The Trooper — Restaurant in Lichfield

Appalling treatment, food and service. Staffordshires' premier steakhouse that couldn't cook a steak properly to save their lives. Other recent reviews also confirm this isn't just a one off. Save yourself a lot of money and a headache, a restaurant that's all fur coat and no knickers. Dirty glasses, poor food and even worse customer service dressed up in a country setting.

After being seated and drinks orders taken we waited 20 minutes for drinks to arrive. When they finally did my glass had a huge piece of pink/red substance on the inside of the glass, one of the water glasses had a big crack and a nice set of lipstick stains on the side. After an apology from our server the drink was replaced and the glass taken away.

The large table next to us having arrived after us were served all their drinks, starters and mains before we were even served our starters which we had to make eye contact with our server to receive who then went back to the kitchen after discovering we had been seated for over 1h 30 mins with no food. We waited patiently. We received starters, all fine and they were OK.

Around 20 minutes later my 'medium rare' Tomohawk steak arrived. Their premium most expensive steak on the menu which we were told they only had one remaining. Immediately I had to tell the server that my steak which for some reason had already been sliced for me? that it was way overcooked to almost a medium well. I then had the steak returned to me by the chef who asked a young male server to ask on his behalf for me to 'check again, take another look'. Unfortunately upon my second look at the steak it still hadn't reversed the cooking process and was still well overcooked with the server fully agreeing with me.

Following this disappointment the other steaks for the table arrived. One fillet, a rump and a ribeye all ordered medium rare. Both the fillet and the rump arrived overcooked and left to cook on one side a lot longer than the other resulting in one side being completely cooked through and the other with slight pink. As for the ribeye steak I can only describe this medium rare cut as something likened to a leather shoe. Cremated within an inch of its life and completely grey throughout. Following this we had received enough poor treatment and so we rightly told our server we were going to leave and we would not be paying for our food. The server went to fetch her manager which we thought would be a great opportunity to receive an explanation and an apology/compensation. We couldn't have been any more wrong. From the off the manager arrived with a foul condescending attitude. I explained the situation to the manager who was immediately only interested in insisting we pay our bill up to the point of our main meals. Unbelievably we had to argue profusely to have part of our bill compensated! The manager even tried to resort to saying that she was being shouted at by four men? Not once was a voice raised in the conversation and this lady was trying anything in the book but taking responsibility for the awful food/service we had received. She then also proceed to lie and say we had been offered 50% off mains and we had been offered replacement food all of which was made up, when we challenged this the manager then resorted to 'well you didn't even wanna come did ya Cuz you called up earlier and tried to cancel' We called earlier in the day to see if we could cancel the booking as our golf round was pushed back later, we were told we would be charged a fee and so we decided to cut the day short and rushed over to make our table. The manager then spent the rest of the conversation insinuating that because of this we were returning our severely overcooked steaks? Eventually we had our starters comped and paid for our drinks.

This was the worst food/treatment we have received in our lives we left embarrassed and in shock. I highly recommend choosing a steak restaurant where the chef and staff have enough basic competence to cook your steak to order and not try and blame you afterwards with sheer arrogance...

Went to the Trooper August 2025 with my wife and one year old daughter. And whilst I know it isn't the ideal place for babies we couldn't find a sitter and needed a bit of a date night. That being said this is the second time I've been (The first time was superb) but this was my wife's first experience and now unfortunately it doesn't look like I'll be returning anytime soon.

When we arrived we were seated at a really sticky table so I asked for the table to be wiped and was told that it wasn't anything that could be wiped off, it's the one table in the restaurant that needed re-finishing and varnishing. I can't understand out of all the tables that were available (and there were quite a few) why we were seated here if that was the case? Instead of being re-seated at a different table the server swapped the table with the one next to us (as two smaller tables made up our table for 4).

We ordered drinks and we were asked if we would like water for the table and said yes.

