The Red Lion — Restaurant in England

this lunchtime 28th March I visited this establishment . Upon entering and walking to the bar I was given a quizzical look by an elderly man from behind the bar. By that I mean he looked me up and down but didn’t say a word just stood still and looked.I had to say to him and his barmaid “ hello and smile”Usually it’s the reverse .I was asked yes what do you want meaning drink or food . I ordered fish and chips and a small Sauvignon blanc. During and throughout the order process there was no please or thank you or welcoming interaction . Never a smile .I truthfully felt uncomfortable and in the way. My payment wasn’t accepted by swiping my card and was asked to enter my pin . I apologised and when the payment went through I was thanked but not offered the receipt . The food was delivered by the grey haired man and I was asked if I wanted anything else whilst he was here . I said no. He said enjoy your meal .I spent circa £24.75. The fish was very good but the chips were hard and dry . You needed a drink to soften them. No check was given regarding was I enjoying my meal. Two members of staff were laughing and joking .good for them . My point is they can be friendly and pleasant but clearly it’s selective and I didn’t experience a pleasant welcome . It doesn’t take much to be welcoming and a smile goes a long way to make you feel welcome . I take no pleasure from writing this scathing review and I shall be contacting the pub group regarding it . I know many enjoy the Red Lion at Doddleston. It is an attractive food pub and my experience is probably rare or people can’t be bothered to give constructive honest feed back . I hope this help teach both the pub group and staff the importance of what I have...

Please see the edit at the bottom. We had a lovely meal and drinks here at short notice. We've never been here before, this beautiful little country pub is set in a pretty village in rural Cheshire, the interior is just as pretty as the outside, the staff are courteous and helpful and the food is lovely. We will most certainly be back. Highly recommended.

We returned to the Red Lion on the Monday as we were so pleased at the weekend, it was very quiet, about 6 people in the front garden all on one table, 4or5 people on one table in the back garden. There were a number of people in the bar and the dining room was empty apart from myself and my wife. We stood at the sign waiting to be seated, and we waited, and waited. The barmaid was serving but did see us, as did the chef when he was chatting to her. Liv, who had served us a couple of days earlier walked right past us looking down to avoid our glance. And we still waited. Then Liv walked past us again this time we were in her path, so she asked us 'excuse me', walked through and ignored us a second time. By this time we had been waiting 5-10 minutes. In an empty pub, with the barmaid and the chef standing behind the bar chatting, and the server vanished to the rear of the empty pub somewhere. I'm so sorry Sue, but although we DID come back, we won't bother again. I'm assuming that Monday is the manager's day off? Eventually we...

I visited the red lion today and ordered food, service was quick to start and the drinks were very quick, we ordered and the food came about 20 to 25 minutes later which I thought was very acceptable, my wife had steak pie and mash ( in her words it was lovely) I ordered a steak medium to well done with a side of garlic mushrooms, my chips and mushrooms were very good but unfortunately the steak was one of the toughest I’d ever had and it was rare to medium which I didn’t mind but it was impossible to chew, i tried 4 pieces from different parts of the steak to see if it was just an odd part but they were all the same so I left the rest of the steak on the side which was at least 95% of it ,I have steak at every occasion when eating out and in so many countries but This was by far the poorest, we stayed and had puddings which were very nice, at the end of our meal the lady that had serviced us told me that she’d applied discount for the steak which was £12 off the near £27 meal, in my opinion my meal had been ruined and therefore should have been totally wiped off the bill as a good will gesture, it’s unlikely that we will be going back...