I didn't actually see anybody tucking into one.

Like I said further up in the review, my grandma opted for a JACKET POTATO. The jacket potato's come with a huge array of different, mouth watering fillings, including, baked beans, chilli, cheese, tuna mayonnaise, coleslaw and various others. My grandmas baked potato was massive, with a huge helping of two different cheeses ontop. As she was finishing her baked potato the cheese had started to melt, and mixed with delicious aroma of cooked potato, gave off a delicious scent. The baked potato's come with a mixed salad which is pretty limp and lifeless.

Now, obviously it may not be lunch you are requiring, you may be ready for a MAIN MEAL around dinner time. If this is the case, you wont be short of options. This part of the menu boasts various different filling meals which would be perfect for a tea time meal. Among the options, the traditional pub favourite, sausage and mash. The man at the table next to us had the sausage and mash meal and it was huge. I took a little inspection while passing to go to the toilet after lunch and I noticed he had been served with a huge serving of fluffy, bright white mash, with 4 large chunky sausages, and in a seperate jar a huge serving of peas. Next to him was also a small jug which I assumed contained gravy as he did have gravy drizzeled over his meal. The smell when you first walk into the pub is actually sausage and mash-ish so I assume this is a popular dish in the restaurant. Among the other options were, fish and chips, beef and ale pie, gammon steak and chips, chilli con carne, and scampi aswell as various other delicious sounding meals. The only other main meal I saw somebody with was what looked like the beef and ale pie and all I can say is, HUGE. It came served in a pot where it been cooked with a huge serving of chips on the side. It did look quite delicious.

I am usually a fan of italian food so perhaps if I had been feeling a bit more hungry, some of the PASTA dishes would have been tempting. Aswell as the traditional pasta dishes such as lasagne and macaroni cheese, there were some other more interesting sounding dishes such as the tomato and chargrilled veg pasta and the meatball pasta. Didn't see anybody with pasta meals but I assume they would be quite tastey.

Of course, not everybody who dines out is going to want to tuck into a fat laden, chip sided, gravy laden meal, so if this is the case you could always choose one of the SALADS. The salad menu wasn't huge, with only 4 different options- a crayfish salad, chicken and bacon salad, the usual ceasor salad, and one that tempted me quite a bit- the cheese and coleslaw salad. I was going to go for the cheese and coleslaw salad but I doubted wheather the salad would be fresh enough so decided against the idea.

If you visit Wetherspoons for a 3 course meal, you're obviously going to require a starter for your meal, and Wetherspoons caters for this. There is a huge selection of starters. These include the regular restaurant starters such as breaded mushrooms, onion rings, chicken wings and tortillas etc, but also with some specialities to Wetherspoons itself including the Soup of the day which varies in flavours and comes served with a warm roll with butter, or the delicious looking garlic bread which the family at the table oppositte us had. It looked delicious but very buttery, and oozing with what looked like grease. As with most restaurants there is a sharing platter which comes with the usuals, chips, onion rings, chicken wings, etc etc.

Another option for a main meal, could be the STEAKS AND GRILLS. Here we have the usual suspects- varying from the usual plain steaks with chips and veg, to some more interesting and perhaps more tastey steaks including options topped with cheeses, bacons, chilli, and sauces including apple sauces. I assume most of these come served with chips and a side of vegetables.

If you decide to pop in for a light lunch or just a snack midday with a friend and glass of wine (or beer!!) then you may want to opt for one of the SIDE ORDERS. These can be bought seperatly from meals. You can expect to find the usual orders here, such as chips, onion rings, chips and cheese, chips and gravy etc, corn on the cob, and garlic bread. The little boy and girl at the table next too us simply had a bowl of chips each and they looked delicious and crispy, very thick cut- not like any of your mcdonalds nonsense!!

After your meal, you may "require" a PUDDING, and the choice is great. The regular pub favourites can be bought such as sticky toffee pudding, apple pie or chocolate fudge cake, as well as other favourites such as sundaes, crumbles, and different ice creams. I didn't actually see anybody eating a pudding but I saw one of the "waiters" gliding through the restaurant with a tray filled with three desserts- of which one was the toffee pudding, and it looked gorgeous loaded with steaming sauce- very tempting indeed.

Obviously, children will often be dining out in the restaurant, and this is where the KIDS MENU came into view. There was a kids menu on most tables, alot smaller and brighter, with pictures of cartoons on it. I took a quick glance at this menu just to make sure I wouldn't be missing anything. This menu is available for kids under the age of 10 only, but I saw what looked like a 12/13 year old with a kids meal so I don't think it really matters. The main menu is filled with the regular childrens foods, including the expected, fish fingers and chips and beans, chicken nuggets with chips and beans, spag bol, cottage pie, cheesy pasta, chicken korma and various other kiddy meals. Each meal comes with one free drink. Drinks that can be chosen are coke/lemonade/irn bru, a fruit shoot, a bottle of water, milk and an orange juice. Each kiddies meal also comes free with a bag of fruit however if children want a naughtier dessert they can choose either a bowl of ice cream or brownies and ice cream! The childrens meal was actually quite large as I saw one little girl of about 4 with one, which looked way to much food for her, and the 12/13 year old looked utterly satisfied with there lunch.

Although Wetherspoons is famous for its food, it is perhaps MORE famous for it is DRINKS and if you simply want a cool drink with friends, this is the place to come. I personally didn't have an alcoholic drinks, but the men at the bar guzzeling theirs did seem to be enjoying theres- perhaps too much!! On the drinks menu, there is a huge selection of ciders, beers, wines, ale, lager, and soft drinks. There was another huge poster on the wall promoting some of the beers which are apparantly really popular with the punters. Aswell as all of these you can choose a spirit or an alcopop including blue wkd, smirnoff ice, various rums and whiskeys . Overall the drinks menu is huge with at least 100 differents to chose from including the regular soft drinks and fruit juices.

***

Overall
I hope I made my review this time a little shorter and easier to read. I'd recommend Wetherspoons but I have to say it is nothing overly special! Family friendly with high chairs, kids menus, and fun packs provided. The toilets were really quite clean, and had obviously been previously cleaned that day. Service was nothing too special, pretty useless to be honest, but overall the food was quite good! 

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