McCoys at The Cleveland Tontine - Reviews

McCoys at The Cleveland Tontine
The Tontine Northallerton North Yorkshire DL6 3JB 01609 882671 2.00

November 06, 2009     2

Meal at The Tontine, Wednesday 21st October 2009. In our party there was seven, three males and four females, ages ranging from 30 to 77 years of age. The booking was made under the name Cook. The occasion was to celebrate the 30th birthday of one of the ladies. We were all looking forward to a special evening and a memorable event. Naturally we had all heard of the reputation and quality of the Tontine over many years, and we were eagerly anticipating a special night. Unfortunately, the meal was not as special and as of high quality that we were expecting. That is the reason for this letter. We had no complaints regarding the staff, table presentation or the actual surroundings. The complaint we all had was the quality and standard of the food, which in our opinion did not match any of our expectations, disappointed us and give us negative impressions of the Tontine. We had decided on the fixed dinner menu, which we thought was good value considering the location. Upon receiving the menu, we were all extremely disappointed at the choices, particularly the main courses. There were only three choices, Pigeon, Tuna and a vegetarian dish. All seven of us thought this was a very limited selection and reluctantly decided on the normal evening menu. All seven of us either had a beef and Guinness pie (4) or a fish pie. This was the best value meal, and again we were expecting something special. In relation to the beef pie, this was accompanied by a small portion of mashed potato and similar size portion of peas. The fish pie had no vegetables whatsoever. A portion of green beans was ordered due to the lack of other vegetables. The pies were tasty enough though two of the party commented that the fish pie was very salty. Three of the ladies had a dessert, and two of the ladies commented that there meal were very small portions, the sticky toffee pudding being the only dessert which did not get a negative review. Bearing in mind the cost of the desserts. £6.25 each. So as you can imagine the evening was not as special as previously expected, but was certainly memorable but for the wrong reasons. On leaving comments expressed were "I will not go back there in a hurry", "very expensive for what we got" "Hardly any vegetables". The bill came to about £182 which included 2 bottles of red wine and some glasses of beer and lager. I accept customers probably get bills double or triple this amount, but at the end of the day, we as customers were left dissatisfied and with a very poor impression of the establishment. I know that the Tontine can do better then this, and hope the points raised in this letter would be replied to with explanations. If we were reviewers of newspapers I believe the expression used amongst other would be on the lines that the Tontine would be given a "Slating", and told to pull its socks up, - could do better. That is my opinion, you may well disagree.

- Gordon


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