The Hospital Inn — Restaurant in South Ribble

Visited on a Sunday tea time for family birthday meal, ordered roast dinners to be told that because they had a few large tables in who had pre-ordered food, they had run out of roast turkey and roast beef Sunday dinners at 5.30pm! Had to re-order and then food took 45 minutes to eventually appear. Food was average, service non-existent/below-par. When we asked if they could provide a reasonable gesture, of perhaps refunding a round of drinks off the bill to compensate for the long wait time/lack of service, we were met with being told we should have expected a long wait, as it was Sunday and it was busy! Avoid.

EDITED in response to business comments:

Thanks for your response - perhaps if you had made it clear when we ordered - before the other large tables that you mention actually arrived - that the wait time on food would be 45 mins to an hour, then we might have been more accepting of the fact the food took so long to come out of the kitchen. Whilst, it's great that you employ so many local staff, it might be worth hiring some more locals as you are so exceptionally busy each weekend and perhaps adjust/increase your catering orders if your roast dinners are so popular on Sundays?

As for the fact we stayed over 2 hours, yes we did, as we really didn't have much choice considering it took for 20 minutes for someone to come over and take our order, plus the hour long...

I arrived at noon and was greeted warmly. The menus , of which there is plenty to read , has some fabulous choice. You will find something for whatever culinary mood you are in. During the week there is a special reduced price menu , Mon to Thursday and light bite menus also. The whole of the dessert menu , bar 1 item was gluten free and this is a very rare thing.

My main meal was able to be adjusted to what I asked for to make gluten free and it did not disappoint... Steak and cheese club style sandwich and side salad and fries... Outstanding .

The dessert was the highlight .. the lady who produced the homemade sticky toffee pudding deserves a medal... That's the best gf pudding I have ever had since being diagnosed . .. so much so I kept questioning myself whether it was actually gluten free.... Amazing.. staff friendly and accommodating . Facilities are clean tidy and as expected with everything else being so good. Felt maybe coffees overpriced , for what it was , but suppliers costs etc have kept everything up . When your drink is nearly half the price of the meal , it's a tad on the expensive side. Disabled parking right near the entrance and accommodated suitable seating with no issues . Was not rushed to finish and can't find fault. See you...

Having been to the hospital inn on server Al occasions and had a good meal, Wife and I went here this afternoon for a Sunday dinner. I must admit, looking at some other reviews I’m a little envious looking at what they were served as ours looked nothing like it.

I ordered Lamb, she ordered the mixed meat.

The food came quickly and starting with the lamb… I had to send it back to the kitchen as it tasted like beef… I then realised that despite the kitchen advising it was lamb, my plate appeared to have a mixed bag of sliced brown meat on it (beef and lamb I assume). If it was Lamb, poor sod must have been fed potato peelings all its life because it was tasteless.

The Yorkshire pudding was a sorry looking thing, hard and dense on the edges, barely risen and a doughy base.

The roast potato looked like it had been boiled/steamed and roasted for all of 3 minutes.

The Veg came in a small dish separately and was swimming in cauliflower cheese sauce.. which had the consistency of water.

All in all, probably the worst Sunday dinner I’ve eaten.. could have been better at a carvery. Half the food tasted like it was blitzed in a microwave to be honest.

Desert was nice though (crumble and cheesecake) hence 2 stars...