The Griffin — Restaurant in Carlisle

The Griffin has recently been refurbished and looked wonderful both inside and out. Being a Saturday night, the music was quite loud, so it was not ideal for conversation on this occasion. The staff were helpful. There was a good range of Gins (and other spirits) available, along with a reasonable choice of mixers. Very generous with the ice, so I made a request for less, which was actioned. As the night progressed, the patrons left more mess that was not cleared, detracting from the new image. This was disappointing. The big letdown was, unfortunately, the toilets, which, although beautiful in decoration and ample in number, were littered and with only one cubicle having any toilet paper. There's an accessible toilet in the step free downstairs of the premises. You do, however, need to request the key from staff at the bar, so if it's busy, you may need to plan for this a little more than normal. I notice they plan to screen the Rugby Autumn Internationals, so I will try a return visit to see if there's any improvement with the facilities. I finally managed to make my return visit (September 2023) for a colleagues farewell. It was difficult to converse due to the volume of the background music. This also made ordering at the bar tricky. The toilets are poorly maintained, and make sure that the toilet roll holders are actually dispensing. There were two identical menus on the table, but on closer inspection, the prices were different! The choice of mixers didn't match what was stocked, so it's easier to ignore the drinks menu and scout out the bar. The food was good and my calamari was superbly cooked. We ordered food at the bar and drinks on the Green King app. You will be enticed to use the app by the promise of a voucher for a free drink. However, it took 5 days for my voucher to arrive by email, and the alcohol free options on the offer were not available for our designated driver. The tables are still not cleared. When drinks were delivered to the table by staff, no empties were taken away. We resorted to moving the trays of empties to...

Pub is huge, great food very clean. Great social distancing rules in place, however some customers still can't follow them. Rule of 1 in, 1 out in toilets, a sign on the door you move yourself to say 'engaged' or 'vacant' really not difficult but obviously is for some! Staff at 5.30pm-9pm (time we stayed) Tuesday were amazing! Organised, cleared tables, cleaned tables, able to deal with customers on door and on premises. Very friendly, funny+kind to dogs (brought our dog water) and helpful, just brilliant! However, Wednesday staff not so great. Completely understand it's busy due to 'eat out', but we had glasses on our table from 3 rounds, so brought drinks but didn't clear table of previous round. Had food then ordered tea, actually intrigued where they were going to put it but genuinely pushed it on next to our empty plates. Had to ask 3 times to clear table as we had ordered desserts. Could see the stress and strain as they were walking past each other or going to the bar. Constantly apologising to customers for late delivery of food so not sure what was going on in the kitchen. Ordered steak+baby potatoes but when food brought out I was given fries, I advised it wasn't what I ordered and was told 'yeah there's none left'...would've been nice to have been told or asked if preferred jacket/mash possibly not just bunged fries on my plate. Didn't bother to change as it took a long time to get to us! On another note they offer a 'ask Angela' service. I've never heard of this but apparently if you're in a difficult 'date' situation you go to the bar ask for Angela and they help you out. Amazing! Also the app is so easy to use, tells you what's available and not. Children allowed...

A standard chain pub near the station. It's main selling point is it being less than 100 yards from the station and offering food that isn't a prepacked sandwich, microwave burger or toasted panni. If you have an hour or so between trains I recommend this pub which is warmer than the station. You can order on the green king app or at the bar. If a rail traveller the app means you can investigate the menu on route, so speeding up the ordering when you arrive at the Griffin. The hot food is nice and they do some excellent no alcohol cocktails (as well as the full range of alcoholic beverages in any pub). The food was delivered relatively quickly, we were in and out within an hour for our single course meal, but probably need to allow more time when they are busy. I have eaten here twice both times during the day out of main meal times, between delayed trains, the menu selection is nice and the food tasty but I was not overwhelmed by the presentation nor the side salad. The salad issue probably needs some expansion, the salad leaves were a little on the limp side and the tomato a bit under ripe - all perfectly edible but a bit disappointing in terms of taste- should have taken the standard garlic bread option rather than the "healthy" alternative. The Mac and Cheese was the excellent warming dish I was expecting, and the burger and chips I had on a previous...