Stokes of Stockbridge

Nice building, comfy chairs, very average food HUGE bill. Went to the upstairs restaurant last night for a friends birthday. Stockbridge is beautiful and obviously has many very affluent families living in and around the town. On that basis this should be a great success.
Stokes is a converted garage that has been carefully restored with many original features and pictures.
We headed upstairs and sat in the most comfortable chairs I have every found in a restaurant.
We ordered from a very good menu but, for a provincial restaurant the prices were up to top London standards so I was expecting something exceptional.
The treacle cured salmon was quite soapy and tasteless and the accompanying pickled cucumber sorbet was just weird and unnecessary.
My wife had scallops which she said were very good so I obviously just made the wrong choice.
For the main course I plumped for the sirloin of beef and for £23.50 I was expecting something exceptional. Half the rather small piece of meat was lovely and half of it was gristly or fat, three times cooked chips is once too often for me, they were damp and nut brown rather than crisp and golden. Great onion rings though. For that kind of money however, I expect a larger piece of amazing quality beef so I was very underwhelmed.
The brownie for dessert was nice but the peanut butter ice cream didn’t go well, it was nice on it’s own but cloying with the chocolate. I would have preferred a raspberry or cherry ice cream.
The whole bill including wine came to £55 per head (inc service) and that is a big bill for some rather average food even if it was served in beautiful surroundings.
The good news is I am sure they have the ability to get the food right with good sourcing and a little less over enthusiastic creativity and complexity.