The Park Bar & Kitchen — Restaurant in St Helens

We have been to the restaurant several times in the last 12 months & thoroughly enjoyed each visit lovely food, nice ambience & great staff. However we booked a table a week in advance to celebrate my Brother in Laws retirement & were very disappointed with the whole experience. On arrival we were met by a male member of staff at the door who did not engage with us in any way. My husband told him we had a booking for a table of 4 & the time of the booking, he took what seemed like forever searching on the PC then picked up the menu's & beckoned us to follow. He took us through the main restaurant in to the bar area where there was a table of 20 or so noisey & rowdy males I don't have a problem with that but I booked a table expecting to be seated in the restaurant & not the bar! He took us into a corner by the bi folding doors left the menu's on the table & walked off with out a word! My Sister in Law & I had to launch ourselves on the booth style seating which had no foot rest for our 5ft 1" frame & our husbands were left with equally uncomfortable bar stools. The table was not set at all just a reserved sign on it. After 15 minutes my husband had to approach the bar to ask if we could order drinks at which point a server followed him to the table apologising for the delay. He took the order for drinks & starter & said he would get them on their way & return to take the mains order, which he did not! We waited a further 15 minutes for drinks to arrive. When the starters arrived we had to ask twice for cutlery, the server then began to collect the menu's until we told her that our mains order had not been taken? Whilst most of the food was very good my Chicken was dry & over cooked & I had to leave half of it. During the course of the evening the member of staff from the front desk delivered us drinks, again without any smile or verbal engagement. When we had finished our main meal half the dishes were cleared the other half were left. No one returned to clear them or ask if we wanted dessert, we had to again approach the bar to order them. Not impressed at all, we won't be coming back or recommending The Park to anyone. There is clearly a training issue & some of the staff would benefit from a Customer...

I have dined at this restaurant of an evening, sat outside, and it was really nice; staff were helpful and took my order at the table. HOWEVER, every Thursday morning, I visit The Park with a large group of friends. Because our group is large, we often sit outside where there is more room. Every Thursday, we are made to feel like a burden and inconvenience (even though the restaurant should be WELL aware by now that we'll be coming!). The staff never take our order at the table and ask us to order at the bar (not common place; as I said, I've ordered at the table outside a few times). Today, it had been raining and the seats were all wet. We were given blue roll to dry the seats ourselves, which I think is very rude and not great service. We had to ask someone to come out with a squeegee to dry the benches; someone did come out, but her face wasn't exactly the picture of pleasantness and we could tell she was annoyed at us. I've never felt so unwelcome. We come every week and spend up to £100 between us all. We'd stop coming if there was anywhere else to eat/drink...

Ordered starters for 2 adults and asked for the kids food to come out at the same time to which only 2 did meaning third child shared our starters as she was really hungry. No cutlery was brought which was ok as it was finger food. They then brought out mains, still no cutlery so flagged a waitress down and asked for some, 5 minutes later had to go find some myself. Surely things like cutlery should be handed out before food arrives? Food was average, overpriced. Kids Garlic bread with cheese was actually just 3 slices of supermarket garlic baguette. Sunday dinner was really good but small portion for price. Not much option for kids on a Sunday, step daughter only eats chicken nuggets when we are out which they didnt have but did have chicken goujons on the adults menu but couldnt do a child one so had pay for an adults meal?? Dont think I will be back in a rush....