The Oakfield at Chester Zoo — Restaurant in Upton-by-Chester

Aweful service, booked table for Mothers Day. Waited nearly 30 minutes to be seated. We was put in conservatory so did not get to enjoy aesthetics of the old interior of the building. Service was slow and staff rude. The menu is not as advertised in the website, when I questioned this as we decided what to eat whilst waiting from the website menu. An the menu provided was cut down to basics ( burger, fish and maccaroni) and even then there was no mash and other ingredients. I was rudely told by the girl ' well what do you want me to do! So 3 burger and chips and 1 childs burger and chips. The burger was not a steak burger as stated on the menu but a burger that was similar in quality of a road side truck stop. (Not one person ate the burger in our group). My daughters 8 week old baby would not settle. So tried to take turns walking baby outside as staff was huffing. Meaning my daughter ended up not eating her meal. After 2 hours waiting and a crying baby, furthermore, the zoo closed at 4.30pm. We asked if my daughters could be boxed to take home (the staff refused) stating it is policy that "they can not allow food to be taken out if the restaurant". However, they allowed a group of 4 senior looking ladies to take theirs out in 4 seperate brown paper box. Ad they exited with the boxes as we were strapping my 28 month old Grandson in the pram. I was fuming at this point and was tempted t go back in an ask for a manager. But at this point it was now 2 and half hours in and the zoo was closing. Completely destroyed our experience of chester zoo. Ending in an 8 week old crying, an 18 month old and 5 year old crying as they didn't get to experience the zoo now crying too, my daughter ( mother of children) sobbing with her partner and myself trying to comfort her and to help with the children. And the zoo was closed now too we had to leave the zoo with aweful memories. Due to the oakfield Resturant. If I could give minus point I would. As a lifetime member myself I will never eat here again. Better burgers at thd other places dotted around and never had this issue. Other tickets were paid for and nearly £90 in the restaurant....

We ate at The Oakfield today, as a birthday treat for me. Initially the staff were very accommodating, seating us by windows in the conservatory, getting a high chair quickly for our son and taking his order first.

My son’s food came quickly.

Everything after that was pretty poor.

Our drinks, ordered within 5 minutes of us being there, took 25 minutes to arrive. They were only brought when the waiter came to take our menus away - even though he’d not taken our food order - and we prompted him that we’d not ordered food or had our drinks. He apologised and said they were short staffed - at the time there was only 3 other tables dining.

Our orders were taken and my husband was told they didn’t have what he’d ordered (a vegetarian burger). He instead chose the vegetarian version of a Caesar salad that was on the menu. This turned up with anchovies on it. Now I know that’s standard in a Caesar salad but my husband had explained he was vegetarian and the server had assured him it was a suitable option for him. He was then told to pick something else and told there was only 1 option by the waiter. He waited a further 15 minutes - we had been there an hour at this point. From the point of ordering our food to it arriving, my son’s empty plate had also sat on the table, stacked and clearly not being used. This remained on the table for the duration, despite 4 staff coming over at different times.

When my food arrived I ordered us more drinks. These hadn’t come by the time my husband’s food arrived. He then asked about them. A further 20 minutes passed, so I went in to see what had happened. The drinks were never put through.

After an hour and a half, and having had our order messed up 3 times. We asked for the bill. They did give us 10% discount and took the drinks off the bill. But this almost didn’t feel adequate given the poor service, which really didn’t seem warranted for the “busy” atmosphere.

I’d really looked forward to today, and sadly I would think twice about taking an hour and a half out of my zoo trip to visit again. I certainly wouldn’t jump...

Avoid if you have food allergies! We were asked as we were seated whether we had any food allergies. We told the man that both our daughters had allergies. He asked whether we had EpiPens in case of an emergency. This should have been our warning! We were given the allergy book which we checked for both of the girls meals. When our order was taken, we were again asked about allergies. We gave the girls four allergies- child 1 egg and dairy child 2 cashew and pistachio nuts. Not feeling confident in the milk and egg allergy for any of the meals listed on the menu, she ended up eating hummus and flat breads. Service was extremely slow. 40 minutes for food to arrive (hummus and flatbreads, no cooking. Pesto and veg gnocchi- quick. Two burgers, 1 adult, 1 child- quick). When other tables around us who arrived after us began getting their food (about 30 minutes after we ordered), my husband politely queried it. We were told our food would be out soon. I said not a problem, our food was probably being cooked separately due to allergies and we were told no that wouldn’t be the reason, that they couldn’t accommodate this in such a large kitchen. When our food eventually arrived, it was decent, nothing special. Quite disappointing as we had booked this as a treat for our anniversary and based on the good reviews. Then the bill arrived, it said peanuts for our daughter instead of cashew and pistachio. We queried this and were told it was just to alert the kitchen of an allergy. I said that this was pointless as she was fine with peanuts as tree nut allergy is completely different to peanut allergy. My husband queried whether her meal could have contained her allergens to which we were told that was our responsibility as we were given the allergy book. Somewhat ruined the rest of our day watching for potential reactions and certainly upset our 5 year old who kept telling us that she had a pain in her tummy which we had to insist was fine to avoid her becoming...