the QUARTER at Potbank — Restaurant in Stoke-on-Trent

Ok so where to I begin? First let me be clear I am not reviewing the restaurant. I am reviewing the private function facility. We were charged £35pp for a buffet style meal, live band and disco in a private function room that would be shared with other groups. On arrival we were expected to pay to park our car on their car park, we were then bag searched by a security guard before we were allowed to enter, yes bag searched! like we were visiting relatives in prison not out for the night (funny thing was the room was hired by a group of teachers and police!) on entry the room was actually quite nice, en eclectic mix of random furniture that doesn’t really match but works in a post industrial type setting, but don’t get excited just yet. We found our group and a place at a table where we found three small trays of poorly made dry half mini baps with a selection of (we think) egg, ham, tuna, cheese or hummus, a very small bowl of pasta, a very small bowl of potato, a bowl of Dorito type (but probably Aldi) crisps and three dips. There were no clearly labelled vegetarian options, there was however a vega selection chucked up the corner with no indication who or how many they were for. Yes apparently this was our buffet style meal, there were 9 people on our table at £35! Ok so I went to buy a drink, here I was closely watched by another security guard who remained in the room all night. One single vodka and coke and a pint of IPA wax £9:95, clearly they think you are a captive audience so can charge you what they like! The second security guard then spent his evening either watching you at the bar, or when the dance floor got busy, watching the ladies dance from the edge (literally) of the dance floor. As for the band, there were two geriatric musicians and a female singer that slowly murdered every song she attempted. They did two sets live with a disco in between that was run by what looked like a 12 year old who hadn’t quite mastered his mixing skills resulting slightly embarrassing pauses between the oh so predictable party songs. So to sum up, if you want to go home hungry, disappointed and penniless, go to a private function at the Quarter! I will just add that the staff were on the whole lovely and polite, with exception of the strange security guard, and a good night was had by most, but this was due to the company not the venue. My advice would be to hire a function room, hire separate caterers and disco, then you’ll get reasonably priced beer, value for money for food and several thousand...

Hung drawn and quartered at the Quarter @ Pot Bank.

This has to be the worst restaurant to go to on a hot summers day.

We arrived on time and there was know where to park, so spent the next 30 minutes driving around to find somewhere safe to park.

Then when we finally found a parking space at the civic centre we had to walk for 10 minutes back to the restaurant.

When we got to the restaurant, the waitress was rude and abrupt, making comments about two of the group arriving late. Then told us we would have to have our starters and main served together, because we had turned up late. But if there was enough parking spaces for the number of covers we would not have been late.

35 minutes after she told us we would need to have starter and main together we were still waiting for the food to come out. It was then very clear as we watched other tables finish and leave that we would be the last to be served, and our food did not come out to us until an hour after it had been ordered.

The waitress explained that the reason why we had to wait was because of the kitchen not being able to keep up with the demand. She then told us that we had to wait for the starters and mains to be cooked at the same time, which made no sense, because we were the last to receive our food, .

Steak was over done. Jerk chicken was not like jerk at all. Prawns were very nice and succulent. Chicken was very dry on the ribs and chicken. Ribs were very nice but very small. Pesto Salmon was swimming in oil and over cooked. Burger was very nice. Chicken platter was dry and to herby.

Deserts Churros were hard, but the waitress did ask and then replaced them with one that were harder than the first one, which nearly broke my teeth. Lemon meringue was lovely. Cheesecake was very nice too.

There just seem to be lots of random rules, like the server can’t take drink orders, and we hated the tone of the waitress.

Then the bill came and that was the biggest shock of them all. Considering the quality of the food, or lack there of, the poor service from our waitress and the load atmosphere it was definitely not value or worth the price.

The waitress was very rude and abrupt when we first arrived, and considering we had the table till 10pm and we order at 7:25pm., and did not receive our starter and mains till 8:20pm. The starter and main issue should never have been a thing.

All in all, this was not a good first experience at The Quarter @ Pot Bank and we would not recommend the food...

We have been loyal customers to the Quarter for our work outings - so when we decided to do a baby shower for one of our colleagues we decided to have it here. We paid £50 for a private room and pre-ordered our food - no deposit was taken or requested on the email we had sent - possibly because we are returning loyal customers. On the day of the event I arrived earlier to dress the room, was rudely told no confetti - no balloons with confetti in, and the table was separated in to 3 with miss match chairs instead of one long one, this was not mentioned upon booking but ok, I can live with that. Out of the 22 guests, unfortunately 2 could not make the event due to illness (I myself was only informed at the event) - as we didn’t pay a deposit I didn’t think this was an issue however the rude gentleman said he would need the £20 to be paid (before we even got seated) we said we would have a chat what we could do.

After we finished our meals and again we were informed about the £20 and that we need pay at the bar. We all paid for our meals £407 in total - and the remaining balance was £29.50 which didn’t make sense - eventually after going back and forth and the whole obsession with the £20 I paid the remaining £20 - even though £407 for the meals / £50 for the private room / drinks at the bar I would say about £100 but none of that mattered as long as this £20 was paid! We were all totally gob smacked by this - we have been coming here for years for events but after today fiasco never again. Even on the pre-order form which I will upload, they wrote “Some needs to pay £20” Absolute shame we won’t be recommending this venue again, or returning - down to bad...