The Cricket Inn — Restaurant in Sheffield

Wouldn’t recommend for larger parties, or children. Won’t be returning sadly.

Honestly not great. Which is sad to say as this was an informal family meal in honour of our engagement celebrations. We booked for 13 people, and a few days later added an extra 2, which at first they said they could not accommodate, but shortly called back and confirmed that they could fit 2 more on our table. We spoke to them several times during this process and at no point were we told that our booking would be spread across separate tables. When we arrived, we enquired about this and explained that we had not been made aware, in which the lady responding was very dismissive and almost defensive. After a few minutes of back and forth, the lady (reluctantly) moved the tables around to fit everyone on one row. We chose to order drinks at the bar whilst people were arriving as and when, but another lady did offer us the option of coming to the table. The barman wasn’t very forthcoming and when asked to keep the lid on one of the bottled drinks to shake the sediment at the bottom of the bottle, he proceeded to place his bare hand over the opening of the bottle (without the lid) and shake the drink against his hand, before pouring the drink into a glass. We were not impressed by any means but didn’t feel overly comfortable to say anything or ask for a replacement. A few of us had starters, all of which ordered the calamari. It was nice, but greasy. The mains arrived very intermittently, so a lot of us had eaten half of our food before others food had even arrived and having previously placed a preorder, the lack of organisation felt surprising. One of the meals was also wrong and needed remaking. The food got mixed reviews from our party, one person didn’t eat any of their main (beef pie) and said it tasted old, others said it was okay and others started to lose their appetite after the calamari starter. Puddings were probably the best part of the food. As a rule, we never remove the service charge from our bill and always tip, but on this occasion some of us asked to remove the service charge and sadly didn’t tip. Kids did eat free on bookings before 6pm which was a bonus, but after the frosty welcome following the seating arrangement query (which seemed to set the mood for the rest of the evening)… if it wasn't for the fact that our party was for 15 people, on a Friday night, at prime time tea time, we would have definitely left there and then, and gone elsewhere. The practicalities however, of finding somewhere else as a walk in at that time for that sized party, didn’t seem very doable. When leaving, one of our party was in a wheelchair so needed to use the disabled access entrance/exit. This is a stone built ramp leading around the back of the building to the carpark. There was very little light, which didn’t seem overly practical considering. Overall underwhelming, didn’t feel welcome, service wasn’t great (except for the one younger lady who seemed to take over our table once seated). Such a shame, but won’t be returning and wouldn’t recommend for larger parties,...

[Copied from my TripAdvisor review] I don't usually write reviews, but I was so appalled at our experience here that I felt inspired to leave one. 8 of us (6 adults, 1 child, 1 very small baby) booked a table for Sunday lunch, and our experience was as follows: Upon arriving (at our booking time), we were made to wait in a narrow corridor beside the toilets for 10 minutes while servers and other guests were forced to apologetically push past us (there was nowhere else for us to stand). We were eventually ushered to a cramped table by a window, outside which there was a wasp's nest, and throughout our stay we were constantly fending off wasps. Upon attempting to order, we were repeatedly told that the kitchen had run out what we'd ordered - we were happy to adjust our order. What was intended to be a quick trip out for a Sunday lunch ended up taking over 3 hours. Our starters took well over an hour to arrive, and our main courses took 2 hours. Yet strangely, both arrived within 5 minutes of us asking staff where our food was... The food was okay, but not worth a 3 hour wait. We could have put up with the above - however: --- Drinks orders took nearly half an hour to arrive - not really acceptable, given how hot the weather was. We also asked for a jug of water, but none was brought. --- Sitting inside a hot pub for 3 hours with two small children is quite appalling, given how much The Cricket charge for food (more expensive than some far better pubs we've been to in London). --- When we came to pay our bill, we asked the manager for a discount - given it had taken over 3 hours for them to serve us an average-quality two course meal. She offered to deduct the cost of the child's meal - upon which we informed her that each adult meal at The Cricket comes with a complementary child's meal (I suppose she thought we were stupid). At this, she deducted the cost of a single round of drinks. Her excuse for the appalling service was "but we had over 180 covers today". Well, as management, it is your responsibility to ensure you only seat as many guests as you have capacity to cook for and serve in a reasonably timely manner, rather than wringing as much money as possible out of everyone, and doing a terrible job of it to boot. What we witnessed today was nothing less than utter incompetence.

Finally, I want to emphasise that our server did an absolutely fantastic job. The poor girl was clearly run off her feet, and was almost in tears at the amount of tables to cover and the constant requests from other frustrated guests. Whatever you're paying her, it's not enough. We tipped her well, but we will not be coming back.

My advice to management at The Cricket - take a basic course in restaurant management (or pre-school maths) - it'll take you a long way in ensuring those guests who book have a...

I booked a table for 4 people for a Saturday night at 7.30 pm. When I reserved the table it was in person two weeks in advance and mine was the only booking. I explained that it was a very special occasion (with relatives traveling from Cornwall). I specifically asked for a nice table, preferably next to one of the windows. On the night I phoned an hour in advance to check my booking and reiterate that I had asked for a nice table. When we arrived it took some time to be acknowledged. I noticed all the tables had been taken apart from one in the middle of the room which was laid up with a bottle of wine in a wine cooler. After hanging around the bar feeling totally ignored, I asked if ours was the laid-up table. We were told our table was in fact in the corner of the room with a window view; perfect. However, the staff had to clear and set it still. While we waited we all stepped outside to admire the last of the view of the Peaks. On return, we were about to sit down but was flabbergasted to be kicked off our table. The waiter, who seemed unable to take matters into his own hands, told us that the director's sister was having that table instead, and we would understand, wouldn't we? We were given the table in the middle of the room, with people walking past, noise all round. We were really upset to be treated in this way. We let the staff know that we were not happy but they could only offer a table in the other room, mixed in with a private party with many young children. Sadly, whilst the atmosphere and setting of this pub is lovely, the staff seem like headless chickens and to be pushed off our table by a relative of the pub tells me a lot about the management too. As a customer we felt like an irrelevance and it felt that the ethos was more about getting as many people through the door as possible than looking after its customers. This place had a good reputation but we shall not...