The Plough - Dacorum

After a previous disappointing experience at The Plough, I decided to give the benefit of the doubt and book for our team Christmas lunch as the Festive Menu looked good and with advance booking and food pre-orders, what could possibly go wrong? Well. I booked the table back in September, advised we would be having 3 courses from the Festive Menu and that there was a vegan in the group. I was assured it wasn’t a problem that there was no vegan dessert listed on the Festive and I could order a dessert from the main menu. I then sent the food orders through 3 weeks ahead of the date of our meal. When we sat down at our table, the server advised that they couldn’t guarantee that the bread on the selected starter was vegan so they would serve the mushrooms on a burger bun instead. And, that they had no vegan wellington so I could have just vegetables for my roast. Or I could have the vegan burger without the bun and roasted veg. I don’t understand how this can be their offering when they had THREE MONTHS NOTICE of our booking with a vegan in the party. And our food pre-orders 3 weeks ahead of time. I opted for the vegan burger as I didn’t want just a plate of vegetables. The oil and moisture from the mushrooms soaked through the burger bun halves and turned them to mush. I managed to choke one down, left the other and just ate a plate of mushrooms. The vegan ‘burger’ had obviously just come straight out of the freezer and looked anaemic. Judging on the breadcrumbs, I was expecting it to be vegetables/beans inside, but it wasn’t – no idea what it actually was but it was solid. I tried one bite and, embarrassingly, had to return that bite to my plate. Ended up just having a plate of vegetables after all. How an established pub can think this is acceptable is beyond me. My boss paid for the lunch and was given a discount on the bill for the vegan meal – he didn’t mention how much but I hope they just removed the cost of that meal entirely. Most places do dietary requirements quite well these days so I honestly don’t know how you can get it so wrong, especially with 3 months’ notice. Thank goodness I had good company, a glass of wine and Secret Santa to get me through. Several of my colleagues said their meals were distinctly average and they weren’t impressed. One had the steak and chips that came with nothing green on the plate. The ‘vegetables’ were half a tomato and a mushroom. Needless to say, I will never be returning to The Plough.

Nice table/room, waiting staff, and service were fine, unfortunately, the standard of the food was mediocre at best! The starters varied in quality and temperature somewhat, from very good to poor. The mains were generally good with a couple of alarming dishes. The mashed potato was quite frankly the worst we've ever tasted, we all agreed that it would be cruel to serve up in a prison lol! Basically, peeled, boiled, mashed (poorly), and dolloped luke warm onto the plate! No seasoning or dairy produce, it was horrendous!

Food was nice, good service, staff friendly enough. But don't make the mistake I made when I went to pay the bill, I just looked at the total price at the bottom. It £76+ so I gave the girl £80 and said keep the change. When I read the bill later....... It included a 10% service charge.

We had a lovely meal for my husband’s birthday. Couldn’t fault the meal. We enjoyed ourselves. Very attentive staff. Nothing was too much trouble. That’s why we come back.

It was my birthday night meal and I have visited this pub for my birthday many times over the years! The food was amazing and my fillet steak was delicious I also had chocolate fudge cake with ice cream and that was the icing on the cake. Yum! Don’t sell my preference of beer unfortunately but I already knew this beforehand so had to settle for a Fosters instead of a Peroni I’ll sacrifice the beer over the nice food and service from the team. We didn’t realised they closed early on a Sunday night, we was the only ones left, but we wasn’t forced out like some other reviewers say. Great evening and will look forward to returning