The Grove Lock, Leighton Buzzard

My go-to place for fish and chips, nice cold beer followed by a canal-side walk. Nice and relaxing atmosphere either inside or outside with great staff I love popping in either on my own or with family.

Service excellent, surroundings lovely food that we had was good, only downside I’m a vegetarian and all that was on offer was a salad option when I would have liked a hot alternative. I think in this day and age it is not unreasonable for more vegetarian options to be made available on the main menu. Sadly due to the lack of options I would not return.

Popped in with the family for lunch on my birthday. We had a very mixed experience. The staff are nice and friendly but the food is definitely hit and miss. Garlic prawns and burgers both good, fish and chips… fish was overcooked and dry but chips were hot and delicious… the sandwich menu was really limited and we ended up having the focaccia with rocket and slow roasted tomatoes thinking we could at least dunk it in the prawns. Sadly no focaccia but really dry bread with a few pieces of chewy sundried tomato, a bit of mayo and some rocket. A really odd sandwich which felt like it was missing something!

Been here in the past and had a better experience but the latest visit was poor. Took 30-45 minutes from when we were seated to someone taking a drinks order. Food order took ages and when it came we were met with half portions of cold and dry food. No gravy either, that we had to ask for. The environment is lovely and the pub decor is really nice, but the service and food let it down.

After a long walk around national trust we decided to stop here for some food with my wife 2 boys and mother in-law, I have to say the place it self is lovely and has a good setting as there is a canal outside and a lock so do see the narrow boats passing through. There is a nice out door seating area too and good decor inside, unfortunately the food left little to be desired. we ordered 3 buttermilk chicken burgers, a flat bread pizza and half roast chicken. The half roast chicken did look nice and cooked well and the mother in-law enjoyed it, my lads pizza looked standard and he seemed happy with it. However my and my wife’s and youngest chicken burger wasn’t that great, the butter milks chicken was way over cooked and could see burnt bits around the chicken which fell apart when you bite into it. It came with a small bowl/cup of chips which to be fair tasted good, but the portion size wouldn’t be enough to feed a baby. Even my youngest made comments about the chicken and chip portion size and trust me he loves his food, there was no onion in the burger which it stated it comes with crispy onion. The cost of the buttermilk burger was just over £15 which is a bit pricey considering the chip portion size and how the chicken was cooked, I did think maybe the chief was just having an off day then I read the reviews and seen some images. Wished I had read the reviews first as may have been the deciding factor whether to eat there or not, however the staff was friendly and the setting is lovely. Just be mindful of going to eat..