The starters arrived and they were really nice...the pork belly was especially delicious however it was at this point that my wife took a sup of water (she had been drinking Pimm's and Lemonade that she had ordered previously) and I could see the look of disgust as she quickly put the water back down and said it smelled of wet dog. I checked and she was right there was definitely a foul smell coming from her water. As the water I was drinking was fine and it came from the same bottle, the glass was obviously somehow tainted. We made the server aware of this and he checked and promptly changed the glass.

When the mains arrived I tried my ribeye and it was spot on. Perfect cook and beautifully tender...my wife's rump on the other hand was absolutely awful. It was tough and rubbery and near impossible to cut. We had to send it back which she felt reluctant to do as we had already complained about the glass and the table. I got the server's attention and asked for it to be taken back...I asked for a ribeye for her instead (knowing that mine was fine) and said I'd pay the extra to which the server told me there would be no extra charge.

I then finished my main before my wife was served her replacement meal so that wasn't ideal although the steak she received was 100 times better. All 3 servers that were on duty came to the table to check that the replacement was better and the last server states that he thought the first steak didn't look great when he brought it out (yet he still brought it?)

Once my wife finished, we had desert and the desert was lovely. We opted for the trip of desserts and these are full size not mini versions so great for sharing and really nice although the creme brulee is a little runny for my liking.

We asked for the bill and it came to £144 but we were charged extra for the ribeye which I promptly asked to be taken care of bringing the bill to £137.

This isn't the most expensive meal but it is definitely not cheap and I don't mind paying for value but considering they sat us at a sticky table, the glass was tainted, the rump steak was tough and I'd then finished my main before my wife so we didn't really get to eat together, I really don't think we got what we paid for.

That being said the servers were really nice and the rest of the meal was really nice too but I can say that my wife definitely didn't enjoy...

We booked for Christmas day at the trooper in Wall, after seeing their menu, for £100 per head it looked good, how wrong we were!.We arrived at the given time of 2.00pm, and were expecting a welcome drink in line with the menu, what we got was ignored. The restaurant was full, with guests just finishing a 12.00 sitting. There was a lot of staff stood around talking, but no one acknowledged us so we sat down and waited. After some 10 minutes I approached a staff member to book in, and I was told to wait as our table was not ready. This we did. Some 15 minutes later we got taken to a table , and as we sat down we were served with 4 small pieces of bread, some packets of butter and some oil. Not the selection of olives , bread and oils as advertised, just like the no show welcome drink , also as advertised. We had no side plates of bread knives, so waited for a staff member to pass us, but just then out came our starters, luke warm soup, and some basic cold starters, not a great start to our Christmas day meal. When staff came to clear away we requested a break as we felt very rushed, but some 10-15 minutes later out came the mains.All 4 mains had stone cold sprouts, literally out of the fridge, no selection of vegetables, just a carrot and a parsnip, no cranberry sauce and no gravy .The meals were poor, more like a cafe offering, not a Christmas day event. The waiter brought us more sprouts, however the cold ones remained on our plates ! The staff were plenty, but all cleaning tables for the next intake of guests, and not concentrating on the guests they already had, virtually no drinks service . We were offered no sauces, or extras, or asked if we were happy. When the food was cleared, out came the desserts almost immediately. The advertised sticky toffee pudding had no dates in and was a plain sponge covered in cold custard, and the cheese board was the worst we had ever seen, it should never have left the kitchen !! Green and orange cheese, not the selection advertised, cheddar, and stilton, no butter, 6 grapes and 4 biscuits. We sent it straight back, and requested the advertised cheese selection. We were informed that they had run out !! it was 3.30pm ? After this we left, very disappointed indeed , our Christmas day meal a disaster. There had been no menu as advertised, no atmosphere and no service, although there was a lot of staff hanging around chatting. I have complained to the trooper via email and calls. Whist the staff at the restaurant have tried to settle our complaint , head office have completely ignored our emails, and we have now chosen to take court action as no one is listening to us. Very poor customer service indeed. We have dined at the Trooper many times before , and twice on Christmas day before now, it has always been good, not sure why it has gone down hill so much now, but if head office is anything to go by I...