Orange Tree Bar & Grill - Congleton — Restaurant in England

This place has a great atmosphere, a lot of effort was put into the detail and aesthetics of the dining room and it looks really extravagant and lovely, it also gives a very welcoming feeling too, and sets a great mood for a drink and/or a meal.

The staff are standouts, special shout outs to Ben at the bar who gave us our drinks, along with Dean, Pascal and Tom as servers or hosts; they all contribute massively to making this an amazing experience with friendly attitudes, and a general welcoming demeanor and they help the Orange Tree stand out over other restaurants in the best way. I couldn't appreciate them enough.

The food was exceptional. I ordered an IPA haddock that came with chippy-style curry sauce, mushy peas, tartare sauce and skin on fries. The fries and the curry sauce were perfect and rival my favourite chips/fries and sauces ever. Unfortunately the mushy peas weren't for me personally and I wish I could've substituted them for something else instead, if I could of I wish it was made clear when ordering or included a description in the menu if that was the case. Finally while the fish was delicious there were parts of it where the batter overshadowed the fish itself way too much, and I personally found the batter too crispy for my liking. My girlfriend had a chicken milanese which she loved and had no complaints with. Next we finished with deserts where I had the cheesecake with a lemon tart and raspberry sorbet; the cheesecake itself was absolutely phenomenal and I wish to ask the chef who made it for the recipe, if I were to be extremely picky I'd appreciate if there was an option to switch the raspberry sorbet with something lighter such as ice cream for example, as I can see other people finding the sorbet perhaps too sweet with the cheesecake. My girlfriend had a simple lemon sorbet which she once again found perfect with no issues.

The final bill was roughly £56, while I do think it is a fair price given the quality of not only the food, but also the work of the staff for the Orange Tree, I believe it is only just so. Sadly I can't in good honesty recommend regular visits to the Orange Tree as for most people (myself included) it is simply too expensive to do so. That being said, for occasional visits where you and your loved ones or a group of friends wish to treat yourselves with outstanding food, an amazing atmosphere, and unparalleled staff, including the chefs in the kicthen, then there is very few places i would rather go than here, and while my problems (however few there are) still stand from my perspective; I am absolutely willing to come again, and will definitely be looking forward to it. It truly...

Was very kindly bought a voucher for Christmas so we booked. Arrived 7 minutes before the booking time to be told by the young man (who was not at his station when we arrived and was clearly running around like a blue a*d fly) we were a little early and the bar was over there so we could get drinks while we were waiting. The bar was 6 deep so we chose not to get drinks just then because we thought by the time we would've been served we should be seated. We were seated 10 minutes after our booked time so had spent 17 minutes standing waiting! We were seated upstairs where there were tables free and since no one has come downstairs since we arrived, we could've been seated on time. The waitress and person who seated us were very nice. The food was excellent for me however my partner's steak was good but her mushroom and tomatoes were cold/cool. She was disappointed the chips were frozen ones rather than home cooked but they were at least hot. I had cheesecake for dessert which was good too. We shared a bottle of Pinot Noir which was fine. The noise in the venue was VERY loud which made conversation difficult at best and often impossible, so much so, I downloaded an app to check the dB level, which averaged at 84.9db. I asked for the bill which was £102 and the service charge of £7.20 was already included. The bill did state we could ask for it to be removed and it would be done straight away however we feel a tip/service charge should be voluntary and not assumed and it's very awkward to ask for it to be removed (very British🙂). Overall, not a pleasant experience, spoiled by some minor things which could have been done better. We all get busy but to blame the customer for being early when he could've just apologised the table wasn't quite ready and could we please wait by the bar to be called would have been blameless. Noise is noise and to be fair, it is advertised as a city feel so I can forgive that. Adding the service charge is, to me, unfair, requiring the customer to basically justify removing it. I'd have happily paid a fiver and probably would've come back but now I doubt it. I won't be recommending the venue despite the good food because it felt like a commercial experience rather than a relaxed and...

Table booked for 7pm, 5 adults 1 child. Within 10 minutes 3 different waiters asked what drinks we wanted and if we wanted mozzarella sticks, we hadn’t even seen a menu for food or drinks by this point.

We ordered starters of which took an age to arrive after eventually getting served again by a different waiter. 1 starter was missing which we ended up nearly being charged twice for which was rectified in the end.

Mains took far too long to arrive, 3 of us ordered the black and blue burger, this was eaten out of pure hunger in the end, it was terrible… for £19.50 for a burger and chips I expect far better, you’d get a better burger from McDonalds. It shouldn’t be that difficult to make a nice burger. Childs basic chicken burger looked far nicer, but this was the looks. I wasn’t aware you could kill a chicken twice, evidently the chefs at Orange Tree can as it had to go back due to cremation.

I’ve heard bad things recently about some group that’s taken over the kitchen process, so it’s possibly a reheat/boil in the bag process. The shame is on previous occasions at Trent Vale, the food had been fantastic, service impeccable and a great atmosphere but not here.

The waiters need more organisation, seeing several ones all over the place was not good. A table next to us sat with empty plates for 30 minutes. We didn’t order desert as I had to be up for work the next morning so I didn’t bring a sleeping bag to wait.

Overall, the food is sub par for such a nice brand and far too overpriced for the quality. Service was mediocre at best and severe organisation is needed. The place is fantastic to look at and sit in but I’m there for food, not just nice looking place.

P.S order more cocktail menus and actual drink menus as we aren’t...