Reviews in Liverpool and Merseyside

Early bird excellent value for money, customer service outstanding!

Enjoyed a lovely family meal here, food was so tasty and filling (you won't leave feeling hungry) and the Baklava was to die for, the best I've ever had. Well worth a visit, you won't be disappointed.

Lovely food, really friendly and attentive service. Relaxed informal atmosphere.

First time and wouldn’t go back, salad bar & hot counter very basic & meats very salty and all tasted similar. Restaurant was also very cold so sat in my coat.

Faultless! Staff are very attentive! Food is delicious! Been numerous times and each visit has been enjoyable! Have recommended to many!

Had an excellent meal here last week. A warm welcome and great service. Will definitely return.

Lovely!!! Enjoyed my boyfriends birthday with family and friends. Amazing atmosphere and beautiful food!! Drinks were great too. Definitely will be going back! Thank you, for making our night so special.

We arrived having pre booked for Sunday lunch and were given the wrong menu. The food was ok but for what was erred a bit overpriced. No one asked how ouur meal was and because they were changing shifts staff were a bit inattentive. Hope this was a one off.

Food was lovely and staff are always attentive. It is always quiet when I've been so it's always been relaxed with good music on in the background. Always good value as they give 10% discount to local workers.

the food was lovely as were the staff attentive service , it was very quiet so I really couldn't make a judgement on the atmosphere nor the price as this was a gift from my daughter but I would return

Loved our visit. Super chilled atmosphere and lovely food and drinks

Excellent all round. I had the Seabass for my main course. It was probably the best Seabass I’ve eaten, fresh and cooked to perfection. My Husbands lamb was delicious also. It may be more expensive than other places but we felt the food was worth it

Excellent

Visited the cookhouse on Saturday 09/11/19. Booked a table for myself and 3 friends. We had pre booked tickets for the boom box bingo so thought we’d have food first. We asked if we could be moved from a window seat as it was quite drafty. Staff were more than happy to accommodate us and even set us up on our table we had reserved for the bingo. Great night had by all. Lovely food, great atmosphere and friendly staff. Will definitely be coming back for the boom box bingo night, we had a great night!

Booked a meal for a group of girl friends on a Monday night. Owner was very helpful, meals were delicious and the service was excellent. We were staying at a nearby hotel which meant we were entitled to a discount on the food. This wasn’t made clear to the staff by the lady who paid the bill. When brought to their attention it was impossible for the staff to reimburse us there and then as the tills had been closed but the manager reimbursed us for the difference the following morning. Will definitely be back.

Had a delicious meal here on Thursday evening. The service was excellent and the restaurant itself is beautiful inside. We loved listening to live pianist. Top star restaurant in St. helens- hope it does well.

The food was outstanding. Like nothing else in or around St Helens and long overdue in our town. The restaurant itself is beautiful and cosy and certainly not pretentious, which is exactly what we look for when we eat out. The service was faultless. We had a minor issue with one of our dishes which was rectified immediately and the cost of the dish removed from our bill without us even asking. The only small complaint I have is around value for money and more specifically value for money of the main courses. I ordered the fillet of beef which was delicious but £28 for 2 small pieces of beef, a small stack of potato (pomme anna), a small oxtail Bon Bon and a smear of onion purée was a lot to pay for not a lot of food. I appreciate fine dining but I would not expect to pay over £100 for 2 people and go home hungry in any restaurant. I would suggest that simply including a small dish of vegetables as part of the cost of the main meal would make the whole thing more substantial and feel better value without a significant additional cost to you. We had to order extra vegetables after the meals had been served and we saw how little was on the plates. If the veg had been part of the base cost of the main meal I would have scored you a perfect 5 for value too!!

This is an absolutely stunning venue with welcoming and attentive staff, and it is nice to be able to see the chefs working in the kitchen. The positives outweigh the negative comments made in other reviews and the negatives which will be touched on are mainly little points of preference, however, in summary: The food is well presented, flavoursome, and amazing quality. The restaurant is bright and nicely decorated which gave it an air of elegance and class. The staff are attentive, friendly, welcoming and nothing seemed too much trouble. We enjoyed our evening and first visit to The Dean, and would be likely to return at some point. Our visit was on a Thursday and we happened to be the first customers there when we arrived around 7pm, it was a relatively quiet evening with maybe 4-5 other tables occupied as we were leaving, although we would expect it to be busier maybe on a Friday or weekend. We were offered little tasters of tuna tartare which was a nice touch, however had we have not seen the menu prior to these arriving we would not have known there was wasabi on them. It may have been nice to have been told a little more about the appetiser other than what it was called or been asked if we wanted it prior to it being brought to the table to only be wasted. There wasn’t much on offer at the bar in terms of lager on tap so the alcohol options were reduced to bottled beer, spirits or wine as we were informed that there was no lager available on tap that evening which was unfortunate, however bottled beer was sufficient, and the gin was also very nice, even though there were what appeared to be dehydrated crushed raspberries in one of them which were difficult to avoid whilst drinking and although asking for a new drink was considered, it was decided to say nothing and drink it anyway. In another glass of gin was what appeared to be a dehydrated slice of grapefruit. Thoughts are that fresh fruits would have been better in the drink in our opinion or to be asked whether the fruity bits were wanted prior to making the drinks. The menu was small in terms of options and we settled on starters and main courses which were beautifully presented on arrival to the table. The food was amazing and we thoroughly enjoyed our meals, however we felt the plates were large compared to the portion size so the food was felt to cool faster than expected, the fillet of beef was cooked to perfection, the truffle chips were nice but far too chunky for our liking as there was about 4-5 per portion in the separate bowl they arrived in, and for the price, £28 and £4 respectively, we felt that it was a little steep. The staff were attentive but not overbearing, and all were pleasant and polite, however we did find it confusing that three different staff members had tended to us and had all asked us how our meal was within the space of approximately 10 minutes, but that was because we didn’t realise they were different people as we were engrossed in conversation or eating so not focusing on who exactly had spoken to us, but they just happened to ask as they were passing the table. The pianist arrived whilst we were mid-meal and although he is a very talented man and the music added to the ambiance and relaxed atmosphere, we felt the music played was too loud at times which forced us to speak louder and isn’t ideal in such an intimate setting where the other diners on tables sat near to us could have heard should they have wanted to. Overall, although the points made are set out in a larger format and are more detailed than the summary of our experience of the visit, which would appear to be contradictory to there being more positives than negatives, the scale and relevance of these are merely personal preference for us, and would not prevent us from returning in future, nor would it prevent us from recommending The Dean to others.