Hotel Du Vin, Henley-on-Thames, Lombard

I won a Voucher and it was a 3 course meal for 2, I actually had never heard of this restaurant so I was very excited to go. My partner and I loved the place, it was beautiful!! I wish I could have given them 5 stars but my meal was a little ruined with Vegan Cheese, which unfortunately makes me nauseous. Which some may say, "well you still could have given them 5 stars". But for me it was how they went about "hiding" the cheese. I went for the Risotto which was Vegan, but nothing said there would be Vegan Cheese sprinkled on top, other wise I would have asked for none. I sadly had to let them know that I can't eat the cheese so they took it back, it came back awfully quickly, with no cheese, but I was gutted to taste the cheese still in it, and I actually found bits of the cheese in it which hadn't melted very well. So my partner and I believe that the chef just mixed it in, hoping I wouldn't notice. So I did not eat it, maybe a few tries to move past it, but the nausea was kicking in. So my plate was almost full :(. The rest of the food was delicious though, enjoyed it so much and the Soup was a flavour I have never tried before, I was honestly in awe of the taste. The potatoes were crispy, and just right, a little dry so a sauce maybe would be good to go with them. The roasted vegetables tasted droolingly good, and my partner thoroughly enjoyed his choices. The service was divine, the waiter we had was so polite and very great at serving the other guests, he was kind, and took his time, I could be wrong but he cared about what he was doing, and cared about the guests and their pleasure. We would like to go back and stay a night or two. The Risotto disaster hasn't put me off, but it was a shame. I would definitely recommend, it was just lush.

Our son booked my wife and I, a night dinner bed and breakfast for our wedding anniversary. The room was superb with all the right touches, coffee machine, chocolates etc. We had dinner on the night and we were so looking forward to it as the price for a night £312. We expected at least a quality meal. We coulld not be anymore wrong , the food was to put it mildly disgusting, the starters we had was onion soup, I always order onion soup wherever I go if it is available. The offering they served up was the worst i have ever experienced. My wife had the prawns on the shell, when they came out it looked like they had been cremated, the shells were burned as if the had been cooked with a blow torch. The mains were not much better, my wife ordered the moules mariniere, she sent them back , they were tasteless, it looked aif they had been microwaved open and put into a pre made sauce. There was even the label from the packaging of the mussels in with the dish. I had the trout which all I can say was tasteless. As for the breakfast, we had the cooked breakfast, and that was even worse it was all the cheapest nastiest ingedients, that were basically inedible. Even our dog would not eat the sausage. I dont understand why a quality establishment, like the Hotel Du Vin, can let itself down by serving it's guests such fayre. What qwas saupposed to be a lovely experience for our anniversary was ruined by the appalling food.