Flower Pot, Macclesfield — Restaurant in Great Britain

We visited The Flower Pot on a sunny bank holiday Monday and sat outside arriving at 4.30pm in time for the kids tea. We ordered drinks on the app which arrived promptly. Unfortunately no one offered us a menu so we had to go inside to get one (you couldn’t order food on the app). Once we got a menu, we waited for half an hour for someone to take our order. We ordered two kids meals and two adult meals. After 45 minutes of waiting for our food, one of the kids meals randomly arrived. Another 15 minutes passed and no other food had arrived so we asked someone and told her we had been waiting for an hour. The lady we spoke to said she would go and check. She came out 5 minutes later with a refund (this turned out not to be for us but for another table) and said that there had been a delay in the kitchen and it would be with us soon. I feel that a good manager would have been out to customers to apologise for any long delays that may have happened. Another 25 minutes passed and as we were about to ask for a refund and head home, our food arrived. The burger was good, the chicken dippers were good but unfortunately the gammon was dry and the egg over cooked. No one came to us to ask how the meal was. Due to the delay, we were there for 2 and a half hours, a lot of that just spent waiting. An hour and 25 minutes for a meal is a long time to wait. Especially with a baby and a toddler. A bit of a disappointing experience...

Booked a table, arrived and found out the kitchen had closed (after they’d let us order drinks). No apology. Tried to say they’d called us (they hadn’t as they didn’t have my number and so obviously I had no missed calls). They shrugged. I understood why the kitchen had to close but an apology rather than excuses for not letting me know at all (let alone before we’d been manipulated into buying a drink there) would have gone a long way. I only even found out we couldn’t order food when another customer asked and I overheard the answer.

EDIT (reply to the reply): harsh may be, but harsh is how I in turn felt treated. Instead of apologising it felt like excuses. Nobody rang, and no messages were left (I actually showed my phone to the man to prove this). I'm not sure what number you think you rang, but it wasn't mine. I mainly don't understand why I wasn't informed that we couldn't dine on arrival; instead the barman went over to the podium, asked where we were to sit (as I'd informed him we wished for an outside table instead or whatever had been reserved inside) and served us drinks. It was only when someone else came with a menu and tried to order that I overheard someone say the kitchen was closed. Had we have known sooner, we would not have ordered a drink, and instead progressed to our second choice of restaurant. Unfortunately we couldn't do this as their kitchen was closed by the time we had drunk...

Hadn't been for years until today when visiting family and the owners have done a brilliant job modernising the interior. It's a really nice looking, well laid out pub and would be nice for a drink.

Unfortunately we went for food and the food is not good. I could tell from the menu that it was unlikely to be made fresh and it was apparent that it isn't. Veg is clearly just boiled or steamed with no seasoning or anything to add flavour, chunky chips were greasy, bread on a hot sandwich hadn't seen a toaster. It's not inedible, but it's not worth venturing out for. We sat inside and multiple servers came to our tavle throughout our visit, only one of which had a mask on. I've worked in hospitality during the pandemic & as uncomfortable as it can be, I and all my staff wore masks for the sake of our own health and that of our guests. Didn't see any track and trace qr codes and there was no attempt made by staff to make us aware of any. Sanitiser station by tge toilets was empty as well. They brought our cuttlery out on trays & encouraged us to take our own drinks off the tray, so I'm not sure why their covid measures are so inconsistent.

I'm sure it would be fine for a pint, but I wouldn't eat there again & not until covid measures are no longer neccesary as they're not on top of safety as other places I've been to. Staff were pleasant & as I mentioned, it's a...