I was reminded yesterday evening of just how much I dislike Spur restaurants. Mela persuaded me that we should go to our local (Strand) Spur for dinner because she was in the mood for some cooked vegetables with her meal and thought that Spur would be a good place to find these.

We arrived early, around 18h15, so were seated attraight away, even though we didn't have a reservation. Unfortunately that is the only thing that happened quickly. I don't know if there were problems in the kitchen or whether we had a rookie waiter but the service was appalling. We took very little time to decide on what we wanted yet it was 20h30 before we got out of there as we spent most of the time waiting on the waiter. Their choice of cooked vegetables was lousy too, so all Mela had were some carrots.

Then there is the fact that, while they call themselves steak ranches, their menu highlights only steak smothered in some kind of cheesy or mushroomy sauce. It's quite hard to spot the subtle little box listing the unadulterated steaks. Except that even those are ruined, to my mind anyway. I like to enjoy the flavour of a nicely grilled steak just as it is, although I sometimes add a pepper sauce. Unfortunately Spur kills the flavour by not only marinading their steaks but basting them with some awful, toxic, sweet, BBQ flavoured glop, so that the taste of the steak is totally masked.

I really must resist more strongly if Mela ever asks to go to the Spur again.