The Church Inn — Restaurant in Stockport

The service and atmosphere massively let this pub down. Not an ideal place for a sit down meal, more like a drinking pub for the locals.

We had a small family gathering 4 adults and 4 children as it was my partners birthday. We were told to pre order our food which we did which was also fine. Upon arrival we had to figure out for ourselves where our table was, this was in the ‘snug’ area which was great as we was away from everybody else especially with us having young children.

Food was served apart from one meal which was missing. My sister said “we are missing one more meal” the waitress said “I know, I wanted to see if you wanted any sauces or drinks first and then I was going to get the other meal” so my sister apologised as we thought the waitress had forgot about my sisters meal.

The young waitress went off and 5 mins later another lady came in and asked which meal was missing - So the waitress wasn’t very honest, this was very frustrating as we pre ordered the day before so there isn’t really an excuse for it. We had all finished our meals and then my sister’s meal arrived.

The service was very slow, we had lots of empty plates on the tables, after 30 minutes, I got up to ask somebody if they were available to clear the tables, bearing in mind the pub was very quiet at this point and 2 members of staff were having a chat amongst themselves.

Then for the birthday cake… the kitchen staff binned the base the cake was on, I supplied them with golden candles and a lighter. However when the cake was brought to us, there was some random blue candles, they binned the base the cake was on, they binned the candles I supplied them and possibly binned the lighter or kept it for themselves.

Then a drunken local man that was clearly known to the pub was swearing at us through the glass door, we had 4 young children, he came in slurring his words, he was told to go away by staff, he then came back even more intoxicated, at this point we had all really had enough. The evening was shambles from start to finish.

The bill arrived, they removed the meal that my sister had as that was there mistake and rightly so but as for the service and atmosphere, we was not willing to pay the surcharge. A real shame as it looked a lovely pub and the food was very nice, everything else...

Positives are that the parking across the road is ample. The pub itself is an ensemble of ground floor rooms all knocked through, although the outside isn't ideal for eating due to it's proximity to a main road and people smoking in my humble opinion. I've eaten here a couple of times, and whilst the food is well cooked and presented, it's a bit overpriced for what it is, again, that's only an opinion.

On the breakfast menu it says 'farmhouse bread'. I don't expect to receive a slab of Warburton's thick sliced/slightly toasted bread. Only a small detail, but a detail none the less. Warburton's toastie is fully loaded with additives such as E472e / E481 / E282 / E300 and E375 some of which are risk free, some carry a moderate risk to your digestive system. It's also high in salt content so all in all, it's a poor choice of bread for your customers and possibly something to bear in mind when calling something farmhouse bread which this clearly isn't?

The staff at the pub are all very courteous and they clearly do their jobs as best they can in making people feel very welcome, so it's always good to end on a...

We have been coming to The Church Inn for years as a family. The food is fantastic and you won’t find a cosier pub.

Our experience today was unfortunately let down by fairly poor service, which we do hope was just a one off. We were a large table who went for Sunday lunch for one of our party’s birthdays.

We had all preordered our roasts (due to group size) the waitresses checked this through with us when we arrived, yet one of the roasts that came was incorrect, leaving one of our party without their food for 5-10 minutes, despite staff repeatedly promising it would be “just 30 seconds”. Unfortunately, the same then happened with desserts - one of our party left without theirs and staff having to be reminded of the order. Staff had to be asked repeatedly for condiments we requested and there was a long wait for any staff to take our desserts/drinks orders. Service charge was included, but we would have chosen not to pay this if we could have, as we were so let down by the service today.

Sincerely hoping this was a one off - the food and the...