AMBLESIDE really is a stunning place to visit, so I was looking forward to getting some food with my mate when we decided to have a jaunt up to the Lakes town for the day.

We spotted that the Queen’s Hotel had a £5 lunchtime menu for main courses, and with our wallets not being at their fullest we thought that it would provide great value for money while satisfying our hunger.

The Queen’s Hotel has an impressive array of real ales and lager on tap, so any beer lovers out there will certainly find this establishment to their liking – we certainly did.

I plumped for the Queen’s beef burger with home-cut chunky chips and barbecue beans, while my mate ordered a beer-battered fish with thick home-cut chunky chips and minted mushy peas.

However the food that came out didn’t quite match the order.

The beans were not barbecued and the mushy peas were not minted, and although these aspects of the meal were hardly the most important component of our respective dishes, my friend and I exchanged raised eyebrows at the mismatch from order to actual food on the plate.

The beans and peas were just a pale imitation of what we thought we were getting, which left us feeling a little cheated.

My mate also felt that his fish was slightly undercooked.

I had no problems with my burger, which had plenty of meat in it, and I always like chips that are big and full of potato, which these were, so I cannot say I was too disappointed.

And for £5 I wasn’t going to complain because it still represented exceptional value for money, especially in the current economic climate.

There was a lovely, relaxed ambience to the Queen’s Hotel as well, which left me feeling that I could have stayed in there with a pint in my hand all day to let any cares and concerns that I had be washed away.

VERDICT

  • Food: 6
  • Service: 6
  • Atmosphere: 7
  • Value: 9