The Plough it seems could use a few more good men.

Our 12 noon appointment at this well-regarded eatery was a slow affair, almost painfully so. We were there for an England-side lunch reunion with Teko’s colleague, Sonia, and her boyfriend Jochem, who were both also vacationing in the area, and just by chance we all came much earlier than agreed. As the place wasn’t open, we chose to sit it out in the vacant, spacious terrace not only to wait comfortably for the place to open but also to take advantage of a possibly rare, sunny Friday. It was actually quite nice.

It wasn’t long before their doors swung open to the public, but as it ended up we had to do some of the serving duties ourselves – it appeared that we had to order the drinks at the bar, grab cutlery and condiments from the racks ourselves, and bring them all on our own to our table. One of the staff came over and proclaimed she didn’t usually take orders but took ours anyway – didn’t think she was being mean since she was smiling when she said it – but it gave me pause to think whether this place was more a self-service establishment than a full-service restaurant. Their website sure didn’t say so.
Since we were the only customers sitting on the terrace, with the great weather and lively company I’m thinking the others didn’t mind the lack of staff attention as much, but once the food started coming it almost felt like all was right in the world again.

The food was nicely presented, and thankfully was on the satisfying side. After the mains were served, however, we never saw the staff again, and even if Teko had pre-ordered dessert at the very start, it never graced our table at all. The Plough itself and the food are nice to look at, but sad to say we can’t completely say the same for the staff.
We just didn’t have the opportunity.