The Sunday Times food critic has written a scathing review after leaving new Somerset restaurant The Creamery less than impressed. Charlotte Ivers recently visited after hearing about how controversy has been caused by the arrival of upmarket businesses.
Her destination was the trackside restaurant and working creamery located at Castle Cary railway station. The historic building is owned by Koos Bekker and his wife, Karen Roos, who also own the nearby celebrity hotspot The Newt, which was recently awarded the World’s Best Boutique Hotel at The World’s 50 Best Hotels 2023.
The Creamery is described as a community hub, serving travellers boarding or alighting trains, who can expect ‘hearty dishes’, grab and go, and a range of traditional soft cheese and yoghurt using fresh milk from the estate’s herd of water buffalo.
But Charlotte gave the venue a rating of only two stars out of five, describing the mozzarella with focaccia, priced £12, as being ‘awful’ with an ‘unnervingly congealed crust’. She also vocalised her unhappiness at the waitress not knowing what the fish of the day was stating, ‘if the chef doesn’t care, neither do I’.
In her review, published today, she said: “The sourdough is excellent. Mine came with a scoop of creamy mushroom parfait and splendid little rings of pickled onion.
“We got a viscerally cheesy mozzarella too, courtesy of the buffalo. It came with focaccia, described by our lovely waitress as ‘the best batch so far’. I hope not. It was awful: thick and dry, the only moisture coming from an unnervingly congealed crust.
“What’s the fish of the day?” I asked the waitress, who didn’t know. ‘It’s probably haddock or hake’, she added. Great — roll the dice. If the chef doesn’t care, neither do I.
“It turned out to be hake. Probably. The fish was rather overpowered by the smoked bacon chowder it came swimming in. Still, it was a good chowder — maybe a little rich.
“As a whole, it was deeply fine. We finished with poached apple, granola and ice cream, also via the buffalo. All fine.
“Still, it’s better than most railway cafés. That’s praise, of sorts. If you’re caught waiting for the train, you should pop in. Don’t tell the locals I sent you.”
Charlotte also took a swipe at the owners of The Creamery, who transformed a country house into The Newt. She said: “They built a big wall around it and now charge £780 a night (or more) to get past it.”
She also referred to ‘moneyed twits’ from London who zoom down each weekend to visit Somerset when ‘none of the locals can afford to walk down the high street’.
She also cast judgement on the decor inside The Creamery saying it looked like it had been designed by ‘someone who has never left Notting Hill’ and questioned its exhibit of clothes of people worn by passengers of the Titanic.
Charlotte said: “How often have you sat eating your sourdough and thought, ‘You know what this is missing? The nightgown of a doomed seafaring maiden’.”
On Tripadvisor, it seems that some others are in agreement that things could be improved at The Creamery. The average rating is 3.5 out of five based on 21 reviews.
The latest reviewer, who gave it three out of five, said: “We went into this beautiful restored cafe inside a working creamery. We waited at the counter to be told that there wasn’t any hot food as it was the chef’s day off.
“We settled for a cuppa and a croissant each. The butter and cream was an extra charge £1.50 then we were then told after paying for it that they had run out of jam so brought marmalade instead.
“We had paid our car parking charge which is refunded against your purchase. We asked about this but were told it was only if you ordered a meal, but as it was the chef’s day off no meals were available.
“We had finished our tea and we were chatting and the waitress came to inform us that our table was reserved for someone else an hour later, which actually put us under unnecessary pressure to finish our tea I think a reserved sign with a time would be a better idea.”
A customer who did have food there and gave it four stars said: “Interesting and high quality food and efficient and pleasant service.”