The Saracens Head — Restaurant in Trafford

I’m very disappointed with tonight’s events.

Originally I booked for 12 people for my daughters 4 year old birthday meal with family. When I called I specifically said I have heard good things and I was coming here for the play area then to eat. I was told I could not pre book the play area but it would be absolutely fine. I did say any issues, give me a call, left my number and name for the booking in the restaurant.

When I arrived at 4pm (table for food booked for 5:30pm) the play area was closed due to maintenance. Absolutely fine, can’t help that! These things happen, however nobody called to let me know this would be the case. When I asked the young girl she said ‘oh someone was meant to call’ Never the less we carried on. We made our way to the restaurant, the restaurant was very quiet so we could have a table straight away, amazing! We ordered the children’s meals before all the adults came to keep them occupied. The children’s meals were lovely! Once everyone arrived we went on to order drinks and food for the adults (7 adults in total), starters - forgot one of the adults so we’d all finished before that even came, I ordered the duck spring rolls, £7.49, however, I got 6 party food spring rolls - tiny things that had never seen duck. Quite obviously from 2 different packets too as some were different to others. Others said their starters were edible and we all got on with it, (to the exception of the garlic mushrooms which were beautiful!) Mains - 3 lots of steak meals, all missing onion rings, freezing peppercorn sauce which I had to send back as it was literally stone cold, fish and chips came with the wrong chips, the pie of the day which was chicken, mushroom and bacon was so dry neither of the two parties which ordered them could eat, plently of chicken in them but absolutely not sauce so basically chicken in pastry, the burger was indeed lovely however. Deserts - not the same as the online menu only serving Victoria sponge or vegan chocolate cake, so we gave that a miss. Drinks were missed off drinks orders. Table when we got to it had used napkins underneath 🤮 The staff then brought my daughters cake, as we lit the sparkler, the staff then just walked away, leaving a cake in the middle of alllll the dirty plates and didn’t even offer a knife or plates for the cake they pretty much gave the cake and walked away without even saying happy birthday hahahaha.

The table behind left and both the younger girls stood behind the counter talking instead of clearing the table which was a mess.

We quickly paid the bill and left. I would’ve questioned more at the time if it wasn’t my daughters birthday. - I did make a point of things but would’ve defo asked for money off the bill for the poor food and service. I don’t write reviews nor do I complain- after all my mum who was with us tonight owns a restaurant and we know how hard it can be but good god this was such a bad experience overall. It’s such a shame because I’ve heard nothing but...

More than disappointing visit on the 18th May. Pre booked table for 17 people, right from the initial booking process did things not go smoothly.

Turned up to be told someone was sat on our table drinking, no reserved signs had been put out. The ‘table’ that was meant for us was 4 separate tables in the corner rather than one large one for all 17 of us. The pub was 90% empty so I asked to push tables together instead which the staff member rolled her eyes and huffed. Huffed again when asked for a high chair, even though I specified room for 2 buggies and two high chairs when booking and sending the pre orders.

No one came to ask if we wanted drinks. I ran through the pre order with the waitress to find out they only had half of it! I told her I’d write the rest down for her, she then asked if I had a pen to do so!

Our table was booked for 1.30pm, at 2.10pm they came to say food would be another 15 minutes. The adults were hungry, let alone the 5 hound children we had with us! When good came and hour after sitting down it was mediocre to say the least and two of the orders came wrong even though they had a PRE ORDER! again no one came to check on it.

They cleared half the plates and asked if we wanted to wait for desserts.. knowing how long it took for mains we said no we were ready, to which we waited again..

When I went to pay the bill at the till, no one could find out order on a table. They had to check with the kitchen, who didn’t know. Then go off and ask the server who then said it hadn’t gone through so we waited again while they put it through the till.

We’ve been coming here for years and this service and food was shocking! It was a sunny hot day and the place was dead, what does that go to say?

We had family visiting from down south and we were embarrassed and wishes we’d held the lunch at home or a different pub, we sure will next time!

I emailed this complaint directly to the pub on Tuesday and asked for a response, it’s now Friday with no response so I am sharing...

I don't usually leave negative reviews however in this case it's warranted. We came for a family meal out,looking forward to a warm atmosphere and good food. However on arrival we were greeted by a cold venue,the boiler had broken, however the wood burner next to us wasn't lit as wood is too expensive, so we sat in our coats, not ideal. Move on to placing our orders and we were told there was no pasta available, oh and no scampi either; both options were one of our party members 1st and 2nd choice so she was left disappointed. The next problem occurred when the food was brought out, the order had been noted down wrong and one party member sat waiting for their dinner to be cooked while everyone else ate, really not how it should be is it? Some of us had finished before he even got his food! Not only that, considering there were only 2 other tables in, it took just over an hour to actually get our food out. The young waiter serving us was polite and told us the late plate wouldn't be charged for,and rightly so. The final straw was when one of our party pointed out these errors upon payment,only to be greated by a very unprofessional attitude from your senior member of staff. There's no excuse for the argumentative attitude you displayed to a 77 year old pensioner who is no stranger to the restaurant business. To argue back at a customer who was well within his rights to be peed off with the experience is just plain wrong. Then to have the audacity to say to him that he's obviously after a freebie is quite honestly a disgrace and you should be seriously ashamed of yourself. Don't presume to know what your customers have been through, in their own lives or anything else. Do not be so disrespectful and rude or your business will not survive. Overall a terrible experience, but the food was good...