Story Teller — Restaurant in Rotherham

Storyteller is under new management by Greene King and honestly they shouldn't have bothered. For a party of 8 + 3 kids it took 30 mins for the first meal, 75 minutes for 2 other meals, 95 for 3 other meals, and 110 for the remaining. No condiments were provided. All chips in each meal bar one had been cooked and reheated to the point that their insides had evaporated. The kids pizza was literally a Chicago town £1 one from Iceland nearby. The sharer platter containing jalapeños were slices of, the breaded mushrooms miniscule, garlic bread were burnt on one side and not cooked all the way through. The sour cream had gone off. A drinks glass was provided broken at the rim and still sharp. No staff member offered apologies or explained the staggered delivery of meals. The tables featured placeholders claiming they'd been cleaned, yet visible glass rings on the surface accompanied by sticky surfaces and a thin layer of abandoned carpet chips proved otherwise. Delivery of food and drinks was inconsistent - some staff wanted you to take your plate or drinks, but didn't prompt you to and became annoyed that they had to set them down. Others got annoyed when you tried to take them while they attempted to set them down. The kids plates were scalding hot and immediately placed in front of the children, to an almost silent warning the plates were hot as they strutted away, much to the dismay of my son who promptly burnt his fingers as we had no time between plate being set, to being warned, to child seeing his food in front of him. I'll reiterate we had no condiments, no sauces or salt and pepper, so that the bone dry dessicated chips and chicken nuggets were bland and stale and off-putting. Over half the menu was out of stock, including all burgers and most of the common menu, plus almost all desserts. Apparently someone was supposed to ask if the sharer platter main was meant to be a starter or a main, yet didn't, hence the initial delay. Which one staff member eventually got back to us and told us we could have a free dessert from their selection of 2 desserts available. Neither sounded appetising under the assumption they'd be a small slice of a shop bought cheap apple pie or cheesecake. All in all this is the most miserable experience I've ever had in my entire life at a restaurant. I was fully expecting the prices I paid for our meals considering table service as part of the "experience", but giving us oven food after 2 hour delays and complete lack of communication is sickeningly disappointing. We will never be visiting again regardless of owner. And i imagine the multiple families sat outside who were somehow waiting even longer will feel the same. It was supposed to be a nice meal out to celebrate a child's 3rd birthday, a full refund would barely begin to offset the immeasurable dissatisfaction and utter waste of time visiting this was. I only wish I was...

We found this place to be way over priced and the staff didn't have very good customer service skills. I probably won't eat here again as we were disappointed. I gave it 3 stars as we have good memories of our kids playing in the wacky warehouse.

We decided to go here for our little boys 1st birthday and with having 2 older girls we wanted to give them something to do and the wacky warehouse seemed appealing to us.

We spent £7 pound to get in to wacky warehouse and were told before we entered that we could only play for 45 minutes as they were going to close.

The explained to us that they close to the public and let special needs children in to play, we thought this was brilliant and hats of to them for doing this for them. They turn the lights down and turn of loud music so it is easier for the children to play.

We went through to the bar area after our time was up and came to order, the lady who served us seemed to be more interested in stocking the shelves than serving us. and when it came to taking our order she didn't once smile or make us feel welcome.

The glass she gave me for my wife's wine had a lipstick mark around the rim, I asked her to change it she did, but then told me that the drip marks on the glass were there because the machine doesn't dry them properly.

Just to let you know I am writing the review on my food as it wouldn't be fair commenting on the others as they are not here to tell me what they thought.

This place offers carvery and at the time I was going to have one, but something else caught my eye, the large mix grill.

I asked for it medium rare as I like it to be pink in the middle. when It came to the table it was rare. the sausages on my plate looked and tasted like they had been cooked and reheated. I should know as I have worked as a chef for the past 15 years. The gammon was really falling apart tender the egg was over cooked and the chicken was cool in the middle.

the hottest thing on my plate was the onion rings but there was only two, It cost over £3.00 for a pint of john smiths, I nearly fell of my chair.

I thought with how small the menu was it would be fool proof but in my opinion they got it wrong. as it seemed like it took ages to get to our table and the place was not busy.

When we got curtsy checked I felt like it was half hearted and I felt like if I was to complain it would cause to much fuss for them to sort out.

It might have been a bad day for them, I felt like it was under staffed, I did not use the rest rooms so cant comment on them.

We wont...

Whilst I usually wouldn't leave bad reviews, I feel this one definitely needed it. One bar staff to take all orders resulting in huge queue delays to begin with (not the bar staffs fault might I add, he was moving as fast as possible and was still very polite despite being rushed off his feet). So after around a 50 minute wait for food, out comes the chicken burger. Might as well have been the bone. I'm pretty sure that only a Dinosaur would have the dental strength to bite into it successfully. I did give it 3 attempts considering I had already paid for it, so I'm pretty confident in my Dinosaur description. It's a good job I don't wear dentures as it's likely we would need to call the fire brigade to come dislodge them. The onions weren't bad though, my one year old son who normally refuses to eat anything happily chomped away at that - although he preceeded to throw up later, so that doesn't say much for the onions either. Finally, we were then asked if we had finished, to which I advised no (after failing at the bone burger challenge I decided to attempt my sons leftover mash), but I obviously wasn't loud enough as my plate was taken away anyway, leaving me sat there like a hungry sullen challenge. We weren't asked if we enjoyed the meal, but that was pretty obvious given that it was still there on the plate... but we were offered dessert? We politely declined as I didn't hold much hope for tackling a rocky road based on the chicken.

Overall summary; if you don't mind waiting a long time, to then be presented with food that makes you feel like your mouth is experiencing a severe drought, OR have dentures, then this place is...