MY lunch this week was not, strictly speaking, served in a pub, even though the bar that faces the customers as they enter suggests it is. I was visiting the Apple Cart restaurant, which stands besides the Premier Inn and petrol station on the A4130, near the A30 Milton interchange.

It was restaurant critic Christopher Gray who suggested I try it when he heard me complaining that there were not many places to eat in Didcot. As I had been visiting the Tyler family, who run that splendid Old Farm Shop at Milton Hill, to look around their 70-acre site and meet the new-born lambs, all that fresh air had made me hungry. As the Apple Cart was just minutes away, I decided to give it a go and, to be honest, I wish I hadn't. I'd have been far better off with one of Caroline Tyler's home-made cakes and a bag of fruit.

As you approach the main door of this eating house, you come face to face with a sign telling you what you have to do, a similar sign is behind the bar too. It seems customers have to identify a table, remember its number then place their order at the bar. The staff will then do the rest.

So I obeyed. I gave a table number, ordered my half of Greene King IPA and half a roast chicken (£7.50) then sat down like a good girl, waiting for service.

I was greeted warmly by a young woman bearing a metal container of cutlery and napkins, who announced she was my waitress and would be looking after me. There was something about all this super efficiency which made me feel I was on a conveyer belt.

Once seated, I had time to admire the slate flooring patches, the trendy, rather expensive-looking ornaments, mirrors and gas-flamed fires.

But there is only so long one can admire trendy things. The pause between ordering and meal delivery began to lengthen into a delay, such that I was beginning to wonder if the chef had gone walkabouts to the Tyler's Old Farm Shop to buy extra provisions. When the waitress approached certain tables, including mine to announce meals would be two more minutes (which turned into five) I was ready to cancel my my order.

Perhaps I should have done so. The meal which confronted me looked as if the chef had really made that hasty exit, leaving meals to cook themselves while he was out. My chicken was so well cooked, it was almost burnt. And the roast potatoes were reminiscent of those wretched frozen roast potatoes Delia Smith is now encouraging everyone to reheat with a little cheese. The gravy sauce, neatly delivered in its own little jug, was thick, far to thick to add sufficient moisture to the dry chicken flesh that seemed glued onto the bone.

When the waitress asked if everything was all right and I told her it wasn't, she seemed genuinely upset and immediately offered to change it. Time didn't permit such a luxury, so we both left it at that. On my way out, however, she apologised again and I asked her if the chicken had been deep fried. "On no," she said with conviction "it comes in a box from the microwave". This explained why my meal was so unbearably hot when it was first placed before me and why they are able to offer such a large and varied menu.

Actually it's such a large menu, with special baguette or sandwich meal deals at £4.95, two-course meal deals at £6.99, nibbles from £1.99 and a host of classic dishes such as sausage and mash (£5.99) fish and steaks and grills, it's impossible to list them all. If you want to see the entire list, you should find it on the Premier Inn website. I left regretting that I hadn't sought out a real pub.