Henry's Smokehouse — Restaurant in Borough of Fylde

Henry’s Smokehouse BBQ near the M55 roundabout Total Paid: £87 plus change

On arrival, having booked a table, we noted that it was very quiet for 6:30 p.m. on a Saturday. There were two people working, no one serving at the bar, and no other customers at the bar. A couple of empty glasses were left on tables, seemingly for a while. I got someone’s attention to say we had booked. The restaurant was empty apart from about two couples. We were asked to wait in the bar area while a table was cleared for us, but since there was no one in the bar, we couldn’t even order drinks. We had to wait to be seated—not for too long, but still, when waiting in the bar area, you should be able to order drinks. This is pretty standard.

I also couldn’t understand why we had to wait for a table to be cleared—specifically, the table closest to the door—when most of the others were empty.

We were seated and then left alone. Eventually, they came back to ask if we wanted drinks. We ordered, and considering the place was pretty much empty, it took a while for the drinks to arrive.

Then we ordered food. The food arrived, and the presentation was pretty good, but that’s where it ended. The kids liked theirs, which was off the kids’ menu—basic but fine. My wife had brisket. She said she liked the meat itself, but the rest was disappointing. I had a taste, and while the meat was tender, it tasted more like pork to me and even looked like pork.

Mine was awful. I ordered the beef rib with Cajun tots. Firstly, the meat had no flavor—well, I say no flavor, but I was getting an essence of fish. Also, it wasn’t served with tots but with dry potato scallops. When I called the waiter over, he said, “We do ours differently from what you may be used to.” I replied, “Yes, as scallops, not tots.” They shouldn’t be advertising them as tots when they weren’t. In no way do scallops resemble tots in size, shape, consistency, or construction.

They offered to swap them for fries. When they brought out the fries, they were also dry and not fries at all—just strangely cut chips. I ate some of the meat, and my son finished the rest, as he wasn’t full from his meal and wasn’t fussed about eating more.

Mine and my wife’s meals came with slaw, which was awful—it basically tasted like pickle juice. It also came with what was described as “pickles.” I don’t like pickles, but my wife does, and even she said they weren’t as described. They were just slices of cucumber in pickle juice.

Additionally, the adult meals came with charred (burnt) corn on the cob, which was cut in half lengthways. This was very odd to see—something we’ve never encountered before.

A further note: The kids had a bottled soft drink each, and I had a pint of Peroni. The Peroni tasted strange, but I drank it since I had paid for it. The drink prices were standard pub prices, but my wife had a cocktail, and I nearly fell off my seat when the bill came—a whopping £13.95 for one drink.

At the end, when I got up to pay in the bar area, a large group of people was waiting to order drinks. They were complaining among themselves about arriving to find no one at the entrance—just like we had. There was still no one to serve drinks. When the barman (also the waiter) finally came over, he said he’d be with us in a minute, continued serving the people waiting for drinks, completed one order, and then stood there shouting, “Who’s next?”

I was like, me, I’m next. But I was ignored, and he carried on serving drinks, which just pissed me off even more.

To be fair, the staff were very friendly, but it was obvious more staff were needed—even just to cover the basic stations.

Altogether, it was not a great experience, and we won’t...

We visited on a Friday for lunch. Easy to find and get to as just off Junction 3 of the M55. It was very quiet when we sat down. Only 2 other people in. Also despite plenty of lights being on it was very dark. Took a while for our eyes to adjust.

The person who showed us to our table told us about two dishes which were not available and what the replacements were. Seemed to be on the ball there but that soon changed. Told us someone would be over to take our order shortly. Didn’t ask us if we wanted any drinks while we looked at the menu so service not off to the best of starts.

Another person did eventually come over to a take our order. First, I ordered some drinks then went on to order our meal. Didn’t bother with any starters as had a feeling the mains would be quite filling. I went for the Henry QC burger at £17.95. My fellow diner ordered the Smoked Beef Long Rib at £19.95.

By the time our food had arrived we were the only two people dining. And, I have to admit, it felt a little strange, even disconcerting to be in such a large place with just 2 of us eating. However, I must say we were pretty impressed with the food. I don’t normally choose burgers when I eat out but this was one of the better ones I have had. 3 burgers, maple flavoured bacon and plenty of cheese. I thought it was pretty good value as well as you were getting 3 burgers. I felt the bun was a little bit stale but that didn’t detract from the rest of the meal. I enjoyed it.

