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Drake's
Chef Steve Drake


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Ripley : Explore the city and region
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2 opinions
Ratings summary
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General notes :
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Context : As a couple
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A restaurant with a Michelin star should in theory be the closest thing to a guarantee in advance for discerning diners, a guarantee of both food and service delivered at a certain level of excellence. So a visit to Drakes in Ripley, Surrey proved to be a revelation - it was hard to believe a restaurant of this reputation could deliver an experience so far short of acceptable in both areas.Firstly the food. Well my partner's scallop starter was passable but unremarkable, her main dish of duck was disappointing - dry and slightly undercooked. I did not fare quite so well, my rabbit starter was rubbery, chewy and tough. We were informed that meat would be cooked medium rare but this was closer to red raw. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, something I regretted with my lamb main course. It was totally pink, cold and as a result was again rubbery and hard to cut and harder to digest. Myself and my partner both tried it, grimaced and left the rest of the plate untouched.The service. Well, we had a drink in the lounge area and ordered our food. We were then shown to our table but had to wait 40 minutes for our starter to arrive, a small taster dish and bread were the only things that came in between. A further lengthy delay between courses ensued, once these arrived and I realised that mine was pretty much inedible I sat there for 20 minutes with an uneaten plate of food in front of me and without any of the waiting staff noticing - my partner had her finished, empty plate sitting in front of her for most of this time too.When the maitre d' finally came to take away our plates he asked about our meal. We explained that the food ranged from disappointing to downright inedible and the service associated with it was poor. He was a long way from apologetic let's just say. I asked for the bill and he removed the charge for my uneaten main and the service charge. This still left us with a bill of £100 for three very disappointing dishes, the rest of this cost coming from the massively overpriced drinks and wine list, overpriced for this standard of food anyway.When leaving I had to seek out the maitre'd to ask if the chef had had any comments about our complaints. He icily told us that the chef believed the food to be fine and that he never had complaints. Well you know, different people might disagree on recipes and ingredients but badly and consistently undercooked food is hard to argue with. And perhaps having had a complaint then a more constructive approach to handling it would serve the restaurant better going forward.What was an eagerly anticipated celebratory meal turned into a flop. This place had a good reputation, indeed my partner ate there several years back and enjoyed it. Sometimes places have off nights, but this one was just so far off in every possible area that we certainly will never visit again.
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General notes :
Context : With family
Ratings details
I have eaten here several times and always enjoyed it. I preferred the food to that of a certain M* French restaurant in central London.
I like the style of the place (so bored of gimmicky / minimalist restaurants) but it could probably do with a refresh.