Pointing Dog — Restaurant in Stockport

It's a few years since my last visit and I picked this as good place for an anniversary dinner. Something felt different about the atmosphere, it just felt a bit empty and unwelcoming.

When we arrived we waited a few minutes at the 'wait here to be seated' point before we were greated. Then we were shown into the front dining room where everyone else was just finishing dinner and we then alone sorounded by dirty tables for the ready of our meal.

We waited 10 mins for our drinks order to be taken (mainly because we didn't know what to order as we sat down so asked the waitress to come back), then we waited a further 10 mins for the drinks to arrive.

It was nice we had a candle on our table as we were celebrating an anniversary, but it fizled out while we waited for drinks, the waiter brough us another off a nearby dirty table that was also about to end but said he would get us a new one... Sure enough the candle lasted 2 mins before it fizled... No replacement came even after further asking at the point food arrived.

When it came to food we both decided to order steak, so we were thinking about the £61 share steak however when we asked about this and what made it more than double getting two filets for the same weight our waitress said she didn't know other than its cut up for us. So we opted for two filets. We were not able to have pepper corn sauce as there was no cream to make it (a good sign everything is made fresh).

When the food arrived we could tell it was good quality even it was not cooked as we ordered... Steaks both more well done than medium. Chips were fresh from potatos and not frozen, still a little hard in the centre but was ok. We had finished eating before our waitress asked if everything was ok, we just said it was as was too late by that point.

I should point out our waitress was lovely she did keep apologising to us as there was a big party happening in the back and she kept getting pulled away to deal with that and we were the only people now dining.

As it was a special occasion we ordered a couple of sticky toffee puddings as recommended by our waitress and they were lovely.

We left feeling like we picked the wrong place for our anniversary meal. We were planning to bring friends here in a few weeks but are now looking to take them somewhere else.

On the whole this is a nice modern pub and a good menu and a very large beer garden. I think we just picked the wrong time to visit when a large party had taken...

Terrible experience booked a table for 16 got there 25 mins early this was £75 per head was told no table available waited 1 hour then told table was ready (it wasn’t ) it was not set there was cutlery scattered about here and there from last guests we asked for said cutlery and it was put on the end of the table serve yourself style we waited a further 20 mins to be served some cold toasted brown bread and some form of butter we asked what it was server didn’t know said he would find out another 25 mins go by and then comes salmon mouse I’m assuming that the toast should have been served with this! Anyway we ate the starters and eventually the mains started to arrive one at a time still no proper cutlery or salt pepper or any condiments no napkins no table water no cranberry jam one of our company had ordered vegan it came she asked server is that mine? Vegan he replied I think so she said well is it he said I’ll go and find out he took it away to find out it arrived back 10 mins later god know where it had been the lady that actually booked and paid for the party never actually got her meal they forgot hers! she didn’t miss much as I got no veg some got one sprout some two that were not cooked one slice of carrot no parsnips no other veg till we complained I had no veg at all with my meal!staff or mostly manager was not concerned the sweet arrive and children in our party were given alcohol in their desserts in the form of cherries infused with sherry not good! The manager and one of the bar staff seemed to think they were doing us a favour they said we should be GREAT FULL they had given up their Christmas Day to serve us ,worst Xmas lunch ever...

The management in the pointing dog now is shocking. My other half was screamed at over a mistake made by the manager- to explain further he ordered 2 pints and messy fries, he paid £18 odd. He was then brought 2 portions of messy fries, assuming he'd mistakenly ordered 2 after paying £18 for them or that they'd accidentally put 2 through he took them and shared them with friends. The manager then came out to him and asked him why he took 2 portions after she's just double checked and realised he only ordered one. He proceeded to tell her that he'd assumed after paying what he paid that he'd mistakenly ordered 2 assuming they could not be £7 a portion given the size (they were tiny!). She then continued to shout and raise her voice making all the surrounding tables stare, all of this over not only a portion of chips but a mistake she had made. My other half got up and walked out (he'd already paid for what he ordered at the bar so didn't leave without paying). The other manager followed him out of the building and without being physical I will add, tried to stop him from leaving the building? I don't know what type of customer service this is but I'm appalled and we will absolutely not be returning. This isn't the first time my family or people I know have had a bad experience with customer service from this same manager. You'd think the manager would be setting an example for the other members of staff but this is absolutely not the case because we can't fault the other members of staff...