The Mermaid — Restaurant in Wolverhampton

15th September 2021:

Back here again at The Mermaid in Wightwick although this time it was for an evening meal. The staff once again were absolutely brilliant, friendly and welcoming. Made us feel right at home. The Mermaid has a very cosy, warm feel at night and we were given a lovely table for our meal. We couldn't wait to see the menu! The Whitewater "Chenin Blanc" was superb and my pints of the Sharps "Doombar" ale were perfect. For starters we ordered the "Calamari Aioli" and the "Duo of Pate", both were totally delicious and freshly prepared. For our mains, we had the "Hunters Schnitzel Chicken" and the "Pork Belly & Mash with black pudding and a crispy long piece of perfect cracking..absolutely delicious and amazing!! The Mermaid is one of our top favourite restaurant and pub and we have and do reccomend it highly to all the boaters on the canal and friends and family with transport as well. Once again, a Big Thank You and Shout Out to Peter Blake and his team of chefs and to Abbie, Salvatore, Hana and the other staff too. What a fantastic restaurant and pub, 10 out of 10 for everyone and everything..perfect score! We'll definitely be back again and sooner rather than later...

1st of July 2021:

We planned ahead to moor up at Wightwick moorings so we could pop over to The Mermaid Inn for an afternoon drink as it looked welcoming and interesting on our canal boat maps and guides books. The Mermaid Inn dates back to the 1780's or thereabouts and was part of the houses near and around the old Wightwick Manor.... Only a 5 minute walk from the canal moorings and on the other side of the A454 traffic lights junction etc.

We decided to sit outside as it was a lovely day and The Mermaid Inn looked splendid from the outside. Masks are needed, then walked in, social distancing and one way system is clearly signed and checked in on the trace and track Covid regulations.

Warmly welcomed by Ella has per the greeting billboard outside the entrance and ordered our drinks and asked if she could bring us the menu just in case.

My perfectly kept and chilled pint of Doombar arrived along with a medium glass of the house Chardonnay which was perfect according to my better half. We had a look at the menu and immediately decided to have a sandwich or something else as the food looked delicious and amazing! We jointly decided on two rounds of the deliciously sounding "Hot Beef Brisket on toasted sourdough bread" sandwich with beef dripping sauce and pickled pink onions served with thin skin on fries or chips as we know them... When these came, they looked so delicious and once we started eating these, we both went, wow....absolutely delicious and so yummy!!! Highly recommend this... Our lunch was fantastic and after a while, due to a sweet tooth, we decided to be decadent and share a pudding. The pudding choices are so good although we wanted to try the amazing sounding all edible"The Flowerpot"....

When it arrived, it was a beautiful piece of art and once we started to eat all the different bits of this pudding, we went to heaven...how could something so beautifully presented be so divinely delicious...every bit was a symphony of flavours and tastes, wow! Only once ever have we had something like this pudding many years ago in a fancy restaurant but here in an Inn pub outside Wolverhampton, boy did it send our tastebuds into overdrive or what! This all edible "Flowerpot" pudding is very highly recommended along with The Mermaid Inn on Bridgnorth Road 👍👏👏. Well done Chefs...amazing food!!

All the staff were very friendly, warmly welcoming, attentive and fantastic...

And finally a very Big Thank You to Ella, Amber and especially Farrah...you are all stars and amazing ladies, well done to you all 👍👏👏.

A black coffee and a double Jameson's helped with the digestion no doubt...

Definitely be back if on this stretch of the Staffs and Worcester canal and highly recommend The Mermaid Inn to all you boaters chugging through the Wightwick moorings....moor up and go to The Mermaid Inn most...

Fab location, great décor, used to be a regular visitor but booked a table for 9 , initially booking was very efficient and staff helpful, on arrival the 1st guests purchased their own drinks and didn't open a tab so when the rest of us arrived the staff thought this was what we required and assumed without asking, after sitting down for 10mins with no one approaching us I went to the bar and asked to set up a tab, no issue here as I can appreciate the misunderstanding, drink orders taken , some drinks arrived bottle of wine didn't turn up so again had to go to bar and chase, staff apologised, menus were given to us food selected on ordering 4 of the party wanted the seafood linguine for us then to be told it wasnt availabe and they forgot to tell us, so back to the drawing board and new mains selected, I asked for confirmation what came with the belly pork and was told a mini apple pie, mash and veg - 2 of the party then ordered this dish. The food then arrived and some of the starters were luke warm, we did raise this but due to us now being hungry and the rest of the part having their starters we agreed to just eat it. A further drink G&T was ordered and after the starters had been eaten the drink had still not arrived so a further trip to the bar to chase, staff apologised and bought over. Mains arrived and myself and a friend noticed there wasn't a mini apple pie on the belly pork, again called the member of the team over and asked where it was she informed us she didn't know but would check with chef, we were then told that the kitchen hadn't got any left and the last lot he had cooked had burned so did we want an extra piece of crackling - the crackling I thought was not edible as it was soft and not what I would of expected so we declined! At this point I politely offered the lady who was serving us some feedback on our whole experience as to me communication is key and so far the whole experience wasn't good - if we had been informed that a key element was missing off our main course we could of selected something different or remained with our choice! Unfortunately the lady was very defensive and did not want to listen to my feedback at no point was saying that they team weren't friendly and polite but the processes were falling day at every point - at this point I knew it was pointless trying to give feedback, we then ordered 3 deserts and the strawberry and raspberry Eaton mess had no fruit in it at all - again we made the team aware - a Manager did come over to us to confirm she had removed the cost of a starter and desert plus £5 per meal for the belly pork which was appreciated but not really the answer as it wasn't discount I was looking for it was good service with drinks being bought over when ordered, being told up front what want available, hot food with all elements that were stated on the menu and staff listening to the customer - the pub want busy and there were plenty of staff who were gathering behind the bar talking! The guy that took our payment was superb and really friendly he could not have done more for us - I just wanted to let you know as I feel it is a real shame and a bit of training and better communication would of made the world...

Good quality food and drink, however, awful service. We have been to the mermaid a few times. For breakfast, lunch and dinner. The service has been rocky to say the least. From waitresses and waiters mumbling, to extremely long waits for drinks. We have been here for the valentine's menu, where food was brought to our table, however, the waitress was really quiet and we couldn't understand her while bringing out our starter's. When we questioned what she said, she almost shouted at us. An absolute overreaction to a simple question. When we were finished with our starters, we had to wait an abnormally long wait for a waiter to take our plates away. Finally someone arrived and we also placed a drinks order with them as well. This drinks order took way too long to get to us. From having our starters taken away, we were able to finish our mains, have the plates taken away and even wait a little longer until they finally arrived. The waiter that brought it over didn't even apologize for the massive delay in our drinks. One of the cocktails we had tasted of water, nothing like It should have tasted. Then we had to wait a further 50 minutes for a microwaved dessert, despite being nice, nothing can compensate for having to wait 50 minutes for food that takes 2 minutes in the microwave. We didn't even have to wait that long for our mains, but for 2 microwaved desserts, it's just embarrassing, for everyone.

What's important to mention here, is that the restaurant wasn't busy. I dread to think what service is like when it's actually busy.

I am not certain if it is a lack of training or staff on part of the restaurant, but other restaurants on the bridgnorth road are far more appealing, in terms of services. At least at the other restaurants, you'll feel valued as a customer.

We did have a really good and efficient waiter at the start, who brought our drinks out on time and was quite friendly. However, This does not take away from the negative experience, putting it lightly.

There is no reason as to why we...