Lime Tree — Restaurant in Bury

I will start off by saying I have eaten at the Lime Tree on NYE (and other occasions) for the last 4 years in a row as it’s our local and had excellent food and service, however after last night, my friends and I will never return.

Table for four adults and a high chair was booked for 6pm and we arrived promptly, ready to eat. We ordered shared starters and mains, but asked for food all to come at the same time - conscious we were sat with a restless 11 month old. Starter came quickly, but the rest of the food didn’t arrive…fine, we still had plenty of time. A further 1 hour and 30 passes and still no sign of mains, so one of our party decided to leave with the baby as he only lives nearby, we’d take his food home to him. Again fine, the trials and tribulations of being out with a baby.

Around 7.50pm mains finally arrived and looked absolutely delicious, we don’t mind the wait as it is NYE after all and we could see how busy the staff were. At 8.10pm, whilst we were still eating and drinking the drinks staff took an order for 10 minutes before, an extremely rude waiter came to the table and told us we needed to hurry up and leave as he had tables waiting. Absolutely gobsmacked, we were left speechless. When he returned to the table, I said excuse me but we’re mid meal, can we please finish and then we’ll be out of the way. He said no, I’m bringing the bill now, so we asked for takeaway containers at the very least- he was furious at this request and used expletive language towards myself. The boxes were bought over, along with the bill. We were busy packing the food away when he came over with the card machine - we had not had time to read the bill due to frantically trying to clear up, so asked if we could pay in a sec once we’ve looked at the bill, only to be told we were causing a fuss out of nothing.

We then stood in a packed entrance to try and pay our bill, when the rude waiter spotted us he bought over the card machine and took £70 off our £170 bill- extremely generous, but absolutely not the point. It was NYE, we were happy to pay for the delicious food we were eating and support a local restaurant, what we didn’t want was to be treated so rudely and be forced to finish our dinner at home!

Look, I get it, I’ve worked in busy restaurants on NYE and often the staff are not in charge of how many bookings they’re able to take or the kitchen can be a chef down last minute but the way we were spoken to and treated this evening was appalling. Had someone kindly mentioned the table was needed back or that they were sorry the food was delayed, but the table was still needed fairly quickly, we’d of understood but we were told absolutely none of this.

Largely looks like the restaurant had bitten off more than they could chew on an extremely busy evening, but the response to this was atrocious. I’m aware of the replies negative reviews of this restaurant gets and I would say they’re a perfect reflection of how we were treated in person last night. Book at...

Awful experience. Came here for a birthday meal, booked in advance. The waiter was rude and unhelpful. He was dismissive with our queries about the set meal options and contradicting what was written on the menu. We asked for the manager to help with our query, who came over and was incredibly patronising, repeatedly rolling his eyes and very condescending. We decided to leave without ordering and as we stood the manger whilst seating other customers rudely said "are you ready to leave now" offering no apology and didn't care about upsetting or losing customers. All in all very rude and would not recommend. Until today, I had never left a restaurant before ordering! We ended up going to Forts of India in Whitefield the food was fantastic and the service was excellent.

In response to the reply below. 1)Kyle has eaten here before therefore his opinion is from a previous visit. On this occasion yes we left before ordering. 2)On Kyle's review he was merely suggesting another restaurant around the corner that we've been to before and enjoyed. As I mentioned yesterday we went to Forts of India in which we had a much more pleasant experience than in your restaurant. 3)The reason you should have offered an apology is because your behaviour was disgusting.

Also there are a number of reviews on here with the same complaints about rude staff. You reply to those reviews with the same rude attitude. In one comment you called somebody 'a vindictive woman' if that's how you treat paying customers I don't know how you're still...

Bit of a mixed review but 100% honest. We went into this restaurant last night (Sat). Its a lovely building , the staff are pleasant and we were taken to a table for 2 in one of the 3 rooms (smallest). The room we were in had a group of 6 men next to us who were extremely loud. As soon as we sat down another group of 12 came in and we were therefore stuck between the 2 groups. We are not fuddy duddies but noise is an understatement. I like a good night out with the lads etc but when out with my partner I just found the place too rowdy to the point I cud hardly hear what my wife was saying. The owner did come over and ask us if we wanted to go in the room next door but once you are sat down you feel awkward moving if you get me. What they should have done is knowing a large group was coming in they shouldnt have put us in that room in the first place. The starter came and it was really nice, not a huge serving but lovely. I had the hot mix starter and my partner the mixed starter. The main course was nice and te spicey chips to die for. My partners said her meat was a little undercooked but not enough to ask for it to be taken away. We had 2 drinks each and spent £48 which I thought was ok. To sum up nice place, food ok but it just seemed a bit rowdy (maybe because its next to the tram to Manchester and some people stop off on their night out) and this might put us off going again. We may just have been unlucky, try...