The Lake Restaurant at St Michael's Manor

I went here last night (Sunday) with my girlfriend. The place was completwly empty. There was not much to see as it was poorly lit outside. This place has a huge amount of potential to be an icon - the location is ideal, the building is perfect and the dining area is enourmous. However, the people of St Albans seem to like things that are mostly boring and average (possibly the reason it is so heavily liberal), so as far as this area goes, it's a fairly decent venue. As for the food : The starter was far below average: I had a ham hock terrine which lacked flavour and came with a very overpowering vinaigrette on the side salad (about 3 lettuce leaves). Poorly presented. The main was the only exception to the evening and was surprisingly excellent. I had the market fish (turbot), which is one of my favourite fishes in general. It was cooked to perfection and fairly well presented. The side vegetables were al dente and delicious with a good balance of oil and seasoning. The dessert again was quite average. I had the caramelised pineapple and I wasn't very impressed. The focus of the two seemingly more attractive desserts was bitter and sour... no alternatives available. The price was shockingly cheap, less than £100 for two of us. I will give this place another chance on a different weekday but generally I have no need to return on a Sunday night unless they intend to seek advice on how to turn the place into a luxury restaurant, because luxury this is most definitely not, and Michelin it will never be, unless radical changes are introduced to both the kitchen and the dining room. One last note: I did glance at the wine list and was really disappointed to see nothing interesting at all. I don't know why you'd have such an enourmous place with so much potential and then let it all go to waste. I don't know how they survived so far...?