The Boars Head — Restaurant in Great Britain

Only given a star at all as doesn't give a no star option. Ruined Christmas Day for our party of 8. £85/head for abysmal service and tatty pub and just ok food....edible. I have waited to review until now so I had calmed down as we were so let down. As soon as we walked in the place my worst fears came true having had hassle booking in the first place (that should've been a warning) the pub is so tatty, obviously not been touched for years....any other time I would've walked straight back out.. but having had to pay in full the week before we had no choice but to see it through. I love old buildings and traditional pubs but not dirty and tatty, threadbare carpets, peeling & dirty paintwork etc... We arrived at 2.30pm and we were the first party it seemed...waitress still laying the tables with cheap paper cloths that didn't cover the table leaving burn marks showing. Odd bits of cutlery...8 of us squeezed onto a table for 6, with crumbs on the seats from I presume the day before. Starters came in dribs and drabs...no being greeted with the glass of included fizz...which we had to ask for. The food was edible but that's as much as I can say....think school dinners. The mains came over the next 20/30 minutes...so the first served had to eat before the rest came....then there wasnt enough cutlery so food was going cold while that came in bits and pieces, my meal didn't even come, I had to ask for it...this had all been preordered! One sent back because hardly any turkey, another no pigs in blankets or turnips....if we weren't so angry it would've actually been laughable...it was like a comedy sketch off the Royal Family! Desserts were then being served before the mains plates were cleared so we had to collect them up all ourselves to make room. The tv was put on loudly for the Kings Speech then left on with a quiz show blasting out! We felt sorry for the waitress as she was totally untrained, hadn't got a clue and doing it all on her own, but from other reviews apparently the landlady gave her a hard time blaming her and putting her down infront of customers when she was doing her best and obviously been thrown in at the deep end!! We didn't see this but other diners witnessed it. We didn't even stay for coffee we didn't want to have to spend another penny in there and were relieved to leave the place! We only booked here out of convenience having never been before, but thought being in Poynton it would be decent...ha! I was just so relieved the next day that noone had food poisoning as can't imagine what the kitchen must be like. Other diners didn't get any food and asked for refunds.....I really wish we had....I only didn't as didn't want to ruin the day any more that it already was! It was my idea to have Christmas Day dinner out and I felt so embarrassed. Shame on you landlady for ripping us all off, extremely poor service, being rude to your staff...and ruining so many peoples Christmas Day!! So many decent restaurants I know were only charging the same as you and have really good reputations, we only chose you out of convenience travelling wise for us all. Although the waitress was aware of our issues and kept apologising I didn't complain to the landlady on the day as didn't want to make an already awful situation worse for my family by making a scene...but in hind sight I wish I had. We will never enter that...

Absolute disaster of a Xmas Day dinner. Party of 8 arrived to be seated a table that was meant for 6 max, table half-covered in a cheap thin plastic tablecloth, the exposed half of the table was burnt.

Sat for ages with no service, eventually the landlady came and we have to ask for the Prosecco which was supposed to have been offered on arrival as part of the £80 a head. We arrived to background Xmas music, until that was turned off to play the kings speech on the TV, followed by a gameshow at full volume while we ate...

Starters eventually begin to arrive, there's no cutlery or condiments or napkins - we ask - 3 sets of cutlery arrive, about 10 minutes later I see someone rushing in to the bar with a dishwasher rack full of cutlery. It's 2:30pm, we are probably one of the first groups to be eating that day.

Mains take about 20 minutes from first to last to arrive, my wife has had to finish hers before mine even arrives to stop it going cold. The first meal to arrive has half a slice of turkey on it...we have to send it back and ask for a proper portion. Another meal arrives with no pigs in blankets or parsnips. Another with parsnips completely cremated. Food is otherwise mostly edible (sprouts barely cooked at all) but we could have made better at home and this was £80 each.

Desserts arrive before our table has been cleared from mains so we have to start clearing it up ourselves. There was one person staffing the bar and one waitress who was doing her best and seemed to feel sorry for us when she handed us our food, didn't see any other staff or management for the rest of the meal. Looking at OpenTable reviews of this place it looks like we had one of the better...

Went for lunch to this place on a bank holiday Monday with four friends, just for a get together... And it wasn't great.

Firstly, the positives. It's a nice place with a busy but attractive atmosphere, very dog friendly and a good mix of customers. There's also a large outdoor space at the back with plenty of sheltered seating for those day days

Secondly, the negatives. This place is just too busy for the bar and kitchens to cope with. We queued at the bar for well over half an hour just to buy drinks and ask where our reserved table was, followed by another forty minutes to order food, and then almost an hour for the food to arrive.

Now this is perhaps predictable for a BH Monday, but then when the food did arrive it was of mixed quality. The burgers and pies looked great, and were reported to be tasty by my friends. But the fish and chips were very poor. No idea what the fish was, but it was nether cod it haddock and just had no flavour. The batter was oily and swamped the actual fish, and chips and peas were ok. thankfully.

I don't know much about running a pub, but to my mind, The Boars Head could be a great place, but to get there they really need to restrict how many meals the try to serve when...