The Watering Can - Liverpool — Restaurant in Liverpool

Unfortunately we are leaving a one star review and it's only because of the atmosphere of the venue that it's getting the one star (and there is no option to leave zero stars) We attended as a four adult family last night 27/10/24 along with my grandson who is 10 months old. It was our first visit to the venue and we were excited to sample for ourselves what people was raving about on Tiktok. We had booked a table for 4.30pm and upon our arrival we were told that certain items of the menu weren't available The black pudding starter, The pork option on the roasts and also no cauliflower cheese. When my wife expressed a bit of disappointment to the server she was spoken to by the server and told "Well, we are open from 1pm and you have booked a table at 4.30 so things run out" We discussed as a family about leaving and going somewhere else but chose to give it a go as we were already there. Surely as a venue who advertise all over social media about the roast dinners you serve you should ensure you have enough stock to cover your bookings for the evening. I put my grandson into the high chair supplied and then spent the rest of the evening having to slide him back into it as he was able to slide completely off the front of the chair. These chairs are not safe for young children to use due to the ill fitting safety strap. We ordered the dipping bread option to eat whilst we waited for our food. This arrived quickly i grant you but with only four half slices of bread for a cost of £4.50 this is a rip off. The starter of King prawns then arrived and was found to be luke warm which is not ideal to be serving shellfish. This is where our doubts started. I then moved my empty plate to an empty table away from reach of my grandson. A server then arrived to take the plate and said I take it your finished with the plate and I found her to be very rude. Our main meals then arrived two of which were a chicken roast option, which we found to be on the bone, which wasn't stated on the menu. If it had been, we would not have ordered it. I myself ordered the beef option, my wife the nut option. We ordered extra roast potatoes and creamed cabbage. We also ordered my grandson a child's option roast dinner.(£9.00) The food that arrived was again not hot on any of the meals. The creamed cabbage was still raw, the roast potatoes were definitely not roasted more like deep fried and we had to use the meat knives to cut through them as they were rock solid. There was no way we could feed any of my grandsons meal to him as everything was hard to cut through let alone feed to a ten month old child.(£9.00) My daughter in law had to scoop the inside of the deep fried potatoes out to give something to our grandson to eat. The Yorkshire puddings had absolutely zero taste to them and were very greasy at the bottom. We ordered an extra Yorkshire pudding (£2.00) for my daughter which she couldn't eat due to it being tasteless. We left that much food on the plate that the server asked us if we wanted a takeaway box to take the remaining food home with us. So for this privilege we were charged £149.90 yes it included the "Gratuity of 10.99" i did not want to cause a scene as I was with my family but there is no way I would have paid a gratuity charge as the service was awful along with the cost of the food which was £123.50 (we had bought a couple of drinks which if added would make the bill up to £149.90) The videos on social media are very misleading and the quality of food is whoafully below what is to be expected. I would definitely not return to this venue in the future. For the prices they charge you can have a decent quality meal at other premises where food will be cooked correctly and arrive at your table hot. Definitely one to avoid. It's a shame I didn't check the recent reviews as I would not have booked...

I am posting this review with great sadness as this was definitely my last visit to the Watering Can.

I have been a frequent client for the last 4 years (ever since you could only order take aways during the pandemic).

There was always a cosy atmosphere, and the breakfast was always great. I even used tip more than 15% before service charge became mandatory.

Unfortunately after my last 5 visits (today being the nail to the coffin) I can provide you with certainty of the following information.

Yes the portions are a little less but crucially the quality of the food has plummeted.

100% the prices (especially for the English breakfast and it’s variants are approaching double the price it used to be).

How is it possible that I had to pay 25 pounds (excluding service charge)for a breakfast and a coffee and then a kids breakfast for my lad? We used to pay this as a family!

Not to mention that every time we go there part of the breakfast components seem to be tasting differently (avocado being a little spicy in the past, today tasteless).

The ONE point that I want to make clear here is the price. It is disheartening to see the prices going up but the quality of the food going down.

I have seen the owner’s response to many reviews. Not once he justified how expensive the food is.

The expensive issue hit home with me when we as a family went to Moose coffee for an extravaganza of an experience and payed £15 less for more food better food and more variety.

How a can a full English breakfast be more expensive than a dedicated gourmet cafe? Again, happy with that if the quality was at least maintained.

I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that the negative reviews are recent.

Self reflect is critical in the hospitality sector. And seeing the other reviews I can tell in the majority the owner is looking for ways of defending the business not improving it.

I will genuinely miss that place. Hopefully it’ll improve again...

Ambiance is absolutely excellent, service is generally very friendly and attentive. Decor is stunning and the atmosphere is relaxed. I have mixed feelings about the food. The freshly made cakes/brownies etc are very very tasty indeed. I ate from the original evening menu and found all of the dishes that I tried to be very nice, flavourful and well put together. The coffee served here is very tasty, too. However I agree with some other reviewers that serving sourdough bread for sandwiches and as toast for breakfast is a bit frustrating and can generally make for a dry eating experience. Also, the method the cooking of their poached egg tends to leave the white semi-cooked and slimy, which is quite off-putting. (Waiting on staff warn customers about this prior to serving.. If you need to pre-warn customers then perhaps a different method that thoroughly cooks the white would be better). I recently ate from the new evening menu and found the quality to be a little lower than before. The mushroom Wellington lacked flavour, the halloumi fries dry and overcooked and the sausage mini pizza was frankly disappointing..One other minor note is the choice of beer isn't that great. I really enjoy visiting here and I hope that the recent disappointing eating experience was a one-off. I really want to give a 5 star rating but I think that some of the inconsistencies in the food need attention before this is deserved. Incredibly impressive and well though-through concept overall, especially given that it is a new business. I'm sure the teething problems will be...