Central Park — Restaurant in England

We visited on a Wednesday night, and first thoughts were that the music was extremely loud for the amount of people in the restaurant, luckily was turned down after about 15 minutes. Starters we ordered the calamari and combo (potato skins, wings and ribs). Combo wasn’t too bad, bit too much BBQ sauce on the meat, and potato skins were bland. However calamari was soggy and rubbery. We both ordered types of parmos for our main. Boyfriend ordered the marshala parmo and looked and tasted like a bland piece of chicken covered in pasta bake sauce bought from a store, didn’t taste nice at all. Mine was the pulled pork parmo and everything just tasted so bland, I’m usually not one to be fussy with me food either- but there was just no flavour in any of the meat, cheese or sauce.

Moving onto the staff, we immediately felt rushed to order; within the first 10 minutes we were asked by four different staff, and the same woman twice (appeared to be manager or owner) if we were ready to place our order. It just made us feel rushed and seemed very unprofessional, and talking of unprofessional there was one member of staff who kept getting up and repeatedly sitting down to the table next to us, so he could talk to the customers. When one other member of staff came to give us our parmesans, at first we thought he had the wrong order because he asked “which one of you has the Parmesan?” Despite us both ordering one, feels a bit inadequate when the waiter can’t even tell what food he is serving (probably because the sauce on the parmesan made it looks like a mess). General questions from the staff always seemed as if they didn’t care, however there was one lady who was helpful and listened to our complaint about the food, and agreed to discount one of the parmos and the calamari. However once I came to pay the bill, the calamari had not been taken off because the majority had been eaten, as explained by the female owner/manager. I’m sorry but as a student I’ve learnt to try and make do with food and not waste money, if I was aware I was going to be refunded we wouldn’t have eaten it. And there was no point arguing this with the manager as she appeared miserable from the minute we stepped foot inside Central Park.

The only redeeming feature is that some of the food was okay, and it is cheap(ish for a student). Service was quick, however that may lead one to believe...

I gave five stars for everything except the main review.

I’m a semi-regular customer here. The food is absolutely excellent, the meal prices are extremely reasonable (especially considering the quality), the service is fast, the staff friendly and efficient, and the atmosphere is lovely. I could seriously spend all day in here. It has a very cosy relaxed vibe.

However, on our visit today we were charged for things which were free on our previous visits, and we were not made aware of these changes. For context, just a month ago, my wife and I requested hot sauce with our meals and we each received a small bowl which was appropriate to the size of the meal, and wasn’t charged on the menu or the bill.

Today we ordered three main meals, totalling over £60 (which are more than worth the price) and we were asked, along with the meal options, for our sauce choices.

Each of us asked for hot sauce.

When the meal came we EACH received a huge gravy boat of hot sauce. We were all shocked at the size (and joked about it) of each portion as there was at least half a bottle of hot sauce per person; way too much for any person to consume in one sitting.

They charged us £12 for the hot sauce which we only discovered after receiving the bill. At no point did the waiter say it would be an extra charge (it was free last month and a MUCH smaller quantity) nor did he say we would be receiving (and paying for) an entire half bottle of hot sauce each.

Can you imagine asking for a little mayonnaise in a restaurant and they bring out a jar and charge you £4 for it?

Like I said: lovely food, lovely service, lovely atmosphere. I just feel we were ripped off.

I’ll return but I won’t be ordering sauces and I’ll be asking for prices...

Cant thank Central Park enough . We had my daughters baby shower upstairs in the function room. They let us decorate the room ourselves. The food was fantastic. We had ladies who were gluten free, allergy to eggs and nuts and it was no trouble to them . They was plenty of food left and they even gave us some boxes for guests to take any left overs home. Guests were very impressed with the food and said it was the best baby shower food that they had been too.Which im so happy about. Also would like to thank Amy ( hope I have her name right ) the bartender she was brilliant and so so helpful. Thank you very much , excellent customer service. Very polite and nothing was to much for her 🙂. Would highly recommend having a function upstairs. They accommodate people who couldn't get upstairs by them using the lift, which we didn't know it was there. They closed the upstairs off also which was great so we all felt comfortable from people peering in. Also we used the flower wall upstairs which we didn't know that was there. So all in all we all had a fantastic day and the mummy to be loved it. Thank you Central Park and to your lovely staff. Much appreciated 🥰 xx Unfortunately we missed taking a pic of all the food as it was like a stampede lol. Thank...