Arbutus not-so-special offer - restaurant review

I'd wanted to eat at Arbutus for ages, so booked a table immediately when I saw an offer for the pre-theatre menu plus a glass of champagne for £18.95 ppn.  It's not often you can eat in a Michelin starred restaurant for that little.

Unfortunately there was very little 'special' about the offer.  The set menu only offers two choices for starter and main courses and one pud.  Luckily we were able to find things we liked, although the waiter was quite pushy in trying to get us to order a la carte instead.

As we're talking about the service, it was amateur at best.  We waited ages for our order to be taken at the beginning and our waiter disappeared at the end of the meal, so we waited again for the bill.  Wine was sloshed into our glasses in very heavy handed measures AND without offering it to us to taste first.

The food was good but nothing to write home about, so I shan't.  I can only assume they save the Michelin-quality stuff for the main menu...

The biggest gripe of the evening though was the cheese plate - talk about miserly.  We had one piece of cheese and a little pile of chutney - have a look at the pic below.  Mean, mean, mean.

All in all a totally underwhelming experience.