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Loved the bar selection. Unusual offerings on tap and spirits / bottles and quality non alcoholic bottles (hope they eventually find out about no alc 'spirits', especially for their Mocktails.) Cocktails available. Prosecco expensive - sorry but it is - rather have Cava. We were a Sunday lunch roast beef for three. Plenty of beef. Asked to buy an extra yorkshire pudding. It didn't arrive. My original yorkie unfortunately made with burned fat and singed yorkie - my guests yorkies were fine and all looked magnificent on the plate. The flour for the yorkies imho was too bleached or they'd used superfine flour or even an eggless mix. I'm saying this because the inside of the yorkie was white white white. The cailiflower cheese arrived when I was 3/4 way through dinner, arriving in a tiny pate / brulee dish. Why not serve it all in one serving? The final, single serve was well grilled and lacked the signature flavour of cheese. Shame that the side order of squid wasn't available despite it being on the Sunday.
Not enough menus for our table. We were told it was because the restaurant had them all. Come on 'Star' even I can print and laminate an extra five sets of menus and I'm not a business!
The lovely person who took the main orders and drinks was Amber. What a star. Dear Amber - remember to look up the Russian Amber Room (as was) - individual and priceless. Go far Amber, you have great transferable skills and a lovely humour ie you laughed at my jokes about sacking the chef because of crispy dried up brocc and wrinkled dried up beans.
Had problems with online booking system and then phone contact - determination won through eventually, but still really pleased to catch the last afternoon booking of this Sunday.
There was an error on the bill - we were undercharged. They'd missed off the first round of drinks. I pointed this out - being a crook is not on my list of things to do before I die. Haha. Smarten up folks, we want your business to thrive.
Friendly on the phone (took 3 calls and five attempts at online booking to actually get a booking) and friendly in-person welcome. Cheerss. Honest review. We'll be back to try some food another time. Thanks for the experience oh and we ejected two wasps on your behalf as the poor bugs were desperate to get out . Your windows in the 'bar' are lovely. Cheers and thank you....
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The Star at Cotton was once a reliable and enjoyable restaurant, but sadly, it has seen a significant decline over the past year. My two most recent visits both within the last 12 months have been consistently underwhelming, marked by poor service, limited menu availability, and several disappointing experiences.
On both visits, multiple menu items were unavailable, which greatly restricted our options. The starters, particularly the tapas-style sharing dishes, were underwhelming and very salty to where we couldn’t finish them. Despite requesting extra plates for sharing, we had to wait several minutes before being handed a random assortment of mismatched plates but at that point dishes were starting to go cold. Condiments came in dishes with the sauce spilled down the outside of the pot. That being said, the main courses were the only positive of the evening—generous in portion and well-prepared, they were the only real highlight of the meal.
Unfortunately, the meal ended on another disappointing note. After receiving the dessert menu and selecting our dishes, we were informed only when the waitress returned to take the order that two of our choices were unavailable. At that point being fed up, we opted to skip dessert and wanted to leave.
Service was noticeably lacking in both professionalism and attention to detail. Staff appeared inexperienced and untrained. Plates were brought to the table far too hot to handle, with one being handed directly to me, nearly causing me to drop it. Our table was also not ready until 10 minutes after our reserved time, despite the restaurant being relatively quiet and other tables appearing available.
There were lapses in basic service standards. For instance, my partner’s steak arrived with a paper-like material stuck to the bottom, and no steak knife was provided—something that should be standard.
The Star at Cotton seems to have lost much of what once made it special. Inconsistent food availability, unrefined service, and a lack of attention to detail have sadly overshadowed what could still be a quality kitchen. Unfortunately, I won’t be returning without significant...
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Visited twice in one week while camping up the road and visiting alton Towers. The first time we went we were seated in the bar. Had a lovely meal and desert and enjoyed our surroundings. The two young waitresses didn't stop all night and nothing was too much trouble. The bar man brought our drinks over and talked to us about the local beer that he'd had a part in making.
The second time we went we were seated in the restaurant and were then forgotten about. A waitress came over to take our drinks orders and we said we were ready to order our food. We watched drinks being served to other tables but there was no sign of ours. After 20 minutes of placing the order (40minutes after arriving) I managed to get someone's attention and she went to find out about our drinks order. Another 10 minutes went past and our starters arrived. I asked again about our drinks and the lovely young girl said she would go and find out. We finished our starters and were gasping for a drink. Another waitress came to the table next to us with more drinks for their table so I asked if we could at least have a jug of water for the table as we were very thirsty now. She apologised again and the jug of water appeared instantly. I asked again if there was any chance of our ordered drinks arriving. Not much long later the drinks finally arrived (must have been over an hour by this point) closely followed by our food.
The food was beautiful. Lovely fresh and seasonal. We had walked to the restaurant with the plan to have a good few drinks, a cocktail and a desert.
We had our shared starter, a main and a single pint and left.
The restaurant was packed and the young waiting on staff never stopped. They clearly need to employ more staff especially when you're next door to alton Towers and it's the...
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