But I was a little bit envious when I saw what my fellow diner got. It was a huge piece of beef. I took a taste and it was moist, soft and full of flavour. The presentation of both meals was very good and everything was piping hot. For what we had I though it was good value for money.

A member of staff did come over and ask if our food was alright. No issues with the food at all. However, the service did start to let things down. When we finished we waited well over 15 minutes for our plates to be taken away. We were the only 2 people eating and there were 2 members of staff waiting on. One member of staff had passed a couple of times and must have seen we had finished. My fellow diner even had time to go to the toilet to wash his hands and had passed the servers at the bar. He expressed an opinion when he came back to see the table hadn’t been cleared. When our plates were finally removed we were not asked if we wanted to see the dessert menu or if we wanted anymore drinks. My fellow diner had an empty pint glass clearly visible in front of him as the plates were taken away.

We waited another 5 minutes but no one came back to us to see if we wanted to order anything else. We probably would have ordered dessert and most definitely had some coffees. At this point we decided to call it a day and asked for the bill. We did speak to the owner / manager as we left our table and pointed out that although we had enjoyed the food the service had let the experience down. He seemed amiable enough, and took on board what we said but it was a shame. As I said we had no issues with the food. Quantity, quality and cost, all fine, but the service needs to improve. It came across as indifferent and almost a couldn’t care less sort of attitude. We even started to question if this was why we were the only 2 people eating there on a Friday afternoon. I’m pretty sure it’s something that could be fixed but unfortunately it spoiled our experience of this...

A disappointing visit unfortunately as I was really looking forward this! The food was reasonable, but the service and atmosphere needs to be significantly improved.

Prebooked our table and arrived on time, we walked through to doors and made our way over to the bar as there was no clear greeter, or waiting station to welcome us. The barman kindly found our reservation and took us to the table, we were given a menu but no explanation of the menu offered, no introduction to the venue or waiting staff, no drinks menu given and the food menu had a strong unpleasant smell like it had been wiped off with a dirty cloth. Not a great first impression!

We waited at our table for 10 minutes and still nobody had come to take our order (there were only 3 other tables in at this point), in the end we went to find our server and asked if we could order. Our drinks took another 15 minutes to arrive, I could see them just sat waiting on the end of the bar and counted 5 times that two different waiting staff walked straight past them! On a postive note, the bar has a great selection of beers and spirits and there is definitely something for everyone.

The food arrived shortly after, the chicken burger was good but the brisket was absolutely covered in the bbq sauce which covered up any taste and sight of the smoked meat. I felt that the 1/4 corn cob slice and thimble of coleslaw was also rather stingy. The coleslaw was served in the same pots they give you for ketchup at the golden arches, not in cermaic ramekins like the pictures on here. I'm guessing from the dried out top these thimbles of coleslaw had been left either uncovered or on the pass for some time. To be fair the food was piping hot and the portions of the rest of it was reasonable.

A few other things to mention; the room was pretty cold and unfortunately there is no WiFi or kids colouring available. The decor is more English pub than smokehouse and other than the music it didnt exactly give off any bbq/smokehouse vibes! Having Heinz bbq sauce as a table sauce is just sad given the enormous selection of genuine bbq sauce options there are out there. The drinks menu doesn't give prices for spirits or cocktails. Having to go up to the bar to pay your bill at the end is really poor, being able to pay at the table is a pretty basic expectation. It seemed unusual to see a large table near the bar with several staff members sat chatting at, especially given the poor service we received, seeing a table full of staff sat there added insult to injury. Other sights of the afternoon included a yellow henry hoover being carried through the restaurant mid service, running repairs being carried out on a broken seat, and a delivery man walking through the restaurant delivery mid service with a stack of blue crates!

I'm hoping that these are teething issues and can be sorted as this place could be great. The service really needs work and the basics need to be done well. Seeing other reviews mentioning very similar experiences shows that unfortunately this was not just a "one off bad experience". It certainly didn't give off that 'family friendly local eatery vibe' that I had hoped for and as a few other reviews have mentioned, there are other smokehouses in the area that are very...