Blockhouse at The Sheet Anchor — Restaurant in Newcastle-under-Lyme

It was OK. Nothing more, nothing less. Considering we paid over £120 for two of us to have a starter and a main course and two drinks each with a coffee, the quality of the food and the service we received were a long way below that standard. We're not in London, those prices need to be accompanied with very good standards.

The staff made my wife feel extremely uncomfortable regarding her gluten allergy, to the point where we didn't order anything else because we didn't want the questions associated with it.

The food was OK. We ordered nachos to start with and they were delicious. No complaints here. For mains we ordered the salt and pepper brisket which didn't have much flavour at all, and just didn't work with the salt and pepper 'sauce water' that was poured all over it. My wife ordered the ribeye which was very good - although on the small side for a £30 steak. We ordered a side of onion rings which were lovely, and mushrooms with hot sauce and gouda which were just... Well... Gross. It tasted like a bottle of Frank's Hot Sauce was poured onto them and some blocks of melted cheese - we ate one each and left the rest because they were just off putting.

The service felt rushed. The staff felt like they wanted us to leave. It wasn't late at all but we were asked multiple times before we'd finished if we were ready to have our table cleared. Once we'd finished and asked for a coffee it seemed like we were just annoying the staff by asking for one - the staff didn't know what a Baileys coffee was, and then insisted on making sure that my wife could drink a coffee because of her gluten allergy. It's served with a Biscoff. In a packet. Yes, a coffee is gluten free, just don't serve the biscuit, or make her aware of it.

Awkward, overpriced and not worth returning to. It wasn't awful, but it certainly wasn't particularly good especially for...

I feel awful for not leaving a five star review as there is clearly many . However for myself personally the price point of the food does not reflect what was served. I cannot remember clearly if this venue has always been a paragon pub however I remember years ago the food being better ? My friend ordered a burger of which seemed a lot smaller than they were a couple of years ago . I ordered a full rack of ribs that was around £24. Now I have no problem with expensive restaurants and understand prices increase due to inflation however there are many competitors that offer better options I would argue such as hickory’s which is also a smokehouse and slamwich club in hanley and leek. The full rack of ribs was not cold however it was lukewarm . In defence of the restaurant o did not say anything as when the server asked us I was halfway through eating and It wasn’t bad enough to warrant having my meal changed and not being able to eat with my friend . I’m also not a Karen. The chips were also lovely. There is however nothing special about this meal - you’d expect to be able to taste the smokiness or a special flavour to the bbq sauce with it being a smokehouse however the meat wasn’t particularly special which I think is a shame . A pint of coke is also expensive compared to other restaurants - almost £5!

The servers were absolutely brilliant which is a credit to the restaurant , restaurant was very clean also and presentation of the food was lovely . We came at lunchtime and the restaurant was practically dead - my theory being they have the same lunch and dinner menu and not many people want to pay dinner menu prices for a quick lunch stop. They’d benefit from doing a brunch menu of some sort or a...

My meal was amazing I can't say anything bad about it however my friend who's leaving do we went for ordered the shared plate with another friend. It cost £65 and came cold and dry the portion size was tiny and I can honestly say I had more on my plate than there was on the share platter. Looking back to when one of my friends came less than a year ago and got the same share platter it was clear they got alot more for £5 less. We didn't say anything during eating as at the point the staff came over the food that had been eaten off the platter was warmish and we didn't realise the rest was cold. The ribs that came on it had barely any meat on them and when separated one was bare while the other had the tiniest amount of meat. We also originally had no drinks menu and when we wanted second drinks had to go to the bar as the staff neglected our table for the 50 minutes we was waiting for food. When we did say something about the food we then found the staff calling us all sorts of names at the bar for saying the food was cold and even when we did say something the member of staff we told was trying to blame us. I would have went back but the staff were that awful it put me off. They did knock £20 off for the cold meal but then attempt to put a £20 service charge on despite ignoring our table. It was very gutting as my meal was amazing but the treatment of the staff, name calling and unter disrespect has really put me off and the price just isn't worth it would highly recommend going somewhere else alot of places are a better value for money and have much...