Dawn O

This has been my first choice coffee shop in Watford for a long time. Previously the food and coffee has been excellent. Sadly on this occasion, the pastry did not taste fresh, was chewy and greasy instead of soft and flaky, which I raised with the serving staff, only to be told with a shrug that they were delivered fresh first thing, which didn't resolve the fact that I had left the pastry. And the coffee was just lukewarm. I wasn't happy with customer care, it may have just been an off day, but I don't think I'd go back.

Beautiful looking pub from outside. Had read good reviews. Dog friendly, so decided to go here for Saturday lunch. Inside, the pub is completely different from outside, it is completely soulless, all character gap been removed and it is bland with no atmosphere. Only 4 people eating and one man sat at the bar. Menu limited and typically sandwiches etc served with chips. After seeing how deserted and lifeless the pub felt, we decided just to have coffee and a dessert. Coffee lukewarm and not very nice. I ordered treacle tart, which had soft floppy pale pastry, appeared uncooked in centre, inedible but was warm so I assumed it had been briefly microwaved and returned it to the very pleasant barman. He spoke to chef who apparently said it hadn't been microwaved, it had been in the oven! Obviously not for long enough! My husband had lemon meringue pie which was cold, pale very soft meringue and tasteless filling, not nice. We paid and left, found another really nice dog friendly pub with a welcoming, friendly atmosphere and had a very tasty lunch. We would not visit The Dolphin again, nor recommend it.