Manchester Smokehouse and Cellar
Restaurant name:- Manchester Smokehouse and Cellar
Location:- 18-22 Lloyd Street, Manchester
Date/Time:- 19th January 2018/8pm
Atmosphere 3/10
Hygiene 7/10
Price 7/10
Service 3/10
Taste 2/10
OVERALL 4/10
It seems that this restaurant is an option for diners who couldn't get a table at Reds' True Barbecue which is close by. First impressions were great. Nice interior and has a real BBQ feel to it but it all changed soon.
We walked down some stairs-the disabled access is at the back of the building. We were given menus and sat at a table we were led to. So far so good.
There wasn't many people in which I thought was strange for a Friday night. We were asked whether we wanted drinks by another waiter. Then a different waitress asked for our order. Three different staff members in the space of ten minutes. We ordered:-
Crispy Smoked Wings (Pants on Fire) £5:95p
Sweet Potato Fries £3:95p
Miss Piggy Burger £11:95p
Wood Fried Nachos with Brisket £6:95p
Hoegaarden (Belgium Beer) £5:95p (each)
We requested that the BBQ sauce that comes on the burger could come separate and that we would like all the food at the same time as we were sharing everything. The beer we drank whilst waiting for the food tasted amazing. Really crisp and fresh. So far and still so good.
Then comes the food-some of the food. The wings and the nachos. were bought to us. I assumed that they were bringing the burger and the fries momentarily but they didn't-it's fine, nevermind. The wings as you can probably tell from the description are indeed VERY HOT as in spicy but as in the temperature, they were only luke-warm. Not good. The nachos came warmer than the wings. I wondered whether I should say something to a waiter or waitress but didn't until later on. About five minutes later, our fries arrived, just bought to the table with nothing said whatsoever-where was the burger? I called the waitress who took our order and asked her and also stated that we had requested all the food to be brought together. She scurries to the kitchen, after five minutes yet a different waiter brings the burger which was not only completely drenched in BBQ sauce (after requesting to have the sauce separate), but also like a tyre. We had trouble cutting through it and had a very tough time trying to eat it. We then asked for the manager. We had to explain almost point by point what happened:-
1-All the food didn't arrive at the same time. Not a big deal but...
2-The wings were only luke-warm. Were they supposed to be like that? No.
3-The burger was drenched in BBQ sauce when we had requested the sauce comes separate.
4-The burger itself was very tough and actually almost inedible.
The manager (who seemed genuinely apologetic) said he would take the burger off our bill and also scurries off and comes back with two more pints of beer which were on the house. A very kind gesture but what if one of us was driving? Most of the burger was left and I thought that it was odd we weren't asked if we wanted another burger. The fries were average but the nachos were actually very nice-the only bit of food we ordered that actually was.
We asked for the bill. It came to half of what it would have been had we paid full price and when another waitress-a totally different one yet again asked "Was everything alright with your meal?", I wasn't sure whether they were playing a joke on us. We explained what happened and her response was absolutely classic. It was:-
"Oh."
And that was that.
Conclusion:-
Maybe they were having a bad day, although it wasn't busy but this wasn't a good experience at all. Nachos and beer-good. Everything else was not good. I think maybe they just left the burger on the grill and had forgotten about it but also with the wings being luke-warm-maybe the kitchen staff just weren't with it. The manager did seem nice but it was strange that including himself, we had six different members of staff-most of them who definitely need more training. I don't think that we will; be returning here.
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