The Owl At Lichfield

Beer is fine. G&Ts, too. Food… Never a good sign when your waiter tells you that your burger only comes «one way, cooked through». I don’t expect to go to a gastropub and have my burger thawed before cooking.

The Owl has great staff and really good service. The remodelling of the garden is fantastic and will be the place this summer.
I have been to their other pub near Tamworth, nice but the Lichfield one is massively better.
Food is very good, enjoy the bangers and mash

Absolutely awful!
It would take too long to go into details of what is wrong with this place, its food and its staff. Avoid at all costs. There is nothing positive to say about this place. It doesn’t warrant the one star rating I have been forced to award it!

Just received my 2^nd year of Uni results, 2:1 average for the year and a 1^st in Russian, time to celebrate!
Mum suggests we try the Shoulder of Mutton as it’s recently been refurbished, Dad is sceptical, it’s changed hands so many times that we’ve avoided it, I myself have never been there.
We arrive, there’s model sheep on top of the roof, it looks tacky, not a great start
Inside we are welcomed and asked which menu we would like, Bar or Restaurant. We opt for Bar and are shown to the limited bar seating with only one table of 4 and only 15 seats overall. We scour the menu, 3 main courses (Fish and Chips, Sausage and Mash or a Burger), and a selection of sandwiches.
We decided on fish and chips, but then we realise the table we’re sat at is low it would be nigh on impossible to comfortably enjoy such a meal.
I find a waiter and ask what today’s sandwich fillings are.
He struggles to remember the four choices
I return and relay the choices to my family, my parents choose a sandwich, my brother a Burger, and I, unable to resist that beer batter, decide on fish and chips.
Dad goes up to order, comes back No fish left… It’s quarter past one on a Friday, inexcusable.
In the end we all go for the Sausage and Red Onion Marmalade sandwiches, on the menu it says chips included. Having forgotten this, I asked the waitress does it comes with chips? Contradictory to the meun she replies no, I said in that case can we also have two buckets (that’s what they call them) of chips please?.
10 minutes later, the food arrives. First impressions are not good. Our sandwiches arrive on a cross section of a tree trunk. Novel but totally impractical as we struggle to fit them on the table. The sandwiches contain a meagre 2 halved sausages amongst a mass of bread, albeit nice bread, but the sandwich lacked substance. The red onion marmalade was nowhere to be found and isntead lay three sad looking strands of softened supposedly caramelised onion.
The chips were rustic and tasty, however surely it is not greedy of me to expect more than 5
The side garnish was just a few green leaves and strands, no tomato, cucumber, onion, nothing.
We were confused as we couldn’t decide if the buckets of chips we had ordered were on our trunks or were yet to come, they never did arrivewe weren’t charged but that isn’t the point.
As usual, my brother and dad wolfed their’s down and the barman, who clearly had no people skills whatsoever, immediately came and collected their tree trunks whilst my mum and I were still eating.
Utterly average, the place has the feel of a modern gastro pub but the quality is that of a burger van, in fact, you’d get a better sausage sandwich from a burger van.
At £6.90, yes £6.90 for a sandwich, you expect it to be a near perfect sandwich, it should not be difficult.
My dad paid, the person on the till was quite happy to take our money, no How was your meal? or Was everything ok?
We arrived hoping that the Shoulder of Mutton might be looking to break the endless cycle of new owners and re-​openings, however, I would be very surprised if this place was still open in 6 months. Truly dreadful. Do not waste your time and money, anyone who says they like this place has either destroyed their palate or have too much money to appreciate when something is clearly sub-​standard.

After a major refurbishment The Shoulder of Mutton is opening on the 23^rd June 2009 as an awesome destination food pub serving fresh local produce quality ales and lagers with excellent customer service. Email brendon001@btconnect for further development details.

Great pub on the outskirts of Lichfield. Plenty of parking, and a nice outside area too.
Inside you’ll find a nice bar, loads of seats and a good-​looking menu. The staff are friendly and food is great. Lovely place for a sunday lunch.