Wednesday 12 November 2014

Recharging

It's been an excellent day for recharging our personal batteries; the boat ones are on float now, of course. I checked them and did a little top up this afternoon; they didn't need very much at all, the usual situation whilst we're in the marina. I was pleased to see that the combination of running the dehumidifier and keeping the stern bilge dry has pretty well stopped condensation forming in the other bilges.

It was pretty wet this morning, but we managed to get across to the Farm Shop for bread. By lunchtime it was almost dry so we had a pleasant walk back across to the Boardwalk pub for lunch. We'll be at the Help for Heroes Quiz tonight, so wanted to get a proper meal in the middle of the day. We'll have sandwiches at six or so to keep us going to the half time food at the quiz.

Regular readers will recall that we'd been pleased with the service when we went for my birthday dinner. Unfortunately this didn't replicate today. Whether the bar staff aren't as clued up or what I don't know, but I ordered burgers at around 12.45 and at 1.15 we were still waiting. We thought we were in luck when a couple of burgers appeared, but after waving them around a bit, the girl gave them to another couple on the other side of the bar.

Five minutes later, a bloke appeared with two more, but one proved to be without salad and it became apparent that our order had been given to the wrong people. It seemed to be a bit of a pattern; although when ordering you are asked where you're sitting, there's no table numbering system so the server has to guess whose meal is whose.

It's frankly amazing that a bistro which presents itself as being at the height of the modern idiom (I'll come back to that in a moment) can't manage this basic bit of logistics. In how many pubs are you asked "What's your table number?" before you give a food order?

Come on, Boardwalk Pub, get your act together.

When it came, it was very good indeed, a really meaty burger with two kinds of relish, salad, a brioche bun and some tasty "gourmet fries" which were actually quite like proper chips.

We're still not impressed with the ambience, though. It's a matter of taste, naturally, and we're possibly not in their target client group, though as members of the baby boomer generation, we're the ones with the spare money these days. The place feels cold and noisy, with far too many hard surfaces leading to echoing sound. You could hardly hear the syntho-pop music for the confused noises swirling about

I look for a warm, comforting welcome in a pub and the Boardwalk just doesn't deliver that. I fear I may have to adjust the report I gave in the Braidbar Owners' Group Guide; maybe we should give it one more try before I do.

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