Chicken Ballotine
The Royal Oak Hotel & Restaurant

The Royal Oak Hotel & Restaurant

The Royal Oak Hotel and Restaurant Chester Road, Dog Lane Kelsall, Cheshire CW6 0RR, CW6 0RG, TARPORLEY, United Kingdom

Cafés • Pizza • Hotels • British


"I visited here with my extended family for a meal. It was very quiet with only a few other tables occupied. We decided on dining here due to the offer they had on which was 30% off on a Thursday. We’ve been before to take advantage of this offer as it’s such great value for money. The evening started off great. We were welcomed by the manager and shown to our table. Our order was taken promptly, again by the manager, and then our drinks arrived followed by our food. Unfortunately, it went downhill from here. I guessed the manager had gone home by this point. The two young girls serving us were so miserable, no smiles, nothing. They spent most of their time hovering at the bar, chatting. We asked one of them for more drinks and nothing happened. Eventually, after a good 10 minute wait, a gentleman arrived at our table to take our order. (He looked like the supervisor or assistant manager? We then waited a further 20 minutes with still no sign of them. By this point I was getting annoyed so I went to the bar to ask myself. The bar man said he’d bring them asap. His exact words were “My bad, I’ll bring them straight over”! My bad?! What an unprofessional comment to make! Had the bar had been busy then fair enough but, there was hardly anyone in there! The staff seemed more interested in chatting at the bar instead of looking after us. My daughter then asked one of the young girls for a spoon as she didn’t have one. This never arrived so, again I had to go and get one myself from the bar. We also had to ask for napkins, twice! Those two girls were useless. No customer service skills at all. When we asked for the bill, we noticed that the discount hadn’t been taken off. The gentleman came over and said that the offer wasn’t on?! We explained that it was even on their website! He never even asked to see the proof that it was on the website, just said sorry, no discount. We said that we weren’t happy and wanted to speak to the manager. He then disappeared for a good 10-15 minutes. We assumed he was maybe calling the manager but, no. He came back to our table and said that the offer has definitely finished so we can’t have it! He said, if you like, he could call the manager. Why had he not done this in the first instance? No idea what he had been doing for the 10 minutes we were waiting?! In the end, he spoke to the manager and the discount was taken off. It was such an effort and it ruined the whole evening. We will not be returning. Other choices available in the village with much better staff!"

The Croft Hotel Bar & Grill

The Croft Hotel Bar & Grill

The Croft Hotel Croft on Tees Darlington, DL2 2ST, DL2 2SS, United Kingdom

Beer • Wine • British • Burgers


"We actually booked this hotel in the beginning of November, because it was my husband 's birthday. Fair enough, we got a complimentary up grade on the accommodation. However, I had sent the hotel a couple of emails asking about menu choices. I received an email probably just before the final menu was to be printed, because the copy that I had received was still in pdf. format but was told that besides the Valentines menu, the normal full ala carte menu would be available too. It was that menu that I was looking forward too! We checked into the hotel approximately 6pm, my husband unpacked the car then went down stairs to mention to the restaurant that there would infact just be the two of us dining later. The gentlemen that appeared to be in charge pointed out to me that it was in fact just the Valentines menu that was available, I then mentioned that I was under the impression that the ala carte menu was available to. He then replied NO.... it 's just that one Needless to say I was disappointed. By this time we felt it was too late in the day to do or go anywhere else, therefore we decided to still eat in the restaurant. We came downstairs about 7-30ish to have a drink at the bar with only two tables in the restaurant having dinner it appeared to be really really quite that night. We were barely at the bar for 5 minutes when the young girl had asked us if we would like to be seated at our table. We felt obliged to say yes. We sat down and pointed out to her that we had already decided what we would like. I went to the toilet and when I returned, I was lost for words because the starters were already on the table. We had both opted for the game terrine with toasted brioche, only two pieces of brioche with no butter. My wife went to look for the supervisor person to ask for some butter, when he returned with the butter I then asked for some more brioche, he returned seconds later with a basket of bread rolls that had been put in the microwave and told me there was no"