The Woodstock — Restaurant in Manchester

I visited the restaurant with some friends to have lunch. On arrival, the server was pleasant, and arranged a table for five of us to eat.

The issues started once our party was seated, and we wanted to enjoy the new menu.

We requested drinks for the table, which took over half an hour to arrive. I had to ask the waitress behind the bar three times before we were eventually told that our original server had been moved downstairs to accommodate for the high number of guest who had arrived. This was only made clear to us after we finally received our drinks.

With our drinks in hand, we were excited about trying the delicious sounding food on the menu. However, once we had made our minds up, things started taking a turn for the worst.

One of my friends asked for a Pizza, and she was then told that “maybe” there wasn’t pizza today because the waitress thought that the pizza oven wasn’t on that day. When we enquired further, we were told that it hadn’t been on all day, and that she presumed it still wasn’t. At no point did the server take the initiative to ask another member of staff, or double check.

So, no pizza. The next cheesy option on the menu was the Camembert, so we ordered that. Once everyone else had placed their orders, we were then told 10 minutes later that there also was no Camembert, so, in a desperate effort to get small plates ordered (and no hummus on the menu to be seen), bread and olives were chosen in the hope that at least that was in stock. It was requested that all the meals come out at the same time, including the starters, as my friend was having that as a main.

Once we had ordered our food, we gleefully anticipated our delicious meals. The bread and olives arrived reasonably quickly, and were delicious. What wasn’t as palatable was the 30-45 minute wait we endured after the bread had arrived.

The upstairs of the bar was less than half full, and when tables which had arrived to the restaurant after we had ordered were getting their food, our hunger fueled state of annoyance started to grow. We begrudgingly asked the waitress about our order when we could no longer stand it any longer, and were told that was just being plated up. On arrival, there was no apology for delay, no explanation, and, when we finally did get our food, we were greeted with the waitress shouting “Jesus!” as she nearly tripped over and spilled our fish and chips over my friend’s head.

From the onset, it seemed that the staff had not been properly trained, or had not worked at the restaurant very long. As less than half of the upstairs restaurant was occupied, there was no way that the issue was understaffing. The lackadaisical attitude of the staff turned what should have been a leisurely Saturday afternoon lunch, into a never ending experience of some of the worst service I have ever received in a restaurant.

I left feedback on the restaurants website, and requested feedback, and asked to be contacted about our experience, but heard nothing back.

On a positive note, the food was really good! Shame about...

This is a lovely pub with beautiful interior, spacious car parking and excellent food. However they are falling down on some of the more basic hospitality skills. I most recently attended with children and despite being told to sit wherever we wanted and order at the bar we were not automatically given a children's menu and these were not on the tables with the main menu etc. So we had to ask for a children's menu. I noticed the children's menu has a dedicated colouring page on the back but we were not given crayons for this when we were given the children's menu so had to ask again. Providing children's menu and crayons should be automatic if staff see children who are dining at their establishment. Also there was an initial refusal at the till to sub a carbohydrate on the plate for anything else of the green veg variety (due to dietary requirements) which i found very strange as this is a very basic concept. We had to wait while this was verified with the kitchen which seems excessive as the sub was a house salad not even a cooked item so was easily replaceable. Part of dining out is being looked after and attended to and we didn't feel this was particularly the case as staff seemed more focused on attending to a table of guests from within their own industry than regular custom which was disappointing. These are all very easy fixes however and would increase the profile of the establishment considerably, especially that feel good feeling you want when your meal is finished and you're on your way home with the memories of the same. Room for improvement.

Edit: we visited again today and encountered exactly the same issues of not automatically being given a children's menu despite having a child present and having to ask for crayons for the children's menu as they were not given with it even though it has a colouring page on one side... We actually had to leave without placing an order as the kitchen had apparently run out of crudités and the other options for starters on the children's menu were cabbage(!) or a salad, neither of which are child friendly. The kitchen refused to provide a suitable substitute and the server suggested we buy the children's meal deal anyway but not have a starter which I found unacceptable as you should receive everything you pay for. This establishment is not child friendly based on our recent experiences and as a family with three young children- we won't return. Children are the clientele of tomorrow so providing them with an enjoyable experience is important if businesses want to establish future custom. This establishment should drop its children's menu and serve solely to adults as the menu itself is ill devised for children's palates and staff/kitchen are inflexible with providing substitutes even if the substitution need arises from their own lack of adequate stock inventory. Not good enough. There are plenty of eateries to choose from so we went...

Great venue. Really good food and great customer service (but this comes with a caveat as I will explain hence only 4*). We planned a date night, we have not eaten here before. We were met very cordially by a staff membet and shown to our table. First thing we noticed with this otherwise great venue is the acoustics. High ceilings and the lack of soft furnishings created a very loud echoey, reverb rich atmosphere. Great if you are there drinking with friends but not what we were hoping for for a romantic meal. I scanned the qr code for ordering and it was really good as it showed what wasn't available. I liked that. I wasn't going to get embarrassed trying to a starter they didn't have. However, I couldn't order any of the specials that were pinned to the paper menu through the app. I had to go to the bar which was no problem at all as my partner did have a specific request for her main. The special I wanted want available which did disappoint me. I went with my first choice before I found out about the specials. Order in place, request applied but then the staff member couldn't get the till to work properly, my dining gift cards didn't work, another man's QR code credit thing was declined too. I had to go back to the table to explain the situation and we decided to pay on our debit card instead. Only for the situation to be resolved thanks to the man with the qr code persevering with the staff and a senior staff member. It did take nearly 10 minutes to sort out. I then had to start again with my order from scratch, but the staff member who now had been shown how to process cards properly had remembered my order precisely. This made up somewhat for the minor inconvenience. Heading back to the table our starter had arrived from the first time I tried to order. It hadn't been sent to the kitchen yet as that first attempt was cancelled. Mike panic from the staff member who thought we had someone else's food. She went to the kitchen to check but it was correct. So perhaps get till was playing up somewhat. It was piping hot and really tasty. There was one big let down was that half the puddings and starters were not available. Fortunately we found other options which took us out of our comfort zone and what we had was fabulous. JW Lee pubs always offer really good food in our experience. Not cheap but...