Pepper Mill — Restaurant in Stoke-on-Trent

I ordered two drinks and a starter as I turned up to my booking early. The member of staff was extremely rude due to me arriving early and said blankly “you’ll have to sit outside for now” in a blunt way and with an attitude towards me. I didn’t think anything of this at first because as I arrived the police were inside the pub and maybe he was dealing with other issues which made the atmosphere a little unsettling anyway due to me having my 9 month old baby accompanying me. My starter came out within 20 minutes which I did think was quite a wait due to the pub not being overly busy and all I order was a little bowl of popcorn chicken. From being sent outside I also want to add that to my attention there was a dead rat that was lay next to the bush on the pavement when approaching the doors. This was a massive off put to even sit down and eat at this pub as I instantly thought this place could have rats and all sorts in the kitchen! This is not a good look to future customers wanting to have a nice meal out, due to the prices of ur food. We then sat inside at our table which we had booked and ordered our food. I ordered the lasagne which cost me £13!! It looked nice when it first came out so I tucked straight in and took 2 bites. My 3rd bite into my lasagne I was appalled and spat my food out. It was stone cold. My lasagne was raw and still frozen. The top of the whole lasagne was freezing cold! And the middle centre was freezing cold and still frozen. The chefs in the kitchen clearly are NOT following food hygiene procedures when it comes to food as they had not probed my meal before sending it out. This is absolutely disgusting and I was so shocked this had happened. I sent my lasagne back and the waitresses were very apologetic and appalled themselves as I even asked them just to touch the top of the lasagne and their faces were horrified that this had been served to me. I asked if there was anything they could offer me due to this and they offered me a free dessert. I point blank refused it and said I am not eating anything else from here so they offered me a refund for the lasagne. I then didn’t eat a thing and even my partner was of his meal. I did not get a full refund on what I had paid which I was shocked about. I had two mouthfuls of cold, uncooked frozen lasagne and nothing else was said. Later on I went to the toilet and came back and my drink that was half full had been taken, I clearly wasn’t finished drinking my drink. My partner went over to the bar and asked for a new drink as mine had been taken and the bar staff said “well we haven’t moved any drinks”! Overall my experience at this pub was not to be forgotten to say the least and I will be taking this further due to the health and safety issues at risk as the waitress even came out and told me that there was problems with the microwave and still my food was served without being probed clearly. Admitting to me that this was microwaved food and paying the prices I did in total I am really really disappointed. My experience of this pub is in a one...

If I could give 0 I would. Absolutely disgusting food, chicken was cold (wouldn’t be surprised if we all end up with food poisoning), popadom tasted like soapy water, lack of food available from the menu, beer awful and no cask ale in a Pedigree pub!!

Arrived at the pub with a table booked for 4 and just advised to sit anywhere as there was only us and another table in there at that time. When we went to the bar, we tried to order a pedigree - not available, we then tried for a Hobgoblin - she went to pull it and nothing came out, we then just asked for any available larger to save the embarrassment. Upon ordering the food, we ordered a chicken tikka masala and they advised there was no rice other than coconut rice (which wasn’t even on the menu) and no naan, so we asked for extra chips to be told they only had fries. We then ordered 2x hunters chicken to be told there was no onion rings or bacon and a gammon where there was no pineapple. When the food came out (which only took about 3 minutes), the chicken was cold throughout and left two of us worried to eat it. The curry did have a naan on it which was as hard as a rock and the popadom tasted like soap. Surprisingly the gammon was edible, but still not worth more than £5 for the meal.

I can’t believe this bill would have been nearly £70 - it was absolutely atrocious, completely inedible and cold!!!

When we brought this to the manager / team leader on duties attention they advised they hadn’t had the delivery and just to complain to head office at Marstons. To be honest, I wasn’t moaning at the lack of food but what was produced and put in front of us - the lack of food just then tipped this over the edge as a joke.

Management then came out as I pushed for a refund and advised that she was shocked at the complaint and it had been really busy and she normally gets positive reviews. This is complete and utter rubbish, the pub was dead and every single table was asking to raise a complaint for get money back.

This pub needs some major TLC or just a bolt to lock the doors for further...

So I’m writing this review has there have being a lot of bad reviews about this place, I was one of the ones that actually did have a bad experience at this facility, me and my family chose this place to come for a family meal at christmas (this is the only time me and my side of the family all get together) and I have to say this was one of the worse places we have ever being too.

Going forward to yesterday, we went out and got delayed on time so we decided it would be quicker to go for a pub lunch than to rush back home, we had received a voucher from back at Christmas due to complaining about our visit, and decided to go and use that. I booked online straight away to order a table for 15 mins time. When we got there we were escorted to a table,(last time we were told to find a table) we were served straight away and had everything in we wanted (last time it took several attempts to pick something has there was nothing available on the menu) we ordered sides (last time they did not come out). The meal came out within 20 mins of ordering, (one of my kids had steak and asked for it well done which it was), The food was nice and all my kids emptied their plates. I have got to say that this was a good 80% improvement from the last time we went,

Things to improve on was looking at what was ordered and in the notes has my son had a plain burger and it came out with lettuce on (was easily enough removed) my husband asked for his ultimate burger with no cheese and lettuce (this came out with cheese on) he still ate it and enjoyed it tho,

We have never tried the carvery so I really cant comment on that has I know there are a lot of bad reviews on this, but has for ordering off the pub classic menu everything was 80% better than at Christmas,

Well done for the...