ONE sunny lunchtime my colleagues and I decided to try the Brewers Fayre pub in Weymouth.

Our first impression of The Lodmoor, Preston Beach Road, was having to scrape together the change for the parking charges.

With a lot of families and boisterous young children inside we decided to enjoy the sunshine in the garden for some peace and quiet.

I was also quite surprised to see one woman walking around the restaurant without any shoes on, which didn’t seem to bother any of the staff as no-one asked her to put footwear on.

We were told we could order food and eat outside but the waitress didn’t give us any menus or show us to a table and left us to hunt out our own menus and find somewhere to sit.

Luckily just before we sat down at one table some workmen shouted a warning that the paint was wet.

When we did find a dry table our conversation was constantly interrupted by hammering and a power-drill.

The pub was having new tables built during the busy lunch hour.

There was a limited menu, with no variations on the usual pub grub and not much choice for vegetarians.

I chose a chicken burger and my friends had gammon steak and a chicken salad.

With our stomachs rumbling we waited for our meals to arrive, which we had been told would take around 15 minutes.

We watched as two other groups were asked to move as more tables were built with our fingers crossed that we would be left where we were.

Unfortunately we were told that we also had to move.

After waiting 40 minutes our food arrived, but not before it was taken to another table by mistake.

The staff were helpful and friendly but overall the service was poor.

My chicken burger was tasty, with a toasted bun and lots of chips.

The onion rings were really good and it was nice to have some salad to go with my meal.

My friend who had the chicken and bacon salad said it was nice and fresh but it would have been made better if a little thought had been put into the presentation.

I was told that the gammon steak looked better than it tasted, my friend said: “The egg was over-cooked, the yolk was solid, the tomato was tasteless and the gammon was on the tough side.

“However, I really enjoyed the chips which were dry and fluffy.”

In general the food was acceptable and not unreasonably priced.