The Pen And Pencil — Restaurant in Manchester

We visited the Pen and Pencil on Friday 14.6.24. We arrived on time at 4.00 and were shown to our table by a very helpful member of staff who quickly took our drinks and food order.1 x Chilli 1 x Chicken Burger 2 x Philly Cheese Steak. We didn't see her again and presumed her shift had finished. While waiting for our food another couple sat on the next table and ordered their food and drinks, which arrived before ours and was returned to the kitchen and replaced due to being cold. We patiently waited nearly 45 minutes before we asked where our food was, only to be told we had got caught up in a busy period and we were next. Our food arrived at around 5.30 and the order was wrong. We had been sent 2 x Chicken Burgers and no Chilli. We explained this to the waitress who took 1 of the Chicken Burgers away and returned with the Chilli. We distributed the cutlery only to find we only had 3 sets and was unable to get the attention of a member of staff to request another set, having a Burger and Chips i was not too bothered and started to eat my food without. I picked up my Burger and the top of the bun crumbled apart and was not edible The chicken coating was that hard it crunched in my mouth when I tried to eat it and the chicken had no flavour and tasted of nothing. So I left this and decided just to eat the chips with some ketchup minor issue that there was not much in the bottle so I turned it upside down to get the sauce to the top to get it out. The chilli was just sauce in a bowl with no rice or chips and had no kidney beans in it so was just like a spicy bolognese sauce. 1 of the Philly Steaks had cheese on it and 1 did not and again both the buns were not edible and just crumbled if you tried to pick it up. We spoke to the manager and explained that we were not happy with the service and food that had been presented to us, he told us he would discount the bill for us. When the member of staff came to the table to take the payment he was very rude and a little sharp with us asking us to pay and throwing the card receipt onto the table and walking away without any acknowledgment. He then returned to remove the box which contained the condiments and realised the sauce had been left upside down and slammed the bottle back into the box, grabbed the box and struck the arm of one of our party and walked away with no acknowledgment or apology for what he had done. We left the restaurant a little disgruntled, but happy that we had not paid the full amount for the poor service and very poor food. We all agreed to send this message to the management team and wanted to praise the 1st member of staff that had taken our order only to be surprised to find that we had been charged for the Chicken Burger we had not ordered and returned. I don't normally post bad reviews I tend to vote with my feet and never return but this was so bad something...

Popped in for half price food on a Monday after checking the deal on social media (which said nothing about terms and conditions), as it had been a couple of years since our last visit when the food was terrible, so we figured we'd give them a second chance. When ordering I was told that the t&cs dictate that a table must be booked at least one hour in advance and everyone must order a drink, so the barman offered to honour it anyway if we both ordered drinks, fine.

After nearly an hour and witnessing another table being offered a free drink as they were still waiting for food, we enquired about ours. Apparently there was a problem with food orders going through so our order had never reached the kitchen so they apologised and sent us out a complimentary drink each.

After another hour and witnessing other tables food come out first we enquired again, to be told they'd had a separate problem with the printer so the kitchen still had not received our order! I asked for a partial refund of our bill but was refused this and instead offered another free drink each of our choice (which I had to order and wait for at the bar, instead of being brought to our table).

The burgers that came eventually were good but certainly nothing that can't be found elsewhere in NQ, and definitely not worth a 2 hour 15 minute wait and a cycle home in the dark, no matter how many free drinks it came with. You'd think that after messing up once and knowing there's problems with orders reaching the kitchen, they'd be damn sure that ours did! Apparently not, shouldn't have bothered giving them a...

No, just no. Your stomach and your patience will thank you for not going here! For the sake of not writing a novel I will try to pick out the main points.

Two tables (including us) totaling 5 people were in the restaurant. First tables seated. While waiting for our food we witnessed all three meals from the other table having to be returned due to being too cold. On bringing out the reheated dishes the kitchen shouted "make sure they're super hot". When the waitress brought out the third reheated meal she stopped, put her fingers in the dish and took it straight back. Not sure what happened there. She was very apologetic but honestly at the point I was ready to leave, we hadn't even got our food yet.

On to our food. The red velvet french toast was quite nice actually. It might have even been enjoyable if it was warm. Cold french toast was a weird one but not going to kill us. Raw eggs though... We also got the eggs, pen and pencil. Which is basically sausage, bacon and poached eggs on toast. I am the biggest fan of a soft runny egg, but my god that thing must have had as much heat exposure as an ice pop. The server again was apologetic and offered to send out some cooked eggs as I'd scraped all the raw egg into a saucer and was picking what edible food was left. The replacement eggs did not arrive. At this point she sent the manager who removed this dish from our bill, blaming it on a blown heat bulb.

Just don't, go...