The Bull's Head — Restaurant in Wigan

I’ve not been to The Bulls Head in a good while, and now I realise why !!! I took my friend for lunch today and was most embarrassed to have taken her... The service was very poor, done by amateurs, the chef wasn't any better.. not much of a decent choice on the menu, no salads on offer or sandwiches or wraps, not everyone wants to eat burger and chips ... hopeless service, my friends meal came out, looking like it had been slapped on the plate, no presentation skills whatsoever, with an apology that my meal, which was, unfortunately for me, the same food choice as my friends, (I had chosen the best of a bad bunch of choices on the menu. Nothing that healthy on offer !!! ) (I didn’t know it had changed to an Ember Inn), so I was told my meal wasn’t ready yet but it would arrive soon... it arrived over ten minutes .looking as unprofessional as the first meal... the chicken breast was scrawny ... the peas were wrinkled and over done, and the chips were hard and uncooked, I ended up having to mash them and mixing them with gravy in order to eat them... I left a few and got the waitress to squeeze them when she collected the plates for her to see how they were... now you could say “why didn’t I send the meal back”, answer is, I’d already waited for it in the first place and we had already had to eat at a different time..and I couldn’t be bothered to wait again.... I definitely won’t be returning..... it used to be a great pub that place, but the staff and manager need more professional training and while you're at it, the chef needs to learn how to cook a decent meal... char grilled chicken thrown on a grill, frozen chips and frozen peas, it’s not exactly hard is it, my 8 year old grandson can do a better job.... I have worked with the public and customers for a large part of my life and both staff that served me really could do with some information on how to welcome customers, and learn how to deal with customers.... I’m not complaining about their manners or politeness but they were just bland, and both of them could do with a shot of vivaciousness to make all customer feel like they are having an enjoyable fun time. Such a big disappointment !!! Before I went today in my mind I always thought “I like it n The Bulls Head” but now I’ve changed my mind....I won’t be thinking that anymore...GONE RIGHT DOWN...

My wife and I visited Ember Inns - Bulls Head at Astley on Thursday 12th Sep 2013

The pub is very modern and clean and the staff friendly but unfortunately the member of staff who dealt with us ( we didn't get her name ) wasn't very well trained and also the till/computer didn't seem to be user friendly. She was obviously unfamiliar with the system and consequently several mistakes were made during ordering process.

We were ordering their ' Two main courses for £8 ' offer which we had seen on their website. Firstly, the battered Whiting with chips with mushy peas at no extra cost and also gammon with lattice chips at .95p extra.

A pint of Carlsberg and a large glass of rose wine were also ordered at the same time

When the total cost came to £18 75 this was queried as it seemed a lot considering the food only cost £8.95

The barmaid re-checked the till computer and found she had ' pressed the wrong button ' and that a refund of £1.50 was due but she couldn't do this without the approval of the manager and had to find him and bring him to the till to explain what had happened when the refund was was duly given

All this took about ten minutes but everything then seemed to be OK

Unfortunately the inefficiency continued as when the meals arrived mine had no mushy peas and my wife's had ordinary chips instead of lattice. The waitress (who was the barmaid who did the order in the first place) apologised and departed to arrive back a few minutes later with the correct meals.

The saving grace was that the meals were actually very good. However, owing to the inefficiency and mistakes made we will not be returning to the Bull's Head in a hurry as there are many good food serving pubs in competition with Ember Inns in our area that are far more customer...

Came here with my partner as a one-off and even before we ordered we disliked the place. Went through the door and stood around for 5 minutes as didn't know whether we seated ourselves or if someone came to see to us. Eventually we went and sat down ourselves at a table and decided what we wanted to eat. We then went to the bar to order and was told we needed ID to even eat here! I had mine on me but my partner didn't, so was told we could not order without his ID also which I found absolutely pathetic. We wasn't even attempting to order alcohol, as I was ordering water with my meal and him a coke. We angrily walked the 15 minute walk back home to get my partners ID. As there were no other places to eat nearby, we decided to just go back and try again, as we really wanted to try the food. Once we had finally ordered our food, it was delivered at a very fast pace but a lot of what we had ordered was wrong. Our starters of battered mushrooms and garlic bread were nice but our mains were not. The chips were very VERY overcooked, actually burnt, and I ordered baby potatoes with my meal and chips came with it. I asked a waitress to change this and she brought back a few very dry potatoes, not even with butter. Although the waitress was friendly, I felt she was overcompensating a bit too much and kept commenting on my partner.

Overall, would not visit here again, not even for drinks as the food did not live up to expectations and waitresses seemed...