Fred's Brasserie — Restaurant in Ribble Valley

Me and my mum booked to eat here following our spa experience, and it completely ruined our whole day and our consequent plans after visiting here too! The staff were clearly left on their own with no support from supervision, as we could see the manager dipping in and out of the restaurant for a matter of seconds at a time, once or twice throuhgout our stay. When another table asked to speak to him, they were advised to write their concerns down on the waitresses note pad and this would be passed to him! Clearly there was no control, responsibility or apology. Absolutely appalling, not only on guests but on his staff too taking on board all the complaints. We were seated at around 14.30 and our glass of complimentary prosecco was brought over, half a glass each which I thought was extremely cheeky, given the prices we had paid. Our order was taken promptly and by 15.15 we requested how much longer our starters were going to be. The waitress said she'd check, but never returned with an answer, this was a common theme throughout our time at Fred's and the same for other diners. At 15.35 we asked again where our food was. We were told 2 mins. At 15.43 (by this point I was checking the time continuously as our "lunch" which was originally booked for 13.45 [another mishap of our booking through no fault of our own]) was now being served to us 2 hours later. However we were presented with our mains. We sent these back and requested our starters, again. These arrived, my hummous and flatbread consisted of a plate of hummous with 4 rock solid pieces of 1inch squared flat bread pieces. These were almost inedible however eating lunch at almost 1600, I was starving. We asked the waitress if our chicken and rice mains would be cooked fresh as we were very concerned about reheated food causing us food poisoning. We were assured they would be. Our mains were served to us at around 16.30. My risotto had lumps of clumped up risotto, so how the website describes this restaurant as being run by talented chefs and quality food, this certainly was not it. When we came to order desert, we queried what the chocolate one was, the waitress could not offer any further information on what it was as apparently this was a new menu and she hadn't been informed what all the courses were. Where was the supervision and correct training to ensure -not even a quality- but basic dining experience? This course, we presumed was a mousse however the slop served to us was highly off-putting. It was an almost liquid consistency with bits in it, the texture was absolutely vile.

The waitresses were calm and dealt with the numerous complaints from the 3 tables sat in the restaurant in a dignified manner. The purpose of this review is not about the waiting on staff. It is completely down to management how the dining room was ran on 18th May 2024. Excuses were used such as busi-ness of the restaurant however as already stated there were approximately 3 tables, after the 4th one left due to being served use jam and cream from previous diners!! We asked what the problem was to try and understand the issue but the waitresses did not know. We finally left the restaurant at 17:00 which had a huge negative impact on the fact we had dinner reservations -thankfully elsewhere - at 19:00.

I look forward to hearing back with hopefully an explanation of what went wrong on this day as this surely cannot be the normal service which Fred's offers. Me and my mum after planning this whole day together and being so excited for it and spending hundreds of pounds to enjoy it are so thoroughly disappointed it's totally...

Never again would I go here. Since the new owners took over it’s an embarrassment. This shockingly small afternoon tea was to feed 3…. And cost £60! Eaton mess was just a bowl of cream with a piece of strawberry and merengue on top, the scone was like a brick and fit in the palm of my child sized hand, only 2 jams between 3 of us and 1 cream. Bread was stale on the sandwiches too with warm fillings as were absolutely not fresh.

The service was quite possibly the worst I’ve ever experienced with the “manager” looking down his nose and smirking at us after we complained. So why did we complain arrived 2.50pm for a 3pm booking got food at 4.30pm Management rude and lie (rodriguo and vic were both absolutely disgusting in how they treated us) vic even went as far as admitting all staff were talking about us ….. that’s rude considering they forgot to seat us, then forgot what we had pre ordered, didn’t give us cutlery, didn’t offer us tea, coffee or even water …. We had to ask!!!!!!! £60 for minuscule low quality food and we had to ask for a glass of water! they forgot our spoons and even though they can see how tiny the food is, we asked for spoons as they forgot them, we were give massive dessert spoons

What I would add is that the lovely young girl on hotel reception tried to resolve the situation after seeing how horrified we were, it wasn’t her area but she used common sense in customer service and to her I’d like to say thanks. The rest of the staff were useless and seeing how managers treat customers, it’s really no wonder they were so bad

Having known many previous staff members from the restaurant and kitchen, the quality is not what it once was but the premium price remains.

The best we got as a resolution from the managers after we informed them this had ruined my birthday was an email address. They don’t even offer a drink to compensate us. We again had to suggest this as the manager actually said “it’s not my problem”

Avoid this place at all costs. You’ll get more food and better...

Some of the worst food I've ever eaten. Service was woeful.

Let's start with breakfast in bed. Luke warm full English with catering grade ingredients. A thin layer of baked beans with about 10 beans in the sauce, no condiments,no salt and pepper.'Freshly chopped fruit' that looked like it had come from yesterdays buffet all mushy and watery, with dry pastries to make the experience even worst.

If you're staying here for the weekend go into Clitheroe (Toms Table) or the surrounding area for food, it's absolutely horrendous in any part of the hotel. For lunch we had the sticky chicken skewers which were more like boiled bits of rubber. No flavour, no seasoning, nothing sticky about them. Pesto chicken wraps for main consisting of two tiny pieces of flat bread with what looked like pesto mayo coated cat food inside.I had to send out a search party to find the bits of dry chicken. Completely let the whole spa weekend down. Saturday night we ended up going to Blackburn for a curry because we didn't want to eat in there again. Curry was fabulous! Take note...