We’re in Monmouth for the weekend visiting the in-laws and, to celebrate Christine’s imminent birthday, we went out for dinner at a new restaurant named Bistro Prego. This was only their third night so the service was a little random (the third bottle of wine to arrive at our table was the one intended for us, the waitress was unsure as to what some items on the menu actually were, and we sent the bill back as they’d missed off a few items). This is, perhaps, forgivable as I suspect Monmouth doesn’t have a particularly large pool of trained serving staff to call upon! The food, however, was absolutely superb.
Christine’s Mum and I started with a warm asparagus salad with fennel and chickpea fritters, which was very well presented. Christine had the herring on bruschetta and her Dad the braseola (home cured beef). I followed my salad with pheasant with chesnuts and, slightly bizarrely (although it did work well), noodles. Other selections on our table included rabbit lasagne, stuffed aubergine and a nice thick slab of porchetta. The servings were generous but, given the hit rate so far, I forced down the lemon and pine nut torte which didn’t disappoint.
If you’re ever in the vicinity I’d highly recommend stopping in.
Have to agree, I went to the restaurant with my wife last week (May 10th) and the food was magnificent, as it was the first time we visited just as it opened. Steve has done wonders with the menu. My gripe is that just as the food has remained exceedingly good, the service has remained exceedingly awful. The service was slow, and often the wrong dish brought to the wrong table, and at no stage did the waiting staff seem calm. However, I do not feel that this is complelty the fault of the waiting staff. The Restaurant is too full, and there is not enough room for the staff to move around. It is a pity, as the food, as I said before, is top-class
That’s a shame. Perhaps waiting should be on the school curriculum! 😉
Hmmm… I do agree with the above 2 comments regarding the somehow disorientated young staff members. no easy to lay hands on experienced staff in this rural tiny town. This is forgivable, even when they bring the worng dish after the chef has shut down the kitchen for the night, it can be fixed somehow. This is new Italian cuisine, overpriced, very limited choice of dishes (something like 6 starters to chose form and 6 main course). and of course, tiny portions in huge plates, which really doesn’t help the feeling of starvation. Food wasn’t much to my licking neither was it of my girlfriend’s, not bitterly disappointed but not overwhelmed by this experience, too pricy for the quality and size of portions (and also the fact that after I have ordered apargus tagliatelle with parma ham, I am beeing told 20 minutes later that they run out of aspargus and sorry the kitchen is about to close, I can have beans instead of. Let it be… but when the plate arrives, o! surprise, no parma ham but sundried tomatos… Which means that my girlfriend had to start eating on her own otherwise her food would get cold by the time they bring me back my sundried tomato with mixed bean tagliatelle with a few peices of ham splashed on in an effort to make it right).
Probably a very good place for Monmouth to eat out if you crave for pricy random food. But personaly, I prefer my own cooking.