The Waterside — Restaurant in England

Food 8/10 Decor & atmosphere 5/10 Staff 9/10 Drink 1/10 Price 5/10 Covid safe protocol 8/10

Booked a last minute table on Saturday night for a date night meal online and was over all very pleased.

My partner and I ordered Fish & chips, onion rings, Mac and cheese, pineapple juice. Portion sizes were large with plenty of sauce, a big cod and absolutely massive chips... (see attached photo)! Presentation was nice too. Food had plenty of flavour to it and was not greasy. Food arrived promptly - probably 20/25 minutes after ordering which is to be expected with Covid problems. Mac and cheese was disgusting with very cheap greasy cheese ingredients however.

Decoration of the pub is nice. It’s a big building with warm colours and nice furniture. Wood burners with cured logs add a winters feel to the place. The lighting is a bit odd in the ceiling, pointing onto walls exposing ugly wires and brackets because it’s too bright to point down. And despite being in the middle of the pub there was a subtle icy draft keeping me a couple of degrees out of the comfort zone. Also the music was on just a little too loud too - I wasn’t shouting over it but it wasn’t ambient either. There were some old grease stains on the wall by our table. Finally the external building could do with a bit better lighting - drove past it and was unclear where to park and enter.

Staff were lovely, attentive, and explained the e-ordering and payment system well, with smart attire and a smile. Covid protocol was well followed with masks and no touching of cutlery and glasses. Man manning check-in could have done with a better mask than his shawl though.

We ordered 2 pineapple juices and they were awful. It was cheap, from concentrate and sour. £3 when it probably came from a 40p carton. Served with a lime wedge, the flavours contrasted rather than complimented. But then really pubs are for drinking in not juicing so perhaps just the wrong choice there as a designated driver.

2 meals, 2 sides and 2 soft drinks came to £40. Food was priced well but disappointed such cheap juice cost £6 together.

Over all I would probably come back...

I had chose to dine here tonight for my birthday with my partner as we have been a few times and the food has been scrumptious, the service was very good, plus it’s convenient as it’s local to us. Well my opinion has completely changed! We arrived at 7 was shown to our table, before we even sat down the waitress asked for a drinks order, we then waited quite a while for menus I saw it was busy so didn’t make a fuss. We finally ordered and again waited ages for our starter which never came instead the waitress bought our mains out when we told her we hadn’t had our starter yet she Said “oh i thought you have had them already and I’ll have the starter taken off the bill and we will give complementary drinks” we thought ok yep that’s fine by us. By the time we had finished our mains we were still waiting for our starter to come out. Not only that my last spoonful of food had a piece of plastic in that was the size of my thumb nail which I almost choked on luckily I managed to unlodge it from my throat, again I spoke to the waitress and had my main taken off. I don’t normally complain about the wait or there being a mistake but the plastic topped it off for me tonight and completely spoilt my...

Sadly not a good experience. This was the first visit and it was my birthday. The starters took 45 minutes to arrive, the table was booked for 7.30 and we actually then got our main meals at 9.30. The food was fine but by then we were past actually enjoying the food as we had waited so long. It seemed totally chaos on the pass and the waitress's were waiting for ages to deliver the food. When commenting on this we were told that they had a table of 16 people that had ordered at different times so they were unable to cope. The restaurant was not that full, goodness only knows what they do for a full service. Very disappointed and did not even bother to order desert as I would probably have had to wait and eaten it for breakfast today. They say first impressions will get you repeat business but sadly it probably won't be ours. They did apologise and give me a bottle of Prosecco as it was my birthday and removed the cost of the Asparagus my husband ordered as it was just the stalks as they had run out. No deduction for rubbish service was made. Sorry not a good time and it ruined my birthday evening. Probably won't...