Kings Arms — Restaurant in Oldham

Have visited here once before and should have stuck with my gut that first impressions count, as my first experience of this place wasn’t the best, but I stupidly decided to give it another try. First time I visited, my mum ordered from the ‘Light Lunch’ menu but in error they served her a normal portion. We had never visited here before so how were we supposed to know what it should look like. My mum left the meal as it was too much for her to manage and was overwhelming, thinking if that was a light lunch, we can only imagine how big the normal meals must be! Upon receiving the bill we realised we had been charged for a normal sized meal. We pointed out that we had in fact ordered from the Light Lunch menu, only to be told, begrudgingly, by the waitress that she would have to see what she could do about that. Eventually the bill was altered to reflect the light lunch that we had in fact ordered. The lady who I presume was the owner was stood hovering at the till giving us dirty looks as if it was our error. We stupidly thought we’d give this place the benefit of the doubt and decided to visit for lunch to celebrate my mum’s 70th birthday. As soon as one of our party arrived with a birthday cake, we felt the atmosphere of the staff change with one waitress saying, “Just to let you know, you can only have the table till 3pm”. The time was 1pm so why did we have to be told this two hours earlier and also why weren’t we told this upon making the booking over the phone weeks in advance? We told staff we would definitely be vacated by that time and then felt rushed to order food. After finishing our meals we had our plates stacked up for ages, meanwhile the waitresses stood chatting and laughing at the bar whilst the owner/manager (lady with glasses and blonde bobbed hair) was showing them something on her phone. A member of our party had to eventually get up and go and ask if they could clear our plates and also kindly asked for some small plates. The manager said “One minute” and proceeded to slowly take her time- got the impression she’s a lady who likes to be in control and does not like ever being told what to do as if she will do things in her own time, when she and only she wants to do them. Another party member asked if it was possible she could have some serviettes (as she wanted to wrap a piece of cake to take home for her child) only to be told by the manager, “You can have blue roll”- each place setting must be allocated only one serviette and once you’ve used it then it’s tough as you’re not allowed any more. We could see the manager giving us dirty looks throughout our birthday festivities and her negative attitude really resonates onto her staff as they all came across as rude and obnoxious in their manner, which over time has led to a toxic workplace. We really believe the negative attitude shown towards us was because we took our own birthday cake. This should have been a lovely birthday lunch for my mum’s 70th birthday with our family and it’s a shame as the food is relatively good but the attitude of the manager really changes the atmosphere of this restaurant and makes the whole experience a negative one. Maybe there should be warning signs around the restaurant to make sure customers use your one serviette sparingly and also don’t bring your own cakes or you won’t get the service you expect or deserve! I’d avoid this restaurant if I was you and definitely won’t be visiting it again or recommending to...

The landlady has an unbelievably, disgusting attitude. By reading some of the other reviews, it appears like she’s well known for it. She consistently had a face like she’d chewed about 3 wasps - no customer wants to see that.

Visited Kings Arms for a birthday meal. Soon as you walk in you can feel there’s a hostile atmosphere. Staff aren’t friendly, warm or welcoming. Within 15 minutes of getting there, the waitress told us they’d need the table back by 3pm, due to another booking. There was absolutely no need to say that 2 hours before the next booking, the way she said it was rather rude too.

As we were there to celebrate a birthday, we had brought a birthday cake with us - as far as I’m aware, it is not unusual nor a crime, and many people do it. We’re not sure if that was the reason why the landlady was extremely rude to us, because we brought our own cake and were unlikely to order desserts from them, or whether she’s just got bad attitude all the time!

Once we’d finished our mains, no one came to clear our plates, offer any more drinks. Our food plates were just left in front of us…and it was blatantly obvious it was intentional.

We had to ask multiple times for our table to be cleared and to be given extra plates so we can have our cake. Each time, our request was met with rudeness and an unnecessary delay.

Special message to the ‘lovely’ landlady at Kings Arms. It is entirely the customers discretion whether they wish to buy your desserts or not, that’s their right…they are the reason you are in business - and they’ll always hold that power over you. You might also want to take a course on how to run a business, learn ways to not leave customers walking out of your place with a bad taste in their mouth. How to retain customers by not having a really bad attitude, and maybe keeping your workforce happy so they don’t have bad attitude that resonates to the customers.

Every member of staff had a face on them, looking like they were forced to work at gun point. The energy was bad from the minute we walked in, and it resonated between all the staff working there. Usually, when you see the workforce with such bad attitude and energy, it’s rotten right from the top…you know, our lovely…wasp chewing landlady.

People, do yourselves a favour. Take your custom and money to a place that will appreciate and value it - reciprocated by giving you amazing service and hospitality.

Don’t line the pockets of the people like the landlady of Kings Arms, who will never appreciate people’s hard earned money spent in her business.

We’ll never be going there again, and we’ll make sure everyone we speak to swerves it too.

So, our favourite landlady, ‘was it worth upsetting your customers for...

Myself, my partner, and my mum went for food at The Kings Arms, and it was by far the worst dining experience we’ve ever had.

When we first sat down, we were told there would be a bit of a wait, which was fair enough and I appreciated the honesty. I ordered braised steak, my partner ordered steak with prawns, and my mum ordered fish and chips.

However, after our order was taken, three other couples (a total of 9 people) came in after us and were all served before us. When food eventually came out, the servers brought six braised steaks to our table, which clearly wasn’t our order. I had already started cutting into one before we realised. They then took it away, and we had to wait another 15 minutes — by this point we had been waiting an hour and a half with still no food.

When our meals finally arrived, the braised steak with vegetables and onion gravy was watery and tasteless. The prawns added to my partner’s steak were undercooked and mushy. I asked for mine to be remade, and the server admitted we had been waiting ages, but her excuse was that “one of you ordered a steak.” A steak takes 10 minutes to cook — hardly an excuse for that level of delay.

I then sat waiting for the remake that never arrived. Another server came over later asking how everything was, and when I said I was still waiting, she told me she was under the impression I had cancelled the order. Even if I had, why wasn’t I offered something else? Completely unacceptable.

We asked for the bill, and although the prawns were removed, the whole experience ended on an even worse note — the woman who took our payment was unbelievably rude, dismissive, and didn’t even bother with an apology.

Shocking service, poorly cooked food, and downright rude staff. I wouldn’t recommend The Kings...