Turner's - King's Lynn and West Norfolk

Pleasant tasteful décor and tables well spaced out. Nice touch is the pure linen serviettes. Looks like plenty of choice on the menu but they appear to have a supply problem and run out of some of the choices and once its gone its gone. We had the last of the crab which was excellent and very well presented. Service is good and the staff mostly helpful and pleasant. For us the only down side was that the restaurant seems to have a fly problem but then most of the restaurants we went into in King’s Lynn appeared to have the same problem. Reservations are recommended during busy holiday periods especially at weekends.

I 'm as turned off as you are by reviewers who tell you all about what THEY were doing at a place Night out with the girls , Dad 's 60th birthday , etc. rather than about the place itself. This entry may read like one of those at first, but it 's not. The preamble IS relevant. Bear with me if you can. We had booked a room at the Duke 's Head, a hotel in King 's Lynn. Looking around for a place to eat, I saw that viamichelin, the website of the celebrated guidebook, recommended the restaurant of that very hotel. What Michelin says is worth quoting at length: Turners Restaurant uses locally sourced ingredients to put an inventive spin on traditional British fare ... A King’s Lynn dining destination of distinction, the Dukes Head brings Norfolk’s plentiful produce to your table with flair. Our talented chefs know exactly where to find the season’s best, working with local suppliers every day to source the freshest and finest ingredients, and, paired with the perfect vintage, they taste even better. At this point, you 're probably thinking what I initially thought: this was obviously cooked up by the publicity department of the hotel chain in question note: OUR talented chefs... But something in me said: surely Michelin doesn 't do fake write ups; they may have borrowed a few words of corporate bilge from a PR trainee at Surya Hotels, but a real person, perhaps some heavily accented gastronome, must have gone there. I was wrong. Or rather, I was right the first time. I 'm not blaming the fine people at Turner 's. They don 't pretend to provide anything else than standard pub fare at standard pub prices, or not much more. Our starters were characteristically tasteless the only departure from your local Wetherspoon was the uncooked noodles that oddly adorned the asparagus and poached egg. My lamb came with the usual potatoes and peas spiced up with BBQ ketchup. The French pinot noir was indifferent, but at £25 a bottle it didn 't masquerade as vintage stuff. The service showed the same refreshingly lack of pretension. Smiling behind her facemask, the waitress greeted us with a friendly: How you guys doing? Again, we 're not blaming Turner 's. But we blame Michelin for misleading us into believing that we were in for a special treat. The next night we went to Nando 's across the street: it was predictably cheap and cheerful. And the starters did come with uncooked noodles.

We visited here for an evening meal. The food was great, pigeon breast, curried parsnip soup, plaice and fish and chips. However, I found the lounge type seats uncomfortable as I prefer to sit more upright when eating a meal. Pre dinner drinks were slow to arrive and when I asked the waitress where they were she told me they were short staffed (they weren 't there were two serving staff on and very few customers) and that they had to travel a long way to the bar. A simple acknowledgment and apology that we had been waiting would have been better. The drinks arrived shortly after, followed by the food just a minute later. Whilst courteous, both servers had an annoying habit of asking have we decided on our starters , have we finished out meals , have we chosen our dessert . I would recommend the food but I won 't be eating here again because of the above issues.

We had a reservation in the main restaurant but when we saw their was only one table occupied we decided to have the meal in the bar instead which was marginally busier. I had Scallops to begin with which were cooked perfectly, however, the accompanying Bombay potato was a bit bland to my taste. My main of lamb rump was cooked well although I thought quite a small piece of meat for the price. The sour cream mash was OK but nothing special and the char grilled courgette really didn't have any snoky charred flavour at all. The guy who served the wine just put the wine on the table and didn't even remove the screw top, let alone ask me to try it! Probably deserved 3 and a half stars but you can't give that on here!

Whilst pleased that the restaurant was open, we were disappointed that the website did not represent what was on offer. No fine dining napery, restricted menu and a much shortened wine list. Perhaps not surprising in the current situation, but not what we had expected. Having said that much of the meal was excellent. Pigeon breast for starters was spot on although the second dish of scallops with Bombay Potatoes was strange excellent scallops but the potatoes were far too bland and added nothing to the scallops. Main course rump of lamb was excellent pink throughout and served with a side of fine green beans as good as any I have had squeaky, piping hot and dressed in ample peppery butter. Desserts, cheesecake and trifle, we adequate but in no way sparkling.