Oak Tree — Restaurant in England

I Asked for a steak with no sauce. It came with a green Herby kinda sauce that I was told explicitly is a dressing and not a sauce! The manner I was told and believe me I was told left me thinking, rude staff please apply here.... I don't need this and if I were not with my family I would have left.

On the upside, The manager apologized for her staff. My daughter had to get a new steak, it took some effort to do this, mind you I would not have paid for it as it was not what she asked for. No point on letting the waitress know as I did not want a telling off again.

The steak was delicious and the best I've had for a long time. It was a very good steak of food quality cooked med rare and delicious. However, after hacking through it for 15 mins with a butter knife (we ordered 3 steaks and not one of us got a steak knife). Gutted. Fantastic steak ruined by the service and I was not offered the steak as free, after the hassle we were given it should have been a double whisky thrown In For free also. Bar service the same as the waitress, but instead of being rude I was ignored (this was before we sat down), just to make it Cristal clear, l waited at the empty bar standing in front of the member of staff for 10 minutes waiting for the member to acknowledge that I was there and would like a drink. They were doing something with the till for 10 minutes. Food ok. A little pricey, good quality so well done chef. Pitty is front of shop and bar was awful. No matter how many apologies the manner gave, a good will gesture was never going to happen and I was not going to ask. I cannot recommend this pub even to anyone I don't even like. Oak tree, we spent a few hundred at your pub and the place was mostly empty restaurant side, maybe that was a hint of my expectations. So what's a good will gesture going to take! Ask your manager to confirm this Chester pub that we were there and this happens. She tried her best and was polite and explained and acknowledged her staff behaviour, staff training would be good. Quicker service would be good. Smiling would be nice. And all the meal I was never asked with.mai. Or desert (I do t do starters), is my meal ok. So basic service is not there either. Poor effort 1* review which is...

We had medium sized party. The venue wasn't all that busy. The prices were reasonable when looking a the menu (I'll touch on quality later). The venue itself is plesant and the staff really accomodating and friendly. However, we were all left rather disappointed with the food. I can only imagine the regular chef wasn't present today. To sum it up, I'd have rather gone to weatherspoons for better food - this goes without saying how disappointing the food was.

One of our members meals were forgotten about. However, the staff were attentive, noticed the mistake before we brought it to their attention, owned up to the mistake, apologised profusely before bringing out a replacement meal quickly.

A couple of drink orders were inorrect. Full pints instead of half pints and orange juice instead of orange spritz. However, this seems to be standard at multiple eateries now and the half pint could easily be down to mishearing as there was a lot of talking at the table. This is really a minor issue but comes with the overall experience.

This brings me onto the very disappointing meal.

I'll start by saying the squid starter was delicious and I heard no complaints about a couple of the meals received. However, from our group here's some feedback:

The steak sandwich was meant to be medium I received well-done and was quite poor on flavour. I've made better at home with store bought ingredients in five minutes. The salmon was extremely overlooked, if I had to guess it's been under a heat lamp. It didn't flake and had characteristics of rubber. The chicken was dry and inedible. This was consistent between both meals. To quote a party member "if it wasn't for the BBQ (hunters chicken) I wouldn't have been able to eat it" The pie and chips looked genuinely nice. There were no complaints about this.

I don't expect perfection from pub chains and realistically. With the modern chain pub grub the bar quite low, I tend to gravitate towards meals that are easy to make. But, unfortunately todays meal for me fell below that mark.

I ate my substandard meal, paid for it and went about my day. Ordinarily I'd have returned my meal and got a replacement. But, with the food on average being quite poor there's not much point and I'd rather...

An amazing steak at a very competitive price. I love a good fillet steak, medium rare, with a complimenting sauce. Well, I came earlier in the month and had a wonderful meal with my wife. I had the fillet steak, with a peppercorn and blue cheese sauce, I was absolutely bowled over with the quality and taste of it. I came back again tonight just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke (as I’m often disappointed even at the ‘top end’ steak restaurants). I wasn’t, the steak was the same quality and taste as last week .. woohoo… at last I’ve found a ‘steakhouse’ which is consistent and is to my exact liking, it was an absolute delight to eventually go somewhere that delivered an amazing steak. The last time I experienced this was was when I lived in Cyprus and frequented a specialist tournedo steak house in Limassol. I often, and usually, go to the best steakhouses in and around Chester and North Wales, to them I say, you’re mostly good but you could take a leaf from this kitchen. The steak was cooked to perfection, both times, beautifully flavoured steak with a hint of burnt charcoal searing, well rested and rare, without bleeding all over the plate, which most restaurants fail to achieve. Included was a lovely sauce with side salad and mushrooms all for a very reasonable price, some £5-£10 cheaper than most of the other specialist restaurants. Staff are wonderful and accommodating, and I found out that the cover chef, Victoria, was working tonight but for me it proved the consistency of the food is inherent and that’s another huge tick In the box. Well, you’ve hooked me and it’ll be my go to “restaurant” for what I consider to be the best fillet steak in and around Chester. Thank you .. see you soon, very soon .. we’ll done to Victoria and the team. Regards...