We had a day out at Legoland in half term. The tickets were a birthday gift from the boy’s grandparents and, bar the ridiculous queuing times, he thoroughly enjoyed himself.
We decided to make a full weekend of it after he discovered the Adventure Playground at Windsor Great Park. Full review of that place to come soon!
With his play session booked for late morning, we knew he’d need somewhere to refuel quickly afterwards. Fortunately, there’s somewhere to eat on-site. The Adventure Playground is located next to The Savill Garden, whose Visitor Centre features two dining options.
There’s the Gallery Cafe, offering light bites and drinks, and The Savill Garden Kitchen with more extensive, seasonal menus.
The place certainly looks impressive, with its lofty, sweeping ceilings, constructed with oak from the Windsor Estate. There’s an outdoor dining area with its own grill menu, and a large seating area inside, with orders taken at your table.
Alongside choices like pizzas, fish and chips and burgers, the menu at The Savill Garden Kitchen features delights like Windsor Great Park venison, as well as vegan options and a kids’ menu.
Before being seated, a team member gave our son a colouring sheet, and once at our table, we were able to order quickly: so far, so good.
Sadly, it was all downhill from there.
For £20, I had high expectations for my haddock and chips. The skin-on seaweed chips intrigued me: they sounded delicious.
I was one of three at the table to order the fish and chips. One plate was absolutely fine. The second plate had barely a handful of chips (the recipient queried this, and our server brought more over, thankfully).
Mine wasn’t great at all.
The fish itself had been in the fryer far too long: the batter dark and over-crisped, the fish itself dry. When I finally managed to get someone’s attention, they offered a fresh plate, which I gratefully accepted.
The fish was better the second time around, but far from perfect. There wasn’t a great deal of batter on the outside, and I’d have expected a better depth of flavour with the inclusion of beer in the batter.
The chips were ok, but not the seaweed-infused delights I’d expected. Instead, there were just a few small scraps of what I’m assuming was seaweed on top of the fish.
I can’t fault the minted mushy peas, though: they were delicious.
Service at the Benugo-run Savill Garden Kitchen seemed pretty perfunctory throughout. When our fish and chips arrived, we had to ask for sauces rather than the server asking if we’d like them. When the first member of our group had finished her meal, a member of the team tried to remove her plate from the table instantly. She politely asked them not to as others were still eating.
I get that they probably expect visitors to The Savill Garden Kitchen to be able to spend a bit more on food: after all, entry to the Adventure Playground and The Savill Garden itself are expensive (and that’s without taking the high car parking charges into account!) However, I firmly believe that if you’re going to charge prices like that, you need to offer the food and service to match. Sadly, on our visit to The Savill Garden Kitchen, they didn’t.