The Crown - Derbyshire Dales

Six of us visited The Crown last night as we were celebrating my daughters 40th birthday and were staying across the road at the Manor House for a few days. The visit began disappointingly. Ater being seated and having our drinks order taken while we perused the menu, which we had to ask for, it then took about 25 mins for the drinks to arrive after twice again having to prompt the staff. When ordering our food we were then informed that they didn't have a drinks menu which we had never ever come across and the waitress just reeled off 3 different types of red with no other details. Our Mains courses were outstanding especially the Lamb special. Two of the Calamari starters were under cooked, which was disappointing. Finally and unfortunately we had ordered 3 Irish coffee's to finish off the night. However the staff didn't know how to make them and even the head waitress was showing them wrongly how to make them. The venue and atmosphere is lovely but the whole experience could have been so much better. We didn't complain but hey ho...

Disappointing... On arrival, we were told that we 'd have to be in the function room... reading elsewhere, it seems that on line booking doesn 't actually go through to the pub (or be actioned , so no restaurant tables are allocated. Seems like the system is broken from the outset. However, what followed was almost comical 8pm on a Saturday, and they 'd 'run out ' of prawns for the surf 'n 'turf... that 's OK, we ordered steaks x 4, confirming whether we wanted skinny fries or chunky chips and all was good. Only it wasn 't... they 'd run out of steaks and only had one left! So we reordered, again going through the scenario of skinny chips vs chunky chips and I 'd asked to swap the cheese on a burger to stilton. 'Oh, that sounds amazing ' said the waitress, 'but he may want to charge you more '. For a swap..? OK, go for it... Food arrives despite the order taking (which was on the bill when it arrived later , we 'd all got skinny fries, irrespective of earlier choices... oh, and no substitution of the cheese. Ordering desserts, one of the party asked for crumble... 'Custard or ice cream with that? ' 'Can I have both possibly? ' We fell around... ah, that 'll be extra!! Of course not despite the waitress asking for it (and, once again, we 'd have understood if there was a small charge... , it turned up with just custard and no comment apology explanation. It 's a shame the service is willing and friendly, but clearly the chef management have a lot to learn about offering hospitality and a welcome that goes above and beyond the transactional relationship of 'here 's your menu... '

When we first came to The Crown the food was awesome… delicious and well prepared. Unfortunately we came tonight for Valentine’s and I can honestly say it was the worst meal I have had in a long time. Limited menu, one item representing one of four choices was off . I had chicken..it looked as if it had been under the hot plate for a long time as it had a baked crust on it and was dried out. My husband had sea bass ..this was nice but a very small single fillet and potatoes that were almost raw. Portions were very small. Pudding.. crumble which was a bowl of stewed fruit with a very thin layer of crumble. No one asked us how the food was during the meal, after collecting we mentioned the poor quality but no one came to ask further or apologise. All for the sum of just under 32.00 per head. Overall very sad and expensive .. this used to be an amazing place. One star because the service was friendly.

We stopped at this restaurant on our way home from vacation for a quick lunch. The young lady serving us was very efficient and friendly. There was a slight wait for our food, but we had just ordered behind two other tables. We both had sandwiches, and mine was enormous with fish goujons. It was very tasty.

I decided to stop by this restaurant on a Sunday afternoon after seeing signs for it along the road between Uttoxeter and Ashbourne. It was quite busy and I was informed there would be a 45 minute wait, but my food arrived in about 15 minutes. There are different seating areas to choose from, all of which are spacious. The menu mainly consisted of Sunday lunch options, but the portions were generous and the meat was plentiful. The quality of the food was very good. The staff were welcoming, friendly, and helpful. They also offered a selection of hand-pumped beers. The on-site parking fills up quickly, but there is plenty of quiet roadside parking in the village.