The Chequers

Extremely extremely disappointing! I came with my family for food on a Sunday after my sister had recommended it. The service was very good, so in detailing what happened with the food, I feel extremely sorry for them… but here it is. The first red flag, merely a prelude to this Cotswold tragedy was that the FOH wanted to sit us on a table with a water leak from the ceiling dripping on to the table, that they knew about but were still trying to seat us there. However, they did acquiesce to our protest to being moved to a ship shape spot of the pub. I ordered lamb roast which was ok - inoffensive, but a little bland and in need of seasoning, some flare and originality. My accompanying cauliflower cheese was also under seasoned and lacking in flavour. Totally forgettable - which makes it the best meal of the lot to be honest… we haven’t got to the good stuff yet. My brother in law’s roast beef was brought out raw. And I don’t mean like a little red, I mean like it was still mooing. And I’m not squeamish about eating raw beef - I like rare beef, but it was raw. Burnt on the edges and cold in the middle so not actually cooked through at all. The deep sinewy red of uncooked beef flesh. So he complained and the kitchen re-fired that. Which also bothered me if I’m honest, that they didn’t just offer him a fresh portion rather than continue to cook his beef… fine… for now. He also complained that his carrots were raw enough to be unable to drive a fork through, but honestly there wasn’t enough headroom to alert this to the server on top of everything else. After waiting an extra ten minutes for my Dad and Sister to get their Caesar salads, as there was a problem getting all the mains to arrive on time, the chicken on my sister’s Caesar Salad also arrived visibly raw - to which in shock, the server agreed and was highly apologetic. My sister then left to go and be sick in the bathrooms. Some of the meals were removed from the bill thankfully, but it was an utter gastronomic car crash - and all for the privilege of affluent Cotswold prices. I have no ideas what’s happening here, or whether the management care because the first review I stumbled upon before writing this was the exact same thing - another local patron complaining about how his beef roast was still raw inside a few months ago.