The WineGlass Restaurant, The Barns Hotel

I do believe I may be in the minority of the group I was with when I suggest this, but The WineGlass Restaurant at The Barns Hotel in Bedford was a little bit of a disappointment. I’m not entirely sure anyone else noticed this as they tucked into their grub, but the whole place just lacked well, everything.
Although I know one shouldn’t judge a place on its décor, the room was an indication of what was to come. It was seemingly decorated at the height of fashion back in 1993 and now looks fit only to house an elderly, garden-​centre sort of crowd. You also get the impression that the menu hadn’t been improved since around that time either, and the starter selection of Prawn Cocktail or Tomato & Basil Soup was a dead giveaway to that fact. Admittedly the soup was adequate, but was certainly never going to blow my mind. It was also rather disappointing to note that the food arrived before we had been offered any drinks, and it was only through prompting that we managed to get any at all (and a little ironic for a restaurant called The WineGlass that the waiter arrived without a wine list).
The main course came fashionably late at a full 45 minutes after the starter had been cleared away. Perhaps this was so they could make sure that we wouldn’t taste the first course and bugger off, leaving them with eleven meals to throw away. My Vegetable Lasagne was quite nice, but the dressing-​less side-​salad of a few baby leaves and a chopped tomato certainly didn’t help the dish. Fortunately there was plenty of veg’ to go around from the central serving pot, although it did come out very watery and certainly over-​boiled. I’m not entirely sure those who ordered the beef would agree that a single slice off the joint really constitutes a Sunday roast either.
After the extraordinarily long wait for our main course, the deserts actually arrived rather speedily. So quickly in fact that we weren’t expecting them! Again, it was all very average and the temperature of the custard which topped my very, very soggy Bread & Butter Pudding (with no topping) gave an indication that their speed probably had more than a little to do with them having prepared them way too long in advance. That could have been because the waitress hadn’t checked properly that everyone had finished their meals before starting to clear away our mains and getting the chef to plate the deserts up.
The coffee came quite some time later and was missing any sort of chocolatey, minty accompaniment. Are times really so hard that they can’t top it off with a mint? Really? Being fairly pedantic I also noticed that the spoons weren’t correctly placed on the saucer. A small point I know, but a sign that they really didn’t bother to train their staff properly.
Finally, after the previous kerfuffle, they tried to charge our 7-​year old diner at an adult price. Whether deliberate or a mistake, attempted overcharging is still attempted overcharging. And talking of overcharging; £2.50 for half a pint of Coke? That can’t possibly be right, can it? I’m afraid so.
All in all, not a particularly outstanding dining experience, though I think I may be the only one of us who spotted this. I’d hate to think of the sorts of places these people would normally eat in