The Richmond — Restaurant in Liverpool

the reason i give 1* is because the staff on thursday 12/05/2022, there were 2 lads and one lady were very pleasant, efficient and welcoming. here goes, the place was grotty, sticky tables tacky floor etc. yuk. i did not see one table cleaned between guests whilst we were there and we were there for quite some time, not intentionally. i booked a table for myself my son and my disabled husband. when we arrived somebody was occupying our table and that problem was quickly solved. we arrived at 6.40 so looked at each other a bit miffed as the place was not really clean and really we should just have left then, but it is such a faff to get my disabled husband in and our of anywhere we decided to just give it a chance, as this was not our visit and previously several months ago it was fine. so i go to the bar to order, well four choices we made were not available. so my husband and son decided to order reluctantly the rump steak, not really what they wanted but hey we were here now. i ordered a lasagne with extra fries. we waited almost an hour even the place was only about half full. my poor husband was almost asleep and was just about to leave when the food arrived. steak totally inedible, i took it home and am going to contact ember inns to see if they haveany kind of power tool that could cut it, i would like them to collect it from me. nothing but sinew and shoe leather that had seen better days - one medium rare which was raw and one well done that would have sunk a boat. now to the fries, which were cold and so hard that i put two in my mouth as i was so hungry and they almost cut the insides of my cheeks - so the three of us couldn't eat them either. the lasagne was fairly edible, hardly any pasta and about the size of an egg custard, very dry bog standard salad. pepper sauce watered to within an inch of its life or not properly prepared i couldn't say - oh my husband said the peas were fine, well they would have come out of the freezer and not much can go wrong with them (of maybe he was lucky). by the time i got my husband home, after having really looked forward to him going out as he rarely does - he said to me never again and had a cup of tea and went to bed hungry as he couldn't face anything after that experience. the whole episode was a complete waste of time for him after all the effort it took to get him there and back. i hate writing reviews like this as i have had some nice meals in this pub in the past but they really need a wake up call - as we were leaving, the very pleasant and helpful young lady said goodnight, see you soon and my husband muttered under his breath oh no you won't. i didn't want to cause a fuss at the time as my husband has cancer and really is very ill so i just thought i would wait until i had time and leave...

Food was reasonably tasty, especially for the price (3 courses for £13). One of our portions of battered prawns was slightly undercooked and one of the draught bitters ordered was on the turn, but the other beers on draught were nice. Staff were friendly but not very good at the job, extremely disorganised.

Three of us ordered food separately via the app but all within a minute or two of each other at 15:45. Two of us ordered the 3 courses, the other just the 2. One of our party had received and eaten both their starter and main before either of the other starters had appeared. We were left without any sign of the desserts for some considerable time, and the plates from our finished mains were left on the table the entire time despite a number of rounds of drinks being brought to the table during this time.

Eventually we approached the bar to chase up the desserts at 17:30 and the staff had no idea about the order (believe there may have been a shift change). They then had to come to the table twice over the next 15 minutes to ask us again what we were missing (cheesecake and creme brulee) as they had presumably lost the order. We were then told we would have to wait another half an hour for our desserts.

At around 18:15 we were approached again and told that we would have to wait yet another half an hour for our desserts, as they "would need to make the creme brulee again", unless we would like to alter the order. We swapped out the creme brulee for a second cheesecake, and the desserts (which were very tasty) finally appeared at 18:20.

I would like to say this was an isolated incident, but when we were discussing our missing desserts with the staff at around 17:45 the table next to us had to also point out to the staff that they too had not received their desserts, having waited for over 30 minutes for theirs at that point in time.

The other table were a little more aggressive with the staff regarding the late desserts, which probably explains why their's were then promptly brought out and they had finished and were long gone before our desserts finally made their appearance.

On a comedic note, each time a member of staff came over to apologise for the lack of desserts, we were presented with a spoon that we could use to eat said desserts, once they eventually arrived. As you can see by the below picture, we had accumulated quite a collection by the time the desserts were brought out. The solitary soup spoon that found itself amongst the hoard was an especially...

Live nearby so have been a regular on and off for years. ALWAYS under-staffed so even if it't not busy you will be waiting ages, as they tell staff to go home on quiet times to save money, apparently.

Complete change of new staff every 9 weeks, new manager every 9 months, this place goes through some staff, even by pub standards!

Food portion sizes tiny, you get about 7-9 chips on average so you ALWAYS leave hungry, apparently they weigh the chips, I was told! ......

Generally, but not always, they BURN everything, totally cremated, and burnt.

Staff can be anything from helpful (when new manager arrives for 1st week or so) to being rude. Busy times, Bank Holiday, they always run out of the basics like Vodka, and Chicken etc on busy times, and half the staff don't turn up.

It's a merry go around of a honeymoon period when new manager comes to a fall in standards after managers honeymoon period seems to end.New manager comes, and all is good during the honeymoon period, but it's......... only a matter of weeks........before all the bad standards, return.

To sum it, the place is lovely surroundings nice and relaxed and a lovely decor, but it's run by people with little of no interest, who couldn't care less, and the burnt food never changes, (been a regular on and off 15 plus years) and small portions makes they prices look cheap, but you always leave hungry.

Toilets never cleaned properly either always sticky floors, and instead of cleaning them they mask the small with air freshener and bleach.

Always under-staffed..... so even.... if it's half empty you'll be waiting ages. Over 15 years of being a regular on and off, the service is nothing short of a complete joke, apart from the first week when an ever changing new manager arrives, all positive, then 3 weeks later, he's had a personality transplant, and seems to lose interest again.

Anyone who gave a positive review on here isn't a regular and got lucky with their visit, and sometimes food not so bad, if you get lucky. Drinks are good though and no complaints there.

UPDATE- Same old story came with my family, when it wasn't busy on Tuesday later evening, was a few staff there alright, but running around, with only 1 serving so waited 5 -10 mins everytime we went to the bar. Very slow even when it was not busy as you can't expect quick service when it's busy. We are not expecting super great service, but...