Bowling Green — Restaurant in Chorley

It was Wednesday, term time and early evening. We had had a good , relaxing day out at the Lakes and arrived at 5:45 wanting a quick meal whilst we avoided the rush hour traffic before continuing our 2 hour drive home. The place was clean, quiet and the offers looked good - £16:50 each for 2 courses and a drink. Wow, excellent. The 2 of us both quickly ordered the same main meal and a sweet each (cheese pie and chips followed by chocolate puddings and ice cream) . . . And we waited . We weren't worried. We had had a restful day out. We had needed to unwind and we had. We waited . . . There were about 2 families and 3 other couples in the whole pub, only one or 2 other tables eating (or waiting to eat) food. We waited . . . We waited . . . Time was ticking by . . . We waited . . . Our main meal eventually arrived. We both had cheese pie, chips and peas. The accompanying sauce / dip rather thick and skin coated but tasted fine. Rather large portions, but very nice. We waited for our sweets to arrive. By now all families had disappeared and we appeared to be the only ones eating (or waiting to continue eating!) We waited . . . And waited . . . And waited . . . ! My husband went to the bar to remind the lone young lady behind the bar that we were waiting. She apologised. We continued waiting . . . And waiting . . . And waiting . . . my husband again went and reminded the young lady that we existed. She apologised. We . . . waited! . . . My husband went again and we still waited! . . . The young lady apologised again and said that she would rectify the problem herself! We waited . . . ! Eventually she arrived with a very large and beautiful looking dessert each. I was too tired and anxious to eat mine. Apparently the chef was busy turning off grills etc. (?) Not sure we understood, why that would affect us but we were far too tired and concerned about our journey home to listen properly or Care! All I really wanted by now was a coffee, but which I was reluctant to order, in case I had to order breakfast at the same time! We had witnessed other people leaving, as we arrived, muttering about waiting, we now wished we had listened to what they had said. We left 2 1/2 hours after arriving and only half an hour of that time was spent eating! We still had a 2 hour drive home! We arrived home after 10:15 p.m. exhausted! What could have been a very pleasant early evening meal and end to a delightful day out, turned into a very long irritating debacle and a not wanted or appreciated late ,...

Visited here a few times and generally been ok.

But today, the service (well the ordering and them bringing out food as that's where the service stops) was soooo slow. We had booked ahead,a table of6 adults (one in a wheelchair) one baby in a pram , one toddler and two teens.

No offer if help, placed right next to the kids area (please stop assuming that If you have children,you want to be amongst everyone else's , we don't) So despite asking for good access, we had toddlers running around us through to the play area making moving the wheelchair when needed difficult, it also meant the pram was in the way and I was terrified that the toddlers running to play kept knocking the pram. Now because we were in the kids area at their choice when they reserved our table, we were not allowed to keep a tab open,(apparently all families do runners ?) As we had so many of us including my husband in a wheelchair chair and a pram , this is highly unlikely we will be running anywhere) However this just meant we spent less as we couldn't get service for more drinks and it meant going up and queuing another half hour whilst the food we eventually got was getting cold so we didn't bother In total though as it's expensive here now for what is essentially basic pub food ,we still had a bill of over 250 so you would think the service may have been better. We ordered and it took over half an hour and that was only because I got up and complained.Then it was all rushed out and was cold. One member of our party had carvery, there was no veg and we kept checking to see if it was topped up at different stages but no.

It just wasn't a good experience, no offer of discount even though we complained. Get more staff because you clearly can't cope.

Only positive is that there is half decent wheelchair access but pointless if you then shove us at the back cornered in a kids play area (use your common sense)

I feel all.establishments need guidance on accessibility, maybe get an actual wheelchair user to show you what access means. Oh and yes customers ordering 4 , 5 , 6 drinks at a time DO require a tray, ridiculous that...

Family evening meal 18.08.2023. Greeted by waitress Maria (blonde hair) who was very helpful. First course was very good for everyone (black pudding fritters, garlic mushrooms) Main course (chicken Wexford) also very good although it was supposed to come with spinach, ( it did but it was a microscopic amount). Kids menu fish and chips, the fish was very very small. Desserts other than the apple and walnut cake were very disappointing. The cheesecake had no taste, and we ordered 1 kids chocolate brownie and 2 adult chocolate brownie (made with stout) the server (small dark hair) didn’t know which was which, we asked her to confirm and after checking with the chef she confirmed we all had the correct ones. After eating some of it, it was clear that my 8 year old was eating the one with stout in it. This could have been very serious if my daughter was allergic to anything in the stout. No one came to see if we wanted more drinks throughout the entire meal. We had to figure out we had to go to the bar. The woman behind the bar (dark hair and glasses) barely seemed interested and during her time serving us she spent most of the time talking to our original waitress complaining that she shouldn’t be there and her need to find grain free pet food for her dog. Time between food was very long, for the 3 courses we were there for almost 3 hours, and for the most part felt abandoned by the staff, we even had to look for someone to actually pay the bill. Eventually the woman behind the bar (dark hair and glasses) appeared, who immediately complained that she should have left hours ago. We still gave a tip ( blonde girl was always bright and helpful when available) but overall the service was disappointing and despite only a few customers being present the place felt extremely understaffed. As for the price, for the food, the small plates seemed a bit high, mains ok, desserts high and beer and...