Restaurants in Stratford upon Avon

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Where is it?
18 the High Street, in the centre of Stratford-upon-Avon.

What is it?
Marlowes is a traditional restaurant serving both lunches and evening meals.

What makes it different?
A fabulous location above the shops with an Elizabethan dining room and a view across to the black and white buildings on the other side of the road. Full of history and once the home of Denne Gilkes who had many friends from the RSC visit for tutoring.

Our experience
Marlowes to us had always been a sign that we had grown accustomed to seeing as we walked back home from town. On Saturday night, we stopped, read the enticing menu and went down the alleyway which leads up stairs to the restaurant itself. I must admit that we were very disappointed with the ‘ambiance’. Such an amazing building was killed with the (quite loud) music of Chris de Burg and Michael Jackson and cheap bar furniture whilst we waited to be seated. After a pleasant G & T we were shown through to the dining room which is very impressive and as mentioned before with a view that can’t be seen many other places in the world.

Starters came and went with good service but nothing to shout about. I had then ordered the salmon tagliatelle, but as they did not have any I settled for linguine instead (I prefer it anyway). This was beautifully presented and a very tasty dish. My other half ordered the sirloin steak with a side order of fries. This is the most disappointing meal we have seen so far in our reviews. The steak was cooked as he requested but was very fatty and the chips were so bad I had to mention it to the waitress… and I very rarely do this. They were dark brown, limp and soggy. I don’t know how a restaurant can charge these prices and think that they could possibly be acceptable to a customer. The waitress quickly said that she would remove them from our bill (which wasn’t the point), cleared our plates and then we were left! I had to go and ask for our bill!

It was all just such a disappointment as the entrance leads to think that there is something very exciting at the top of the stairs. With all the other top end restaurants offering high quality atmospheres as well as cuisine, I’m afraid Marlowes is just going to have to try a whole lot harder.

CV - 07/08

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