Walnut Tree — Restaurant in Wakefield

Very poor experience with indoor play area. Paid at entry to take my 2 year old in. Woman claiming to be team leader had a bad attitude from very start. She first off all allowed me to pay full price for my daughter to have a play session in the play area before asking me if I'd read the rules and pointed to a piece of A4 paper with a large amount of small writing hid at the side of the counter, not that easy to see.

She informs me I am only allowed to go in the play area to supervise my daughter in the small under 5s section, barely a quarter of the entire play area. She said my daughter is allowed in all of it, including the over 5s area(remaining 3/4) but I can't go in there to supervise. I challenged this as there is no way I can let a 2 year old go in the over 5s section alone as there are extremely big drops and high risk of injury if not supervised. She agreed and told me she would old safely be able to use the under 5s area. I then challenged as to why I should pay full price and then be told my daughter cannot have the freedom to play in rest of play area like the other kids. Her response was simply 'You should have read the rules'. I admitted I did not read a full a4 page of rules written in small type - how many people realistically would and maybe she should have made more effort to point this out beforehand.

After speaking with the General manager he informs me these overzealous rules are due to incidents of adults assaulting kids, which is very unfortunate I agree but I feel that not allowing parents into the main parts of the play area to supervise their young children is an extremely overzealous approach to take. I have been to many soft play areas owned by many different companies across the wakefield and barnsley area and never ever been told I cannot go in to supervise my young child. I understand their point of view, there is a possibility of a careless adult injuring a kid but there comes a point where common sense should prevail and most adults are responsible and careful to watch themselves around other kids when supervising small children in soft play areas.

I feel a rethink of their overzealous and lack of common sense approach to the rules and retraining of some staff to demonstrate a more friendly and welcoming attitude towards customers would be the way forward.

In summary there are plenty of other pubs with soft play areas in the area where you will most likely have a happier and more relaxed experience than 'the...

The Wacky Warehouse is a really decent, great place for me and my family to go to let the little ones play. The staff downstairs seemed nice.

However, upstairs in the main area was absolutely trash, My family and friends went upstairs for a meal, and off the bat, the staff seemed ignorant and rude, their attitude made it seem like Walnut Tree was the worst place to work. There was a rowdy family across the other end of the venue that was being quite loud, I'm surprised they didn't get told to turn the volume a little bit down for the sake of others. There is nothing wrong with a bit of fun, but there is having a laugh, then there is talking/shouting so loudly that families across the venue can hear you.

Ordered a few cokes because some of us were driving, so we all didn't drink, and it turns out they are just giving us coke in bottles, for the same price, which is absolutely absurd. When I can go to a corner shop and get one cheaper, arguably, we are paying a higher cost for the Greene King experience, but unfortunately, the experience was severely lacking.

Lastly, the food. I ordered the Burger Sizzler, and I really enjoyed the steak. The chips were nice golden and fluffy, then onto the burger... the burger meat/pattay was overcooked, burnt and dry, and it certainly tasted burnt, I couldn't finish the burger due to how dry it was. My friends partner was having trouble with her food as well. Her chips were unfortunately cremated, and her gammon wasn't the hottest. Everybody else had a good, well cooked meal, so points for that.

In conclusion, the atmosphere was totally out of wack, the staff were morbid, only the food was mediocre, and the only enjoyable part was being downstairs in the wacky warehouse. All this in comparison to the Donkey Derby in Chesterfield really shows how sub-par the Walnut Tree is, and out of touch with the Greene King brand it is, I was quite sad to see the menus were different even though they are both Greene King pubs.

3/10 would...

Three of us went to the Walnut Tree for an evening meal each. One of us ordered a starter, the others just a main.

The starter arrived and was taken away promptly.

We then sat and waited an hour for the mains to a point we had to ask where our mains were.

The waitress told us that the waiter had not told anyone the starter had been completed which was why our mains were delayed.

2 minutes later our mains arrived.

It was clear that all 3 mains had been left under a heat lamp keeping them warm in the kitchen. I ordered a mixed grill, the steak was like iron, the chicken dry, the gammon cold and the egg hard. The ribs and chicken of the second main was cold and dry and the third main was hunters chicken which looked anemic, dry and hard.

None of the food was edible, clearly it had been sat on the side waiting to be served for over an hour. There is no way 3 mains were cooked in 2 minutes. What is unbelievable is those three meals had been sat for over an hour and not one of the staff thought to ask themselves why.

We complained and the attitude of the waitress was poor. We requested a refund which was apparently completed (no receipt provided) however 10 days later the refund had not been processed.

Fortunately I claimed the full amount back via PayPal.

We then went to the Wetherby Whaler fish shop because we were starving hungry and they didn't disappoint.

My honest recommendation is to avoid the Walnut Tree they are a bunch of lying, arrogant charlatans. Instead head to the Whaler for a cracking fish and chips for less than half the price and enjoy freshly cooked food that won't break your teeth.

We certainly will not...