Axe & Cleaver — Restaurant in Trafford

Never been made to feel so unwelcome. Called in for a drink with partner 4.30pm yesterday. Asked if eating by Karl, said just having a drink is that ok...oh he said with look of disappointment he said no you have to have food..thought he was joking but his manner after that proved otherwise.Dismissed us whilst i looking at the gins after asking do you want to look at a menu to change your mind...we said no so he left us half way through serving us and said he ll serve you pointing to a barman whilst he turned to serve one of the two gentleman sat at the bar. Possibly a regular. I just ordered half lager as felt pressured and started talking to the barman who asked me had we not been before , explaining came to see the pub as usually go to the rope and the green dragon and others in the nearby area. Before i finished talking i was rudely interrupted by Karl saying bar area is over there, pointing to two small low stools at side of bar...i went to sit at a table with proper chairs...he said NO for eating only , I asked do you not have any proper chairs with backs on (my partner has a bad back from his care job days and I have arthritis in both knees, prob from my care job days. the pub is large; full of tables and chairs..not one diner in the place..none until after 7pm I checked upon leaving)Karl said you can sit over there and pointed to a table for two in middle of pub..not what we would have chosen given a choice...so rude. We eat out regularly but we like to decide ourselves, if we like the feel of the place. We couldnt wait to leave. The decor is nice..i am sure the food is nice... but with the level of management hospitality we received all that means nothing. We went to another pub (the olde No 3) and had a lovely three course meal after a drink first. The landlady is so friendly down to earth and accommodating and said we could sit anywhere when we said just wanted a drink...lovely atmosphere, friendly, relaxed and very hospitable and deserves anyones custom in our view...will have ours anyway..needless to say this pub was NOT empty and another few walk in diners came in. I taking my parents out for lunch in couple of weeks and my grandchildren soon too...plus catchup with old friends often, have a few friendly pubs in mind...not this one...will never return. What a lost opportunity. If you are not a pub and you a only a restaurant please state this clearly to save future embarressment to future customers...would be a shame though...loss of opportunity for custom..maybe you dont need/value it...we didnt even want another drink there never mind food!!! Having worked in hospitality, from cleaning pubs to being in charge of pubs during afternoons front of house. And evenings front of house...running restaurant in evenings ..in very affluent area.....i never made a customer..or anyone for that matter...spending 50p or £500, feel the way we were made to feel. Its about respect and integrity above all else in my experience that is the backbone to bring all the other positive factors together, not how much money you can get of a customer .....Very very poor... if this is the level of management hospitality it not a surprise the pub was so empty Disgusted...couldnt even report to the manager as...

Made to feel very welcome and the staff were lovely. We were sat straight away it was a nice cozy place. We ordered drinks and didn't wait long for them to arrive. Guinness was lovely btw. We ordered the food, 1 starter, 2 mains to start. Starter although was lovely it was NOT worth over £7! i ordered the pan fried prawns, it turned up in a tiny bowl with 4 prawns in it with some tomato sauce of sorts, 2 leaves of garnish and 2 small pieces of bread, I had to ask for butter that was so hard it destroyed the bread. When finished out lady server came to clear the plate and asked us to confirm "is it still only 1 main your having?" We confirmed it was 2 we ordered. She put the second on the order. If that had just turned up, one main meal, we would not have been happy. When the main meals did turn up it looked and smelt incredible. My lamb shank shephards pie looked great. As i was loading the plate i could tell that the cheese was melted via a microwave as it was tough and rubbery, when I took a bit the food was so hot, the roof of mouth blistered, it was rediculas. I had to wait over 5 minutes before it was cooled enough to try and enjoy. The lamb was pretty much fell off the bone, it was in with mint gravy which was also lovely. My partner had the chicken pie, she said it was lovely. When we finished, the table was cleared and we asked for the desert menu, when we ordered the desert, the server, the server which took the initial order laughed off mistake from the main ordered saying, I've definitely ordered 2 this time. The desert arrived and again, sticky toffee pudding and custard was heated in their nuclear reactor making it wayy above an acceptable temperature to eat, even 5/10 minutes after it arrived i was only able to start eating it.

To summerise, the place was lovely, the staff friendly friendly, i would advise our male server to stop trying to be a comedian and make sure the orders are correct, as while there, he was the same with the table behind and also messed part of their order up too. The food was absolutely lovely, tast wise, but the starter needed more of it to be worth the money, and try and not use the microwave as much while heating food or melting cheese. We had 3 drinks, 1 starter, 2 mains and 2 deserts was almost £85, we were happy that they accepted blue light card which saved almost £10. See the pictures and make your own decision. I gave the food a 3 purely cause of the use of microwave making the food so so hot it uncomfortable to eat. Will I...

This is an update on my previous review - I had nothing other than praise earlier but like so many things that are too good to be true something always comes along to spoil it. We booked a table well in advance for a birthday treat for my sister in law. We turned up an hour early so that we could park and walk the dog before eating. A rather aggressive character (turned out to be the bar manager) stormed across the carpark and told us the we couldn't park because it was only for customers. When told we had booked and would be customers in about 45 minutes his response was "well you can't bring the dog in because it is not dog friendly". At no stage did this self important character ever apologise - if we could have found somewhere else quickly and easily there is no possibility we would have actually eaten here. HOW THINGS CHANGE - PLEASE READ ON Certainly we can describe this place as a very successful find. Having searched wide and far for a pub capable of catering for a small group of both meat eaters and vegans we found the Axe & Cleaver - a great success. We had been on the point of despair and began to believe it would be better to stay at home. Given the extensive menu which was hard to believe existed providing meals for vegan, vegetarian and meat diets there were also a number of dishes marked as gluten free. We can only say we all had a feeling of disbelief and a suspicion that it was all too good to be true. However, the food quality was excellent, served piping hot, with good sized portion control and nicely presented. The pub decor appears a little dated but is clean and tidy. Toilet facilities also were clean and reasonably fresh. Overall a worthwhile trip out with a lovely walk from Dunham Town along the Bridgewater Canal and back through Dunham Park - on one of the few warm, sunny and dry days all year. Many times it is so much easier to find things to criticise but that is not the case here. We can only provide compliments and say we hope that with so many pubs closing all around that this place continues to be a success.

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