i think it's hard for most places to really shine in the holiday season. there are loads of set menus and a huge amount of diners arriving in very large parties meaning that a restuarant can find its kitchen overwhelmed with multiple orders at the same time and unhappy people waiting a very long time for food and drink. with that in mind, i didn't have high expectations for my first visit to Jeremiah's Taproom as a large group of us were going for hogmany dinner and drinks.\n\nwe arrived a bit early, but the waitress assured us the table would be ready in five minutes, which is pretty much was. we were seated through in the small backroom area since our party was so largre this was the only way to get 15 people round one table. the room was nice though and i appreciated the fact that it was a wee bit quieter than the front bar making it easier to talk. the table though was in an L shape which made it a bit awkward for people to get out when needing to get more drinks.\n\nalthough we booked dinner for 7:30pm and arrived on time and were seated, our meals didn't actually start arriving until well past 8:30pm. i was a bit annoyed as i was starving and 3 glasses of prosecco into the night, but i did appreciate that this place has a small kitchen and it appeared only one waitress. that said when our starters did arrive my smoked salmon with soda bread looked pretty tasty and was devoured quickly! sadly that meant a rather lengthy wait for the main to arrive which for me was the venison burger with skinny fries. when the burger did arrive i was well pleased with my choice and really enjoyed it! the burger itself was juicy and had a nice covering of blue cheese to give a tangy taste mixed with the sweetness of the mulled plums. there was loads of fries so many i couldn't finish them and i had to take the burger out of the bun as there was just a bit too much bread.\n\ndessert was really the only let down as yet again it was another long wait and when my cheeseboard finally did arrive i was a bit shocked that one of the cheeses was a fairly large scoopy of philadelphia cream cheese... a bit cheap, but the other two cheeses a blue cheese and i think a cheddar were good although i found the digestive biscuits served with them a bit dry and too sweet to be eaten with cheese.\n\noverall, minus the slow service due to such a busy night for this bar, i found my dinner really quite nice. drinks were good as well and not too pricey (possibly a \u00a31 less than what you'd pay in the centre of town). so i will definitely go back here to try things out on a normal night and hope that the service improves as the food is tasty and i would definitely go back to try another burger.
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