Pinocchio's — Restaurant in South Ribble

A group of us were there for my Grandma's 90th My husband ordered the spicy pork. Spicy it was not. Pork it was barely. Small pieces of dry pork in some sweet-chilli-watery sauce. We sent it back and had it replaced with the same dish I had - the Pork Porchetta. This was long before I had discovered my two slices of pork were indeed what amounted to one slice of pork and one slice of non-rendered fat. The fat around each medallion was equivalent to one entire medallion. I am fully aware that some fat is expected, but this was disgusting - figuratively and literally. When my husband's dish arrived however, there was an acceptable small amount of fat. I pointed this out to what I suppose was the manager, older Italian speaking chap, who told me that this was perfectly normal and it was the same cut of meat. I said 50% fat is not normal. He was clearly flustered with the situation and proceeded to argue with me. I settled the situation quickly and quietly as this was in front of my Grandmother and in the middle of the dining room - I did not want to create a bigger scene than he was creating as I'm sure you can understand.

My mother and aunt had the same dish - pheasant. They had the same dish before and they both commented on how the quality had diminished. Before, they had a whole breast of beautifully cooked pheasant but this time they had slices of hammered down bird which was incredibly dry - you could see it was overcooked by the stringy texture of the meat. We pointed this out to the "manager" and also asked whether there was a different chef and he said it's the same chef they've had for years. A few days later we found this to be untrue. Again, he started to argue that the meat was perfectly fine until we ignored him and he left.

My grandmother's fish was also dry.

All the meals came with the same mass lump of vegetables - although on the plus side they were cooked well. The potatoes on the other hand had been done on a too-high heat I suspect as they were pale with burnt patches.

Anyway, manager returned after clearing our plates and comped the pheasant and my pork. I quite frankly could not be bothered to argue with him that it wasn't the point, to get the meals for free, the whole luncheon had been ruined. A 90th birthday is quite an achievement an is an occasion to be remembered - but not for this. My husband and I had travelled from Egypt - where we live, to be here. We'd all been looking forward to this for months. Disappointing and embarrassing just about sums it up. I accept sometimes things can go wrong, I work in the customer services industry too - but it's how it was handled which thoroughly irritated me. It also seems like this was not a one time affair, with inferior produce being used by I can only assume an inexperienced chef.

I emailed them...

Pinocchio's seems to have had a change in management and unfortunately it's not a good as it used to be.

I asked the manager if they had a separate vegetarian menu and was told no. Unfortunately the main menu and specials menu offered very limited veggie options. Basically 5 Pasta or pizza options, where as my meat eating friends had more like 30 options.

I fancied a roast dinner, I love roast veg with maybe a nut roast or something similar? Unfortunately theres nothing like this on the menu. Although I did notice many of the meat and fish dishes on the menu come with roast veg. I mentioned this to the manager and he became very defensive. I was told "theirs plenty of other restaurants in the area, I'm sure they have more veggie options I could try" "we are very busy, we have 100 guest a night" I explained I wasn't being rude or trying to upset him, just trying to offer him a bit of constructive feedback. He told me he's too busy , it's not his job discuss menu options, if I want to give feedback I should do it online - so here I am!

One of my friend ordered the ribeye steak, he asked to swap the potatoes for chips, the manager told him this wasn't an option, the potatoes and vegetables are already prepared, if he wants chips he'll have to order a separate side dish and basically have both brought to the table. After discussing this madness for few minutes the manager said his only option would be to swap all his potatoes and all of the other vegetables for the chips, he agreed went along with this option. This dish alone was priced at £24! To be told he couldn't swap his potatoes for chips is ridiculous

I ordered the veggie lasagna, unfortunately it didn't come with any vegetables, just swimming in cheese. Presentation was awful and unfortunately tasteless and bland.

We had a quick look at the Christmas menu that was sat on the table , again I was disappointed with the veggie options. God help you if your vegan!!

It seems the little touches have been lost too, friendly chats with the staff, asking us how our day has been, how the family is, topping up our wine glasses etc isn't apparent either. Considering the prices of the food and drinks, this is the least I'd expect. Overall a pretty poor night out, a waste of money and (even more annoying ) a waste of a rare baby sitter

It's such a shame , I used to love coming to this restaurant but it seems the food , atmosphere and the service to have all gone downhill.

On the plus side the garlic bread and garlic mushrooms...

What is going on here? I have raved on about this place for so long and brought friends here and it has failed to disappoint. However what has been going on as there seems to be a ' can't be bothered' attitude going on . Ok I know we can all have a good time and one bad night should not warrant a bad review, but in my defence I've given them 3 more visits since my first bad experience and last night was My LAST night I will go there. Embarrassing enough they sent wrong drinks over from the bar, starters where fantastic( credit where its due) however they cleared the table brought out our mains, my wife's trio of Monkfish ooked like it was a school dinner and just dumped on the plate and the filling Rosini I had, had as much glare as a dead belly dancer. However they both tasted delightful. Although we sat there ages with them going cold as we had no cutlery. After visiting tge bar some was brought. The bottle of fizz we ordered was still in the bucket unopened, so when we went to the bar for coffee I raised the issues with your man. But nothing no apology no have the coffee on the house just scuttled away and paid my bill and left. I would love to see some vast improvement before I set foot in here again and hopefully they sort themselves...