The Clarence - Greenfield — Restaurant in Oldham

What a cracking place. Our party of 4 adults and 1 child popped in on Tuesday lunch time. Worryingly, the place was almost empty which isn't usually a good sign. However, first impressions were otherwise good - the pub has been lovingly refurbished and has a fantastic roaring fire which makes for a nice welcome. We were each offered a copy of the full menu, and a small chalk board was placed on our table with the children's set menu listed on it. Posted on the wall was a larger chalk board which listed the excellent value lunch menu - 1 course for £6.95, 2 for £8.95 and 3 for £10.95. From the pub's Facebook page, it appears that this menu seems to change on a weekly basis which makes a change from most of the local pub/ restaurants.

Being hungry/ greedy three of us opted for three courses. Starters were a tandoori lamb kebab and a bowl of broccoli and blue cheese soup off the lunch menu. The others in the party opted for a side of onion rings as a starter (amazing, by the way!!) and the garlic mushrooms on sourdough. All of these were fantastic and not a scrap of salad leaf was left.

When it came to the mains we went for two cheese and onion pies and the chicken breast in a diane sauce off the lunch menu. Then there were two fish and chips ordered - one off the children's menu, the other off the a la carte menu. The pub helpfully obliged when my picky child requested fries instead of chips, and a picky adult asked for mushy peas instead of beans with their pie. It was remarked that the cheese and onion pie was a taste sensation!

When it came to pudding, I decided that I couldn't take anymore, but others had more stamina than I and ploughed on. And so it was that we came to uncover the Clarence's pièce de résistance. Two of us went for a third course from the lunch menu. The biscoff cheesecake. The ohhhhhing and ahhhing from across the table over these slithers of cake was almost unbearable.

"The best cheesecake they'd ever had" was the verdict. Served with an individual pot of pouring cake and summer berries, these little treats would have made the visit worth it on there own. My son went for the brownie off the kid's menu - this too was proper pud. No messing about here - a giant wedge of warm gooey cake with a melting stew of chocolate sauce poured over the top with an obligatory ball of vanilla ice cream. Finally, rounding off the set-piece there was an apple crumble.

By the time we finished, the pub had accumulated a few more customers, but it's clear that the Clarence's fame has yet to spread far and wide as it is deserving of a much wider audience.

And as for the biscoff cheesecake....well, I had to take a slice home in a (provided) tupperware tray to savour...

I don't often leave reviews, but the customer service we received today was very disappointing. Our first issue arose when we went to order food at the bar, as we were told we couldn't order as there was a "backlog" (this is despite us checking availability before we sat down and the pub garden being empty). Bizarrely we were told to come back to order in 2 minutes. We didn't understand what difference two minutes would make, but we politely waited around until we were allowed to order food. Disappointingly the food then took almost an hour to arrive and it was initially delivered to the wrong table (this is despite us giving a table number on the order). I had to shout the waiter to bring it to us. The waiter then said he would return with cutlery, but after waiting 10 minutes and our food getting cold, I had to look for him and fetch it myself as he had forgotten. After finishing our meals we returned to the bar to order our desserts only to be told again we couldn't order food due to a backlog. This is despite the fact we had already paid for our second course. With no idea when we would actually be permitted to order and no idea of how long the wait could be once ordered, we decided to leave with a refund for our desserts.

I feel most of the issues we experienced could easily have been avoided if our orders had been processed normally and our expectations for wait times had been managed like most establishments.

Overall the food was nice, but nothing spectacular. Considering my main meal cost £17 I expected better, but the beef was nice.

The beer garden to the rear would also benefit from some maintenance, it look rather scruffy with litter and dead plants in pots...

After a great previous experience a couple of months ago, we decided to come back today for lunch. There were 3 members of front of house staff working and a massive lack of communication between them and also the kitchen. We ordered our 14 month old baby’s food off the children’s menu first as she was hungry and said we would order ours after looking through the menu. 10 minutes later, I went to the bar as service wasn’t forthcoming to order my and my wife’s food. Around 25 minutes later, my wife’s starter appeared so we questioned where our baby’s starter of halloumi fries was and the same waitress who had took the order 30 minutes ago looked us dead in the eye and said that we hadn’t ordered this. Mistakes can be made so we moved on and asked her to forget the starter and just bring her main course with ours. When our main courses came (around 40 long minutes later), our baby’s dinner once again did not come to which the uninterested waitress shrugged her shoulders and advised the food order had been mixed up with another table. 15 minutes later I went to the bar to chase the progress and the waitress behind the bar advised it would be very soon.....10 minutes more and another visit to the bar (this time to complain) and again told it was very close. It did eventually come and was the best of 4 meals in total that we had ordered (my steak sandwich was tasteless and chewy and my wife’s lamb hotpot had no flavour whatsoever). Also had to go to the bar to order drinks and now awaiting any form of service. If we haven’t been approached within 10 minutes, I will walk out and they can chase me with the bill (although I doubt very much any member of staff would...