Eccleston Arms — Restaurant in St Helens

We went for the lunchtime special of 2 courses for £10. The menu is quite limited, and we were very dissapointed because 5 friends had been a week earlier and raved over the wonderful food, the generous portion sizes, the service and the wonderful experience. Sadly our experience was quite different. The Eccleston Arms is a lovely venue, extensive seating areas, nicely laid out and spotlessly clean. However the service was very poor. A waitress came to take a drinks order, but my husband had gone to the car, so I asked if she could please come back in a few minutes. We never saw her again, presumably had gone home? We then waited an HOUR for another waiter to ask for our drinks order! We both chose the chicken pie meal, which took half an hour to arrive! Our first impression was that the portion of pie was quite small, however it was packed with chicken in a light gravy, and would both recommend it. It was served with a selection of veg, just al-dente and enjoyable. However the chunky home made chips were so dark brown they were one shade away from black! They were soft inside and out, but looked awful on the plate. I was quite shocked they'd actually served them, and am only sorry I never thought to take a photo! We would have said something about them, but the service had been non-existant for so long, and we were so hungry by then, that we couldn't wait any longer. The pie and veg were delicious, the chips were just about edible but extremely off putting. The sweets we chose were a vanilla ice-cream Strawberry Sundae for my husband, and a toffee honeycomb cheesecake with chocolate ice-cream for myself. When they came 20 mins later, mine had vanilla ice-cream with it, and I pointed out that I'd chosen chocolate, which they duly brought. I loved the cheesecake, it was divine, with lots of crunch and very flavourful. My husband was less impressed with his. Instead of 4-6 whole strawberries that you would expect it to have, it had 2-3 each cut up into 30 or so minute bits! It was extremely dissapointing to say the least. With a pint of John Smiths, and a pint of dark fruit, our bill came to £33 and the extremely poor service meant we were there for 3 hours!! However to be fair, our 6 friends who went the previous week had a very good experience, with great service, generous portions, and sweets loaded with strawberries on everything! That was the standard we thought we were going to get, and was why we went, but sadly the whole experience fell well short in our eyes, and we were extremely dissapointed. I would hope that this was a one off, and would be prepared to give The Eccleston Arms a second chance, however I don't think my husband would be quite so forgiving. It wasn't the experience we were expecting, and consistency should be paramount if you want repeat happy, satisfied customers. We felt extremely disappointed, and it wasn't even that busy. Our custom wasn't valued,...

Party of 9 for a meal on a Saturday evening. Arrived at the Eccleston Arms at 7pm with a table booked for 7:15pm. Asked to have a drink and wait to be seated, not a problem. Once we were seated, and everyone had ordered we then waited around 45 minutes for the starters. No too impressed when they bring out a dish here and a dish there. Anyway, food was ok not a lot to rave about. Everyone finished the starters and plates were taken, It is now 8:30pm. Main courses arrive at 9:10pm a 40 minute wait. Out of 4 different steaks that were ordered 1 was sent back due to it being cold, the other 3 were like warm. The 'plain and simple' burger was only just warm and the bun burnt. The sizzling steak and fajitas weren't sizzling, but were at least hot on the plate. 2 people had the Rib eye steak, it was cooked how we'd asked (medium - rare) but again not warm. We both agreed we have had better steaks from Weather Spoons. Which isn't a high end restaurant. All finished the meals and let the staff know of our thoughts. Didn't bother with deserts, who knows how long they would of taken. It gives the impression it's trying to be in the same league as a Miller and Carter, but it isn't. Probably a nice place to go when it's a but quite and there's only 2 of you. Overall...

Where to start, the parking is great no issues there. The staff which I think is an insult to say because they are that friendly and welcome you just felt that you can stay and relax. You only have to ask and they are more than happy to help if they can. Knives and forks.. are good, Seating is lovely and the tables are the correct size. The decor I love. The smell it's not like a brewery, it smells clean. The food taste stunning, the proportion size omg it's big and it's such a shame we coundnt finish our meals because it is so nice with the big chips. The veg is cooked perfectly for me, not to crunchy and not to soft. We had one of our favourite cocktail expresso martini, there are not many places that have it has nice as this place, we would say on par as Leeds airport. I do like the fact that they have different events on and its worth asking about these. Now how long was the wait... today we didn't have to wait to be seated ok like 30 seconds if you want to be picky, as for the service not to long where you feel forgotten about and not to short where you feel your being rushed and just another number. To Eccleston Arms thank you for such a great afternoon, hope to...