The Ribchester Arms — Restaurant in Ribble Valley

I stopped one night on a trip further north. If you don't know Ribchester, it's a lovely spot with a beautiful view over the Ribble and Roman origins (and museum). Very handy for Bowland. My room was great. The whole pub has been decorated with taste and to a high standard. The room had a large comfortable bed and a good bathroom with a view over the small brook out back (partial river view is estate agent speak and not needed as it's lovely and peaceful with just trees and plenty of birds). TV had access to some streaming services which was a plus (although sadly not working for me on that day).

I had a burger in the evening which for me was disappointing. There were lots of locals in however even on a Tuesday night enjoying food so perhaps I was just unlucky. I enjoyed the breakfast. Other niggles? Music playing (from kitchen) meant taking a rest after a long day in the early evening was tricky. Wifi was problematic but they had just changed system that day and I expect this will all be sorted by now.

But the service more than made up for any niggles as it was brilliant from the off. When I arrived, the owner took the trouble to show me up to the room as his staff were occupied. All staff were fantsatically helpful, warm and friendly throughout. I used to live in these parts and it felt great to be back temporarily. All the staff were a not just a credit to the Ribchester arms, but also great ambassadors for Lancashire.

No hesitation in recommending and will hopefully return to stay...

Normally when you have a bad experience its one or two things that went wrong. However with this place, nothing, i mean nothing went right.||It started with delays in being asked for drinks, then when the waitress came she didnt know what drinks they sold. Then we ordered some drinks that she thought they sold and she came back and said we dont have it. ||Next we waited 45 mins and we still hadnt been asked what food we would like or for top up drinks as the first drinks were empty we was waiting that long. In the end we had to ask to order food, rather embarassing really.||When the food came it was either bang average on some dishes are really poor on others. Steak was charred that much it just left a burnt taste in your mouth, you couldnt cut the roast potatos, i think they had been reheated. They didnt give any more cutlery after the starters.||They didnt ask if we wanted anymore drinks, we had to keep getting the waitress attention, they didnt clear the empty glasses. We wasnt asked asked how our food was.||All in all it was a shambles and its wasnt exactly cheap neither. Please dont be fooled by the exterior look of the pub or photos, because the pub itself does look nice. Shame its obviously run by people that havent got a clue or they dont care,.probably both actually. Dont waste your time or money, you will be...

Oof what happened to you Ribchester arms? They've changed hands a few times now and the most recent change has resulted in increased prices and much smaller portions.

They've gotten rid of their Sunday lunch which is such a shame! A roast on its own is now eighteen pounds.

The salad was an eye watering fourteen pounds, and if you actually wanted something with your salad like chicken it was an extra four pounds...

The cheese and onion pie was finished in four bites and only came with twelve chips (we counted). Before the pie itself filled half your plate.

The service is just...not good. There's two people who have been here years and they're great! But the others are just very young and don't really care. When we came in a young blonde and brunette had to study a computer for a considerable amount of time to figure out if they could fit four people into a fairly large restaurant which only had two other tables in it. When we called them over because we were missing half our drinks the blonde tried to get the brunette to come over. She did come eventually but not before chatting to the blonde for a while first.

So sad to see the prices get jacked up and the service go downhill. Especially as the food is good. Just not worth the money...