Vale Royal Abbey Arms — Restaurant in England

Well what can I say, we visit this pub all of the time, and what a shame it was last night, food was truly awful, roast dinners were utterly terrible, looked like it was thrown on the plate from another pub, veg was totally raw, roast potatoes were substituted for some dehydrated new potatoes “apparently we should have been told about that” meat was dry and the Yorkshire puddings were burnt, then we move to the pie, burnt underneath, looked like it had been sat out all day, pastry was substituted for cardboard, completely inedible, fish and chips was okay if the chips weren’t cold.

I complained at the bar to a helpful waitress, clearly the manager was scared to approach us as he was seen sneaking around the entrance peeking in to the snug room, where its quite clear you get forgotten about by the staff if you are unlucky enough to sit there.

3 meals were taken off the bill, but minimum it should have been all of them as they were all awful, it’s fair to say this pub has gone down hill to say the least, still has Christmas decorations up, the place looks dirty and untidy, toilets had rubbish everywhere and smell awful, outside is a mess, place needs an uplift and a decent manager.

What a shame for which was a nice pub, think this was our last visit for food, may pop in for drinks but that will be it as 4 of the 6 have been poorly today, bad stomach’s and being sick, I would certainly avoid this place for food until it sorts it...

Was on holiday in the area and visited this place twice. Nice looking pub from outside. Less than friendly welcome,just not a warm smiling welcome you would expect.

Shown to a nice room just for ourselves and our dog. There were 4 of us.

Drinks order taken quickly and then food order

All good arrived hot and all mains out together.

Had steak and it was cooked beautifully. Gammon and chips again nice.

All mains plentiful portions and enjoyed

Desserts again were delicious. Chocolate brownie. Neopolitan slice all really tasty

One of our party didn't eat their citrus tart. I tried it and it didn't taste great at all

Waitress was told and it was removed from bill

Great service by waiting staff

Next visit was in a Sunday when we had booked for a roast.

Be warned I booked on line and they didn't have my booking. Fortunately we got a table.

Too small really for 4 of us as all were eating and drinking.

But the roast beef which we all had was really good. Massive portions. Lots of beef and lovely gravy. We all enjoyed it.

2 of us had desserts and I tried the neopolitan slice this time and it was delicious.

Overall. Good food. Clean toilets. Place lacks atmosphere. Plenty of parking. One of the waitresses really needs to learn to smile and some people skills but if I was ever in the area again (which I won't be) i would eat...

Food was a disappointment. Mushroom and Stilton starter looked and tasted like a cheap mushroom soup. No hint or taste of any Stilton what’s so ever. Main was a vegetable curry. Unfortunately this was also bland and came with rubbery long grain rice (think uncle bens boil in the bag). Not a basmati rice either, that you would expect with an Indian meal?

The other starter was salt and pepper squid. Very salty, but not peppery in any way. Also it was strangely cooked in some kind of batter that made it taste like chewing rubber bullets. Not a simple seasoned panko breadcrumb style as you would expect.

Other main was 10oz gammon with onion rings. Now unless the gammon had gone on a diet in the fridge without the chef knowing, but still managed to maintain a high level of fatty marbling, this was not 10oz!! 6oz at best and the toughest, chewiest cheap cut they could find.

The Onion rings were 2 anaemic tiny rings (about the size of onion rings you get in a packet of crisps), but with no flavour whatsoever. Just oily batter taste.

Overall not a great experience, and we skipped any desserts available. I’ve visited similar JW Lees chains and the meals are not this bad, so maybe it’s just a pub to avoid. I certainly would not recommend.

Staff were ok, but did not pick up on the fact that we found the food ok,...