Staffordshire Grill — Restaurant in South Staffordshire

We arrived at 8:30pm for our table reservation – four of us out for a catch-up and a treat. We were seated promptly, but things quickly took a turn. Almost immediately, we were asked to place our order. We politely asked for a few more minutes, only to be told, “I’ll have to hurry you along because the chef is waiting on you.” We were taken aback, especially when we were told the kitchen had actually closed at 8:30pm – the exact time of our reservation. This was confusing, given that table bookings were available as late as 9pm.

When the waiter returned, his tone had noticeably shifted – much more overly friendly, likely because he overheard our concerns and confusion. We placed our order, and the food arrived surprisingly fast. Three of us ordered the satay chicken salad, a dish we’ve enjoyed before and were looking forward to. Our fourth friend chose a vegetarian option.

Unfortunately, this time the chicken was undercooked. Mine in particular was noticeably pink inside, which completely put me off eating it. My friends checked theirs and noted some pink too, although not as much. I left the chicken and tried to eat the salad but even this didn’t taste great and I was just completely put off. The so-called satay sauce tasted nothing like satay – more oily than anything else.

What made the experience worse was the lack of attentiveness. No one came over to ask how our meals were. We got the clear impression we were being avoided – we were the only ones in the restaurant, and still one of my friends sat with an empty glass, never asked if she wanted another drink.

Eventually, someone did come over and we expressed our dissatisfaction, showing them the pink chicken. The manager came to speak to us and offered free drinks and said the chef had offered to remake our meals. At that point, we declined – we’d already felt rushed from the start and if the kitchen was supposedly closed, it didn’t make sense that they’d be happy to cook again an hour later.

I made it clear I wasn’t paying for my meal – and my friends agreed. To be fair, the manager accepted this, didn’t charge us for food or drink, and did apologise.

Overall, the experience was disappointing and uncomfortable. What should have been a relaxing, enjoyable evening with friends turned into something stressful and poorly handled. We won’t...

So so disappointed because the setting is lovely and my food was very nice but customer service leaves a lot to be desired. It was 40 minutes before our food order was taken, even though the restaurant was not busy and it was a midweek evening.

The real kicker though is that we came out for my friends birthday and two of them ordered steaks rare, and medium rare. Both came well done. They felt awkward about sending them back but they were so overcooked and thoroughly brown in the middle. They asked for them to be sent back in a polite way and were very apologetic to the waitress. All was fine and then the manager came out (who we'd not seen before) and said "the chef and I have looked at your steaks and they are rare". We were floored, like they were brown throughout and they definitely weren't rare but never heard of the manager coming out basically just to tell us we were wrong? After us saying a few times they were well done and her telling us we were wrong, she said 'well we'll have to go and put the grill back on then wont we' (at 7pm in a steakhouse shouldn't it be on anyway?) and left. She did come back and check later that the new steaks were OK but we all felt she did that to check whether they'd say they weren't done right again. Naturally they didn't because the steaks were fine that time. Why would they lie and make a fuss for no reason? Their sides went cold in the time it took for them to get their new steaks (added to by the manager coming out to try and prove a point, took about 15 minutes for their new steaks to come out). When you're paying £30 for a steak, you want it to be cooked right and if a venue selling steaks for that price doesn't know the difference between rare and well done, then it's a bit worrying). So wish we took a picture but didn't even think to do this as we thought they would just change them no problem for us instead of trying to tell us we were wrong and basically trying to convince my friends to take their dinner back!

Such a shame because the place is lovely and the waitresses were friendly, it just is a poorly run restaurant with the issues being at the very top. We won't be coming back on...

Me and my Husband got a night off from parenting and decided to revisit The Staffordshire Grill as it had been around 4 years since we last visited.

We walked in and were stood waiting at the check-in area. When we were noticed, they took our names and were told that our table wasn't ready. Luckily, we were not in any great rush, so we said we would have a seat in the bar area and order our drinks. We were told to wait there and as soon as our table was ready we would be collected.

Unfortunately, we waited over half an hour and a drink already down before we decided to ask a member of the staff if the table was now ready. Where one member shouted is 11 not ready yet? Within the next minutes after that, it was, and we were taken through to be seated.

The menu choices all sound and look great. We ordered off the Sunday course options, which we thought was great value for money. The food tasted amazing, and I was beginning to remember why we booked and came back to this lovely restaurant.

We tried the wontons, cheese and ham croquettes and then the Beef Sunday Dinner. It was delicious, and I was stuffed after two courses.

Inside the decor has been revamped, it's extremely modern and tasteful, with natural decor and dimmed lighting. Which I felt was quite romantic. I did notice that the tables felt really close together, though. We ended up chatting to the people next to us and the people next to them.

As an overall experience and despite the rocky start, we did really enjoy our few hours at the Staffordshire Grill. I will continue to recommend it to our friends and family, but we might warn them not to...