The Bramingham Luton Review
The Bramingham
Luton, Bedfordshire
Angela & Howard Davis
We visited The Bramingham in Luton on a Friday evening. It is situated behind a large Sainsbury’s Supermarket in a rather dark car park which is not only for the restaurant but for some shops and a doctor’s surgery. There were plenty of parking spaces to choose from close to the restaurant.
On arrival we were greeted by one of the waitresses and the manageress both were busy dressing up a dummy as a Father Christmas. We were shown to our table in the centre of the restaurant close to the carvery section. The restaurant could hardly be described as busy and most of the diners were either on their desserts or well through their main courses.
Our waitress almost immediately asked us what drinks we wanted and our drinks came out quite quickly. We ordered starters and requested the carvery as our main. The pub is part of the chain known as the Great British Carvey. There are other items on the menu such as fish and chips, lasagne etc… if you don’t fancy the carvery.
We did not have a long wait for our starters. One of us had mushroom and tarragon soup and the other mushrooms in chardonnay and garlic. Both starters were served hot and were not only very tasty but plentiful.
When we were ready for our main course we were taken to the carvery. There was a choice of turkey, beef or gammon as well as a steak in wine pie. All the meat looked as if it had been there some time probably since lunch time and looked quite dried up. The turkey was carved quite thinly and the beef was also paper thin. Neither the beef nor turkey had a lot of taste. The meat was served with sausage and stuffing which had more flavour as well as a large and very dry Yorkshire Pudding. You could help yourself to potatoes and vegetables. The roast potatoes were very well done and had been there for quite some time. We debated whether the mash was instant or not. The vegetables had been in their dishes keeping warm for an equally long period and had long lost any goodness or flavour. There was gravy and sauces which you could take as needed. We would describe the carvery as at best average and at worst poor it was certainly very tired.
Thankfully the dessert menu was more interesting with puddings, cheesecakes and ice cream to choose from. They even had knicker bocker glory which seemed popular. We decided to share an Eton Mess which nice way to finish off the meal. We were offered coffees or floaters which did look nice but were both quite full.
We could not complain about the staff who were all very friendly and attentive to our needs. The dining experience was not the best we have ever had but not the worst either. The quality and quantity of the carvery was our greatest disappointment. Also the restaurant was very quiet and we sat down at 7.30pm and nobody came in after us.
The bonus is it is cheap. You can have a starter and carvery mid-week for under £8 each and even the Christmas menu was not very expensive. We would sum it up as cheap and cheerful. It is also children friendly. We would not go out of our way to visit the Bramingham again but never say never.
Rating: 3/5
For more information, to view menus or book a table visit www.greatbritishcarvery.co.uk.
