The Emporium — Restaurant in Ribble Valley

The building and decor is amazing. As the name suggests, it's an emporium so it's full of lovely chic decor most of which has price tags hanging from them should you want to buy them. Not sure where all the stuff originates from but it's quirky and pleasing. The food was nice although on the pricey side and probably not exactly "out of the ordinary". On the topic of the place being a little bit pricey, the service was okay but not amazing. We had to ask for a spoon for the pasta dish, the starter came before our 1st round of drinks had been delivered, I had to go and ask for the bill it wasn't offered, only then did she clear the plates before then coming back with the bill and I had to pay at the bar and wasn't offered to pay at the table. All these things may seem minor and picky, but if you're going to charge slightly inflated prices (compared to other places in the locality) then you have to provide an exceptional service. When we arrived (ever so slightly late- sorry our bad) they couldn't be more attentive as they wanted to close the kitchen yet it didn't feel quite so attentive towards the back end of the meal. Any how a large reason for our late arrival was trying to park. There is no car park at the venue. I was nervous about parking in Sainsbury's car park as they usually shut the gates after the store closes or fine you for parking there if you're not a customer and on street parking was limited. Perhaps this could be made more obvious on the website or they could advise about parking when you call up. Plus I found one or my sorbet scoops was pretty measly and my partner's dessert was on the small side as well. Again you wouldn't feel too hard done by if this happened in a cheap place but if you're paying the price then you expect everything to be just right. It was also quite weird that the same waitress offered us coffee three times and every time we said no. Does she get an extra £10 in her wages if she sells more coffee than everyone else or was she wanting to clean the machine or something? Either way it felt quite strange; if I say no thanks then that's what I mean? All in all we still had a nice time and it was nice to get out of the house. We would go back but being students and on a slightly reduced income, we felt this represented very much the upper end of our budget for an evening out and as such we were expecting something quite special and I'm just not sure this completely lived up to our...

Carpets in the corridor to bedrooms were threadbare or damaged in places.

We could have done with more accessibility sockets in the room, we struggled to unplug the Nespreso machine to use the kettle.

We had to open the windows during the night as the room was too hot, set the thermostat to 16 degrees and the fan on high and it was very noisily blowing warm air. Wasn't a fun night with a baby and 2 little ones due to the odd noisy car passing. It was a winter's night so the heating was faulty.

Breakfast was good but no normal bread to choose from. Same with the evening meal, just some soda bread or whatever it was no basic white, wholemeal or seeded. Tried to order 2 food items in the bar, pizza and fries, but they were out of both so I had to persuade the kids to eat something else.

The swimming pool was a tad cold for the kids, though we were told on booking it was warm. It was just right for fitness swimming. There looked like a nice outdoor jacuzzi area you could swim to, though we couldn't use it due to the kids.

The reception staff were great, the location was good and the building overall was very nice and characteristic.

Overall I would recommend and would stay again. I'd say it is a 4 star.

Free Gated carpark with code.

Managed to get 5 in 1 room with our own travel cot.

Mini fridge in the room, iron, safe, Hair dryer, kettle plus Nespresso machine. The receptionist give us a small jug of milk as we needed more than the 4 sachets, they were also kind enough to give us some warm milk for the baby. There is a sign in the room that says if you need more milk, to contact someone, room service I think.

I think they do room service at £5 for a tray charge if you don't want to leave the room.

The bed was very comfy.

Overall a very nice place and would recommend it, the slight issues above were not a big issue for us, but am mentioning it for feedback to help improve.

Ideal for lapland trip and not far for...

We had the winter escape deal for this stay and we honestly were made to feel like that meant we were not cared about. We were speaking to a lovely gentleman at the till near the bar who changed the bottle of wine to two free drinks each as I’m pregnant and couldn’t drink wine. But we were seated behind two pillars on the smallest table right near the stairs and the chairs where the only ones without back support like they’d last minute shoved this table there. We were squished in as the table for two next to us were far too close. We ordered our starters and two pasta dishes for mains and asked for garlic bread extra with the mains. We then got served our starters and was told the garlic bread was coming out, it came out and my partner said we wanted it with the mains and the waitress rudely said “oh sorry” and walked off. The garlic bread was stone cold by the time the mains come out (the pasta was soggy as well I didn’t eat it). I ordered a virgin pornstar martini and the waitress came and stared at our three empty glasses and tried to find somewhere on the tiny table to place my drink I had to move my starter and napkins to the point they were hanging off and she just walked off past the bar but left the three empty glasses and plates. I got to the point I took the empties and left them on the bar myself. My boyfriend had his jacket over his chair that was knocked off TWICE by passing staff and not one apology. I’ve never been ANYWHERE with such bad service. The staff are rude. When we went to pay for our extras we said we were leaving without the dessert that was part of the package and the waitress just looked at us so rudely. So upsetting this was a 30th birthday gift and we saved it for valentines time on purpose and the entire evening was ruined. Never again and I would never recommend a place like this. Picture for the only reference I had of the...