Above it's station - review added on Sun 22nd Jun 2008

The Duck's Ditty is now simply called The Ditty and has had a re-fit bringing it more up to date. The food is a mixture of continental styles all taken from pub/restaurant menu's of the last 30 yrs. The staff are friendly but the food I sampled was not too dis-similar to offerings i've had at xmas parties or work conferences at chain hotels where it feels mass-produced and made without care or attention. My Bruscetta was basically a piece of garlic bread with a separate portion of garlic mushrooms. Ok, it was only a starter but they were charging about £5.50 for this! There were also some overpriced potato wedges with sour cream and bacon coming in at around the same price. You could have got 3 times as much in an out-of-town chain like TGI's for about £4. Everything came with an apologetic salad garnish that added to Travel Inn feel. I had steak for a main which I think was rump(the cut was not advertised) which was well cooked(quite rare). I'm glad I went for this as a friend's scampi and chips came as a meagre portion and cost a wallet-busting £12. Desserts were all £4 and were all very average but were not helped by them all being served on massive sqaure plates that made the portions look tiny. I don't know if people in Pangbourne are either starved of decent places to eat or are too rich to care, but when a place basically dishes up 20-30 year old pub staples at restaurant prices something is going badly wrong. Could be good but is disappointingly poor.

Overall:	5
Food:	4
Service:	7
Ambiance:	5

Recommended Dishes: Steak - it takes some getting wrong!

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