Ring O Bells — Restaurant in West Lancashire

First of all I’m looking at the 5 star reviews and thinking these are people that have never been here. The 1 star is for the setting and how lovely looking the pub is, the facilities are top notch. All modern and clean . That’s where it ends, the park out back isn’t designed for kids under 5. That’s not a problem as pubs don’t have to have parks. Tbh it was nice out back too. Apart from half the tables near the play area being next to a septic tank, which you can smell. Not ideal.

Pubs that are out in the sticks have to have good food it’s the only thing that will bring the punters back. The food is atrocious here honestly atrocious. Got a scotch egg for £8 it wasn’t worth £8. I got a steak and onion baguette that was supposed to have chimmichurri on and a bone marrow gravy. It was all taste less and I could have made something better at home for £3 The steak bits were tough and there was barely any. This cost £14. My partner got chipotle chicken which was tough and tasted nothing like chipotle. Didn’t help they barely put any on. The brioche bun was stale. So bad. Got a kids meal spaghetti and meatballs. Surely you can’t mess that up, no you can it’s was £8 and the sauce was again tasteless and was drenched in olive oil. I can’t belive I paid for all this. £42 for the food, no drinks in that price.

Lastly the service was shoddy. Staff just stood around while I’m waiting to be seen too. Lad at the bar was the most uninterested barman I’ve ever met. Just didn’t give a crap. Was on his phone when I came, it was like I bothered him, then his mate came up talking about his business while I waited to be served. Nice one.

Shame because this could be an absolute gem. The area is lovely and the setting and building is second to none. But let down by the two most important things the quality of food and service. Dont waste your time, if you go just go...

Very disappointing! Table booked early evening for a family birthday meal, including two young children. Food took over 2 hours from ordering to arriving at the table. Children's meals were dismal at best, frozen to fryer to plate chicken strips x 2 with a dried out excuse for a wrap, small strips of raw carrot and a burnt piece of corn on the cob! Adults starters were acceptable but definitely not worth the price tag. Mains meals arrived, luke warm, poorly presented and again not worth the price point. One member of our party ordered the Pichanha steak which was sold out so swapped for the Bavette, this was sold out too so was offered the Rump for the same price, was ordered rare but came at best medium (although was a nice piece of steak) again not worth the £29 price tag. Waitresses had to be asked for additional drinks, cutlery and condiments. When complained, we were offered a 50% reduction on the food bill but this was reduced to 30% but when the bill arrived this wasnt reflected and again we had to ask for it to be reviewed. The front of house staff who had offered this discount had left for the night and not communicated this to the waitress and subsequent phone calls had to be made to confirm. We werent offered desserts and although we brought in a cake, we had to ask for it to be brought to the table, we werent offered any plates or cutlery for said cake. Overall a very disappointing evening, such a shame because lots of thought and effort has been made into the refurbishment, the aesthetics of the place was spot on and has so much potentional, just a shame the same amount of care hasnt been invested into the staff training and customer service. There was a distinct lack of leadership and communication and lots of young members of staff just hanging around chatting and...

Great location and a great family venue with some real potential, but unfortunately for our first visit, thats where it ended.

We had a large table of 3 families, totalling 13 people. Two childrens meals were 'missed' off the order, and when I mentioned to the waitress that we were two childrens meals short, she said she would check on that and never returned, never to be seen again. A quick trip up to the bar confirmed that the order wasnt taken down properly and the missing food was quickly paid for and delivered to the now hungry kids.

After that was sorted it took over 1.5 hours of asking more that one of the serving staff about the missing adult orders of fish & chips, a side of chips and a side of onion rings that also never got to the table but was paid for. We were told more than once that these meals/sides are up next, and one of the serving staff even claimed that they had brought the food out but no one was at the table - very unlikely for 13 guests to all be AWOL in one go.

8:30pm and quite frustrated, we asked the bar staff who went to the kithen to find out whats going on. Amongst us we decided to leave and request a refund on the way out, when we were met by one if the serving staff who told is the manager has agreed to give us a refund on the meal/sides and the meal would be put in a take away as a complementary service. Safe to say we got the refund but not the meal. Who knows how or why this series of events unfolded the way it did, but no one was competent enough to give us any real information, or resolve the issues and no manager was in sight.

In this instance, I cant rate the service because there really wasnt any, but Ive had to give it a one star as thats the minimum.

We probably wont be back...