Greg G.
Yelp
TL;DR: The Whippet Inn is nothing more than a local pub with a fancy interior, that happens to serve various kinds of steak along with the usual fare (burgers, fish and chips, etc). DO NOT ORDER ANY MEAT FROM HERE THAT HAS NOT BEEN FULLY COOKED, ALL THE WAY THROUGH. You will deeply regret any other choice. Read the rest to find out why.
Long version:
My wife and I were out to York for Easter weekend. We wanted to top off our trip with a hearty meal, at a place with some adult ambience. The Whippet Inn seemed like just the ticket. The food photography on the site is spectacular, and the they explicitly state that nobody under 14 will be allowed in during dinner service. We made an early reservation, for 5:30PM.
Anyway, when we arrived, I noticed that the Inn was roughly directly across the street from a low-budget Radisson hotel, that obviously gets most of its clientèle from business trippers. Bad sign number one. After waiting about 5 minutes for our reservation, a waiter called us from the bar to take us to our table, but then vanished. I have no idea where he went. I had to hunt down another waiter to ask what was going on, and we finally got seated. Bad sign number two.
We each ordered a steak. I got a NY Strip, and my wife got the Fillet. When the food came, the problems began. Firstly, her Fillet was cut so poorly, that it was nearly twice the size of my Strip, and included huge strands of gristle and fat. But, worse than that, she'd ordered it medium, and this thing was literally icebox cold, and purple in the center. We had to send it back. Meanwhile, my Strip was just "ok". It was grainy, and also full of fat and gristle. And, it was also purple in the center. I ordered medium rare, and tend to like it a bit more on rare side. So, I let it go (this was a BIG MISTAKE, it turns out, and you'll see why in a moment).
Back to my wife's Fillet: On the return trip, all the chef had done was to drop it on the grill for about another minute, smear grill grease all over it, and turn it upside-down, in an attempt to make it look more cooked. We cut into the piece again, and it was still dark purple in the center. So, we sent it back a second time. I actually had to explain to the waiter what a "medium" steak should look like on the inside. Bad sign number three.
By this time, I'd nearly finished my Strip, and was working on finishing my Vanilla Porter. So, I had to watch my wife eat her steak, which ended up being a fresh piece of meat, and had FINALLY come fully cooked, with a little pink in the center.
We finished our meals and got out of there as fast as we could (four fat Yorkshire locals at the table next to us were already on their fifth or sixth bottle of wine by this time -- 6:30PM -- and they were getting rowdy). By the way, after all the back-and-forth with my wife's steak, all they were willing to do was comp us about a third the cost of her meal, and there was no acknowledgement of the mistake, or apology, or anything. Bad sign number four.
On the walk home, I started to notice something was *really* wrong. I was feeling sluggish and bloated, and starting to shiver. By the time we got back to the B&B (about a 20 minute walk), my gut was tight, and I could barely stand up straight. I crashed on the bed, and was overcome by intense nausea and gas, and waves of sweats and chills. I was so sick, I couldn't even stand up. Long story short, I vomited the entire meal (and a small portion of my remaining lunch) into the toilet around 2AM, and have spent the last 24 hours exploding out my sphincter into toilets all over England, on the train ride back to London.
Today, I've had nothing but a single yogurt cup, a small bowl of oatmeal, and a tea, trying to recuperate from my experience at this s***t-hole pub. I highly recommend you avoid it at all costs, unless you're willing to ROLL THE DICE.
