The Pen Factory — Restaurant in Liverpool

To be curtly told when you walk through the door " i'm sorry we re fully booked" before you ve even had an opportunity to say you have booked is not a great start.

To then be shown to your table and ignored for 15 mins whilst waiting for someone to come and at the very least take a drinks order is not good either.

To then have to go and find a member of staff who grudgingly appears at your table a few minutes later to take your food and drink order ( with no explanation of specials until you re told that there isn't the one you wanted to order on the menu any more ) just seems like a daming continuation on a theme.

In fairness . the starters and the two mains we had were very good so the kitchen certainly deserve thanks for their great efforts but a new low was hit when our starter plates were cleared when we were asked " did we just want to keep our cutlery to use for our mains ?" I was so taken aback i didn't actually know what to say until my partner made it abundantly clear that we would indeed not like to keep the same cutlery. i have NEVER been asked this and considering you re expecting a bill of 3 figures for 2 course for 2 plus wine and this is not a street food or quick in and out type of place i am genuinely flabbergasted this question was asked.

If you are the owner of this place and you dont know this is happening , then i 'm sorry to say it is.and i strongly suggest you remedy with immediate effect as i cant help but think this is not an isolated incident of stratospherically bad customer service

Your front of house is shambolic, dis -interested at best- which seems at complete odds with the lovely physical environment - noisy and busy but that's fine - and the food we had was very good but my God, in 2024 in a city with many food options your front of house offering is woeful and light years away from the other first class offerings we had whilst...

Pre show bite to eat. It wasn't busy, lots of space, nobody waiting to be served at the bar but not acknowledged by barman as he was tapping on his till. Did get 2 tasters of beers and they were fine. Asked for food menu and sat down. 10 minutes later as neither of the waiting staff had been to our table my partner approached them at the kitchen and they took our order of 4 small plates. We were advised it would be served when ready. Around 30 minutes later the meat and fish dishes were delivered but no potato sides. We started eating as we didn't want it to go cold, we had both put our coats back on as it was rather chilly in there. After another 20 minutes the potatoes arrived, we had already finished our meat and fish. We did raise this with the waitress that we would have expected all the food to be served together, nothing was difficult one would assume that chips are already part cooked yet the kofte meatballs may have taken a little longer but arrived first along with calamari, another quick dish to cook. Another table nearby told us they had been waiting since before we even arrived and that was for 2 bowls of scouse. Yet a larger group seemed to get excellent service and had their meals very quickly after ordering. The food was tasty but the service and kitchen needs to improve dramatically. I also understand that Paddy no longer manages this establishment so the description is rather misleading . This used to be a great place. We won't...

The food was absolutely incredible—some of the best we’ve ever tasted. However, the service let the evening down.

When we arrived, it was unclear where to go to check in for our reservation, so we ended up awkwardly waiting at the bar. The restaurant seemed short-staffed, as our table wasn’t ready despite us arriving ten minutes late, and there was confusion about where we were meant to sit.

We placed our order with the manager but weren’t informed of any out-of-stock items until after ordering. This happened again with our wine selection—we had to choose multiple times before finally being given a different bottle at a discounted price, which we appreciated, though it wasn’t our first or second choice. We had to ask the server for cutlery for our mains and also for our desserts we had to ask for utensils.

One annoyance was the clashing music. The restaurant played slow chilled out songs, while loud drum and bass and techno music blasted from the open kitchen around 7:30pm likely from chefs cleaning down after service. It created a strange and disruptive atmosphere but the food was sooo good we let them off :D

Overall, the food was outstanding, but the service and ambiance could use improvement, I think they need more staff as everyone seemed to run around.

I will definitely be returning for the food and the...