The Running Horses — Restaurant in Sefton

I'm reluctant to waste any more of my day on The Running Horses, but feel I should for feedback to the management and a warning to future customers. Firstly, this is a nice, clean, good looking pub with a good beer garden, and well priced drinks - hence why despite this afternoon's experience, I've given it 2 stars. Me, my girlfriend and dog visited this afternoon with the sole purpose of getting two all day breakfasts - we'd even gone to another local pub first, and left there because they didn't have one on the menu. Arriving at the venue, we made our way to table 5 and sat down, before being told that we couldn't sit there with our dog, despite there being no obvious signage and it not really being in the "restaurant area". As there were no other tables inside, we went and sat outside, which we'd not really wanted to do, but it's not their fault the venue was busy. After settling the dog at a table, I went inside to order our food and drinks. The lady behind the bar asked if I was looking to order food, and when I said I was, she told me that another member of staff round the other side of the bar would see to that, after she had sorted my drinks out. As my drinks arrived, this second member of staff asked if it was me asking about food. When I said that it was, she told me they were quite busy at the moment, but she gave me a buzzer and told me that it would tell me when to come in and order. Five minutes after I sat back down outside, a family of 7 came out with drinks and sat on the table next to us. Ten minutes later, they went inside with menus and came back out five minutes later with a condiment box and cutlery. I went back in and asked if they were taking orders again, but was told that that family had asked about food before I'd been given my buzzer, which apparently put them ahead of me, despite me only wanting two breakfasts and being willing to order them 20 minutes earlier. I was told again that when they were ready to take orders, they'd buzz me. As I was driving, I was really nursing my pint as I knew I couldnt have another one, and didn't fancy a soft drink. FIFTY minutes after being handed the buzzer, it still hadn't gone off, and having finished our drinks, we decided to leave. Our two biggest problems with this whole experience were why we didn't get told BEFORE we'd ordered our drinks, that we'd be waiting at least an hour for food, because we were already starving and wouldn't have even ordered drinks if we'd known. Secondly, having read reviews, it seems this is a fairly regular occurrence, and so we can't understand why it is, that the slowness of service and basic communication hasn't been addressed already. The menu is fairly extensive, so why when you regularly seem to struggle, do you not think of streamlining it??? I doubt we'll go there again now for food, which is a shame as the reviews say it really good - big let down though as far as we were...

Awful experience!! Greeted by a generous sized car park and overall an attractive looking premises alongside a canal. It was the first time (and the last!) we have been. A large ‘welcome’ Sign outside the pub made it looke quite welcoming. Arrived with my partner two young children and our pet dog on a sunny afternoon. We were greeted quite abruptly by a member of staff saying the dog weren’t allowed inside. We asked (after being told by a family friend it was a dog friendly place) where could we all sit together. 1. Not in the children’s area So we found a nice spot and table close enough to see the children playing and one in which the dog was permitted. Ordered drinks to begin. The service was appalling, staff just chatting and very poor customer service. Asked if there was a cocktail list to be told ‘we’re boring in here don’t do cocktails!’ Ok no problem. Then onto the food order we went ordering for for the 5 of us including the dog. Staff weren’t very conpetent and didn’t fill me with hope. When the starters arrived for the children when we then made to feel uncomfortable and told the dog friendly area in which we were sat was not for children. Practically escorted out to the front of the establishment next to a main road where we were told was the only place for us to all be allowed to sit together. There were no signs to make us aware of this either. Also no friendly staff to explain this to us. The table we were allocated was covered in bird poo. When asked if it could be cleaned my partner was handed a roll of kitchen towel. It gets worse.. we decided to leave as we couldn’t allow the children to play in an area we couldn’t supervise. We felt embarrassed and very uneasy here. I asked for a refund for the food (still not received) could also hear the chef very unprofessionaly talking to another member of staff. Waited 10 minutes for the refund to go through. Don’t...

Don't recommend anyone goes to The Running Horses for food. Claire n I order 2 Steak Melt sandwiches described as; "Grilled steak cooked to your preference, with mature cheese and a red onion chutney. Served with salad on the side" sounds delish right?? Sounds like it'll be cooked fresh to your taste?

THIS is what we received... 🤢🤢🤢 (video in the review album)

Anyone else expect to eat chewy overdone cheap chunks swathed in cheap cheese between bread so thin the whole thing matted together and disintegrated as soon as you tried to pick it up? I asked for ciabatta which is what one cpuld expect to have with a hot filling, to which the waitress said "we never have ciabatta" ... at the prices of the sandwiches I'd expect more than wafer thin bread. Chef clearly never learnt what "medium rare" nor "fresh" meant and it was on our table faster than a Macdonalds drive through so a definite ping cheese meal.

Is ok though, they do offer you cutlery when you show it falling apart and ask how you're supposed to put salad on it and eat it 🙈🙈🙈

Last time I checked I didn't need a knife and fork to eat a sandwich

ALL for the lovely price of £6.95

Needless to say, it was returned, without lifejacket .. immediately. Kopparberg was...