The Barton Arms — Restaurant in Salford

Went for the breakfast with Santa, and found ourselves very disappointed. Thankfully our little one is only 3 so he enjoyed it but it was a very poor effort. Start time was 10am, we wrongly assumed we’d be able to go in a little earlier, which wasn’t an issue, however doors opened between 5 and 10 minutes after this time and we were stood outside in the cold with 2 young children. No one showed us how the morning was supposed to go (I.e. which menu, how to order, do you go to Santa or do you get called forward) so just went in and had to work it all out ourselves. Food and drinks ordered, we received the wrong drinks and when I flagged this the lady was a bit rude telling me that she said which drink she brought to the table (I had ordered but wasn’t there when it came) and asked if we wanted it correcting. Food came and we received an adult portion for the kids breakfast (even though I was clear it was the kids portion we wanted), thankfully our little one managed to eat most of it but I’d rather he got an actual child portion. When I worked everything out at the end (no receipt given) I’d been charged for the wrong drinks (more expensive but no refund of over charge offered) and the adult breakfast so it looks like the person taking the order wasn’t paying attention (no question raised as to the 3 adult breakfasts at a children’s event).

We had almost finished eating before Santa even turned up and this was hands down the worst looking Santa I have ever seen! Nice enough guy but it’s like the North Pole were busy so they ordered this one from Wish. The guy was nice enough but he hadn’t shaved his black stubble which was poorly obscured by what was essentially a sheet of white felt. It looked like it had been either made by kids at a primary school or bought at a (really) cheap fancy dress shop, I’m surprised my 3 year old bought it! The icing on the cake was when he got a drink, and the (only) elf - who’s outfit was a much better quality by the way - stood in front of him, while lifted the sheet of felt beard to take a sip. Thankfully my little one was facing the other way so no illusions shattered this time. There was no organisation on visiting Santa, anyone could have walked in and got a free gift and a chat with the man. The gift bag wasn’t too bad, though maybe next time remove the £1.99 B&M sticker from the toys.

The food was ok, pretty much as expected although some temperatures a bit inconsistent (i.e. cold beans, warm sausages). We ordered extra toast which after a fair while, we had to get up to ask where it was (came out straight away but unsurprisingly, cold).

In summary, this was an awful experience, though thankfully (and somehow) my 3 year old seemed to enjoy it (though that could have been the enormous portion of breakfast waffles he’d...

I used to live nearby and visit this pub regularly. I haven't been back for a few years but visited today while seeing family. Still a nice bar but there's no staff and the service has nosedived. Please get more staff. We booked a table for 3pm this afternoon for Sunday lunch. No-one there to greet, just a chalkboard saying order at the bar. There was the option to order via QR code but I don't like using QR codes to order a meal, if we've made the decision to go out for lunch I don't want it to feel like a self service checkout. It's actually nice to receive some kind of human service. Anyway, the bar was really busy and there was only one member of staff serving drinks so rather than join that queue I tried the code. (After messing around for 5 minutes trying to get on the free WiFi (there was no 4G/5G signal in the pub). Once I finally got online and scanned the QR code the site said they are no longer taking table service orders see the bar. So that was 10 minutes wasted. I joined the queue at the bar and once I got served I found out there was no more beef available. It's 3:15 on a Sunday but there you go, apparently they weren't expecting anyone to order roast beef. We then waited at our table for an hour or so. The food turned up. The staff only spoke to confirm who had ordered what and walked away. No interaction, no “enjoy your food/sorry about the wait” etc.

We had two adult roast dinners and a child's roast. Every element of all the food was overcooked, dry and chewy like it had sat under a heat lamp for hours.

We ate the least dry bits and waited for someone to collect the plates. Due to an offer on the menu, we'd ordered desserts with the mains and it wasn't clear when that wasn't going to/if it was going to happen.

After a really long gap, roughly 5pm, I approached the bar to see if someone could clear the plates and bring dessert. There was just no-one else around to ask. The guy from the bar cleared the plates himself and about 10 minutes later the desserts arrived.

I'm not blaming the staff because those that were there were working their rear ends off. It was just a ridiculously small team for a busy Sunday afternoon. The food was bad and we were there for at least an hour longer than we needed to be.

Get rid of the technology and hire some staff. People who pay for a meal want service, they don't want to use an app. It's not McDonald's, It's meant to be a memorable experience. Sadly it was and not one we'll...

If you like waiting for ages for over cooked food served by a rude manager then this is the place for you!

We pre-booked a table for 10 for a Christmas family get-together. The bar staff were nice and the table was ready. We ordered at the bar and were told there was a 30 minute wait for food which was absolutely fine and completely understandable so close to Christmas.

When the food eventually came (far longers than 30 mins), the first two meals had dry, very overcooked meat and the Yorkshire pudding and stuffing and bacons were missing. I returned mine immediately as it was inedible. The manager Ellie, who was serving us, did apologise and a 'replacement' came soon after. This had the same piece of dry overcooked meat which had been turned over and a few extra bits of meat added that were slightly less dry and overcooked. The missing items were also brought. The chicken on the kids was griddled/grilled (which is odd for a Sunday dinner) and again over cooked. The general consensus of the rest of the meals (burgers and mix grills) was all meat was over cooked. The deserts were all nice but were brought before the table had been cleared. Manager Ellie served us throughout and became increasingly rude and passive aggressive as we asked for these errors to be rectified. At one point she slammed some of our dirty plates down onto the table behind us causing all the knives and forks to crash off.

I understand it's a busy time as it's just before Christmas but today's experience was extremely disappointing. We'd heard good things about the food here, we live locally and we had family visiting from further away so we picked The Barton Arms for our get together. We all agreed we would not visit again. We've been to other Ember Inns and on busy occasions such as Mother's Day and Easter weekend etc. and the food quality and service was excellent so we'll stick to those places in future.

The photo shows how much of my duo Sunday lunch I was unable to eat because, even with gravy, it was...