Pesto at the Yacht — Restaurant in England

We adore the Pesto restaurants in Tarporley & the Trafford Centre, and decided to give this branch a try as our friend lives locally. We visited the evening of the 15th August.

Service: We arrived on time but had to wait a while for our reserved table. Ordering our food was fine, but whilst we waited a young waiter dropped food on another customer. He unfortunately was also the one to serve our food, which he threw & dropped down onto the table, to the point that we had to catch some dishes from tipping, and the pizzettas went on to the table. This same waiter also repeatedly carried trays full of food directly over my head for the rest of the evening, as we were near the kitchens.

Food: The food was extremely hit and miss. Two pizzettas were forgotten, and when we asked about them, they arrived burnt on the bottom and barely cooked on the top. The calamari portions were very small, and the caeser salad had far too much dressing on it for the amount of salad. The spaghetti bolognese was fresh sauce served on top of cold spaghetti noodles, which I assume had been precooked much earlier in the evening.

Management / Refunds: When we complained, only one pizzetta and the spaghetti was refunded. We were told that they have a specific amount of caeser dressing they use so they couldn't refund that dish based on our complaint - I have this dish at other Pesto restaurants every time we go, and it was clear in this instance either too little salad had been used, or two portions of the sauce had been added accidently. Furthermore, despite asking to speak to the manager about our issues, he sent a staff member to tell us about the minimal refunds, and never spoke to us.

For comparison, when we went to Pesto in Tarporley, some of our dishes were unavailable and we had to pick new ones. It was handled amazingly, the staff were brilliant, and we never complained (as it wasn't their fault and these things happen!) but they still offered us free desserts of their own volition. So I know Pesto is capable of better food and better service. And judging by the reviews, this one is capable of that too - just clearly not that evening.

TLDR: We had to pay too much for the worst meal we've ever had at a restaurant. The service, management, and quality of food was appalling. The only compliment I can give is that the restaurant itself is beautiful. We won't be returning...

Great choice of food however needs to improve on areas.

Firstly, we were greeted by a friendly faced staff member than was more than accommodating for us however the layout of the Entrance to where you wait to be seated isn't ideal as it is right next to the toilets and down a slim corridor, so if more than 3 people are stood waiting it becomes blocked. In these times of "Stay 6 metres apart" you cannot do that at all and probably get as close as 6 inches if stood in the wrong area.

We were promptly seated and drinks orders were taken as soon as we sat down, this is more of a preference than a comment but I would like to browse the menu for a few minutes to see what is available and not feel rushed.

When it was time to order, being a large party does not help as being an authentic Italian, everything has the correct names and makes it hard to collate what everyone is having, this is even more so when the food arrives and no one can remember what they have ordered due to the names and only a few dishes were stated when being placed down, the rest was guess work/process of elimination. The only thing that I thought was a down side was that we were missing a few dishes and had to chase the staff up to the whereabouts of them, to get told that one of the dishes we actually ordered wasn't even available but by this time the majority of the food was out. We requested another dish instead and that wasn't even brought out either.

With all the hassle over the dishes I will say this though, the food was delicious. The table ordered roughly 3 dishes per person and it was plenty to go around and share some if you wanted as well, but like before, being a large party didn't really help with who's dishes were who's but still enjoyable none the less. The pork belly was succulent and just fell apart when tearing into it, the meatballs were packed full of flavour, the pesto pasta was creamy and delicious and I think we ate everything bar one left over meatball.

The restrooms were clean however was advised that the cubicle doors got awfully close to the porcelain therefore made it a bit difficult to manoeuvre in there.

Really enjoyed ourselves and left happy and full, would definitely return but maybe in a much smaller party. Staff were wonderful and very patient and we all thoroughly...

been going here for many years and booked a table for midday for a family birthday, we arrived at 11.55 and stood outside with the staff looking at us until it was on noon. Following being shown to our table the girl serving was not in a good mood and had no patience on us ordering our meals but we smiled! food arrived, 3 of us had the fish in beer batter - the batter was raw and you could of squeesed it and used it as a sponge this was sent back but by the time it reappeared the rest of the table had finished and was still by no means edible.

we asked for a sweet menu and then waited for 30mins for this to arrive, then waited again for the order to be taken. at 1.45 we were told you have 3 mins to vacate your table, we were still eating the desert that took forever to arrive ! we asked why as there were many tables vacant in the resturant and there were customers that arrived with us that were not asked to vacate? we were told by the girl serving us we only had drinks left and to move to the bar I explained i was still chewing!! she said take it up with a manager.

my husband walked over to the bar to see where we could sit in the meantime the drinks we had were taken away from us I asked the girl that had been serving us for the bill this completely ruined our meal and I asked speak to a manager I was told by the girl that we could speak to a manager when we have settled the bill. we waited for another 10mins and we asked for the manager again who eventually turned up, she made excuses for the bad attitude of the member of staff and the service we had received. My husband picked to go their and was upset it had ruined the meal and the manager told him that she would send a discount voucher by email that day - no shock and suprise that this didnt happen - I was not intrested in receiving the voucher as it had ruined a special occasion that we cant get back with my family

I have Never been anywhere that has treated a group of people in this way certainly was not service with a smile, bad food, bad customer service. the owners of this franchise should take a long hard look at the people that are representing their investment as word of mouth goes a long way in keeping...