Ancient Oak — Restaurant in Preston

Absolutely appalling!!! Went today with 2 friends having looked at the menu online before hand, once there find out that menu isn't available, it's a restricted menu (understandable given current virus situation.) 3 people ordered from restricted menu, 2 of the 3 meals.not available. New selections made, meal ordered. I am a vegetarian and an already limited choice becomes more limited by restricted menu. I ordered vegan Cajun 'chicken' wrap, food arrives, one bite in and to my horror it was actual chicken not vegan, really! An entry level no no right there, serve meat to a vegetarian! I take it back, was given a quick apology and they go off to get the vegan one made up, after further to and fro about what was actually available in the kitchen my meal was brought out, I have to say it was possibly the most horrific thing I have ever eaten, a big wrap with barely 2 inches of filling in it and at least an inch of that filling was inedible, so hard you would risk a tooth trying to bite it. It looked and tasted horrific. I eat out often and this is the first time I have felt the need to write a review this bad. I gave it 1 star because the coffee was decent and i felt sorry for the staff, they looked absolutely defeated and didn't seem a bit surprised by the catalogue of horrors that made up our visit today. I would recommend avoiding at all costs at least until they have the same stuff in the kitchen as they do on the menu and they can distinguish between vegetarian/vegan meals and meat/poultry.

Updated after your response....

Your reply is as disappointing as the experience we had. You have not once in your reply addressed the fact that a vegetarian was served a meat product, we both know that this is a massive no no in the food industry and had I been vegetarian for religious or health reasons all manner of problems could have occurred. Not everyone is a faddy part time vegetarian and for some this is a more serious issue than others (I have been a vegetarian for 40 years so not a fad for me) The fact that you did not address this issue at all in your response shows how little you regard it as a problem, disappointing and surprising from a business owner and a vegetarian. From the whole review you took away "she didn't like the meal" not "oh god, we served meat to a vegetarian" super...

Went to ancient oak on a Sunday evening, table pre booked days in advance for 20 people, so they knew we were coming. When we orderd our food they told us there was going to be an hour wait for food as they were serving everyone else first. This isnt what we were told over the phone when booking, we were told that with it being such a big party theyd be closing the kitchen off whilst they made our food. We orderd our food anyway. Food came out 3 or 4 meals at a time with 10 minutes in-between every other meal. The last 2 meals came out when the rest of our party had near enough finished there food. We had to correct orders as they came out. They had one young girl serving all the meals to our tables, and correcting wrong orders, all on her own. The beef burgers, which the majority of people orderd were dry, the rump steak in the 3 mixed grills that were orderd were just all gristle and no meat, the Chipotle chicken starter had never seen chipolte sauce , it was a sweet teriyaki type of sauce..which would of been fine if they'd have just told us it wasn't Chipotle. The draft went, which I get it.. its happen, but the other alternative was a bottle of coke/diet coke at £3.20 a time..would of been cheaper to drink alcohol. Yes it was busy at the time, but dont take a party of 20 on if you haven't got the staff or can't cater for a party that big. That poor girl running round on her own was out of order. The place has a nice beer garden and is a good size, shame my first time here made it my last. For all of us.

Upon reading previous reviews it seems they can't handle larger parties atall. Everyone had the same problem of waiting times between food arriving, so seems to be a regular thing...

It's been a while since we visited the Ancient Oak.

We had tried the delivery option (UberEATS) a few weeks back and the burgers really impressed us so I opted to go there for my birthday dinner.

Because of the football we decided to go in at about 3:30pm and a fair few tables were already reserved. There was still plenty of space so we didn't struggle to find a table for 4.

We chose to have 2, 3 course fixed price meals and 2 menu meals. The nacho starter is great, really tasty with fresh made nachos, it didn't take long for them to disappear.

The two fixed price meals (fish n chips and the chargrilled chicken) were very nice, good portion sizes too. The ultimate burger and steak ciabatta both hit the spot too.

The puddings were delicious, my Dad did opt for his favourite sticky toffee pudding but it wasn't in stock so he went for the fudge cake and still polished it off. My mum had the waffles, this was massive! 2 good size waffles with fruit and ice cream, you could share this pudding if you were feeling generous!

The before 5pm fixed price menu is a good deal as long as you like the mains, which before 5pm is limited to traditional English dinners (sausage and mash, ham and eggs etc) after 5pm the price changes by about £5 each and you get the options of steak/burgers and other slightly more expensive dishes.

The atmosphere was friendly and warm, the staff are always attentive, even when it gets busy they will say goodbye...