Reviews in Lancashire

We took 7 friends there for my husbands birthday on 28th November. The food , mostly , was excellent, the service was absolutely DIRE and commented on by other diners the same evening. The maitre d could not have cared less; one of our guests , who has a dairy allergy, despite making special arrangements beforehand and specifically ordering dairy free on the night, had to send every course back.The staff seemed stumped by having cheese before . The wine waiters were giggling behind a screen and we finished up pouring wine ourselves otherwise we would never have got a drink. When I phoned the following day to say we had not been happy with the service, I was told " I'm only the relief manager" Black mark, Northcote, we won't be coming back.

I am afraid to say that I found this restaurant to be quite grotty, the decoration is plain and boring, especially upstairs and this echoes the food. When I visited the restaurant I was seated on a wonky table. I ate a vegetable pasta which was rather plain and boring and lacked taste. I will not be re-visiting the restaurant any time soon!

Good pate and good fish and chips...... but rapidly becoming a place we cringe at going to since it is so packed with wannabee WAGs and millions of children! I think the fishes has had it's day. Try Mitton Hall for gorgeous decor or The Red Pump for better food instead!

First visit here on recommendation. Well impressed. Very good food indeed. Had rabbit casserole and chocolate fondant pudding. Gorgeous. Will return

Important date and traveled 160 miles on the strength of other reviews. Totally underwhelmed! Venue cold, reception cool, meals mediocre, receptionist twice gave the phone preference over queuing customers, landlord spent most of his time disappearing to the ludicrously positioned till. How can a pub run-out of house wine? Only needed a bit of on the spot thinking! Only bright note were the young staff waiting on!

I was taken for a surprise meal by my boyfriend. The food was lovely. I have been a vegetarian for over 30 years and it was a pleasure to be able to choose anything off the menu! The restaurant itself is rather quaint! Well worth a visit, my boyfriend and I will be returning again very soon!!

First class Italian restaurant with excellent food and welcoming professional service. The home made pasta is fantastic and the huge selection of food and wine make this one of our favourite current places to eat.

We visited this restaurant having read a good review in the Evening Post. We arrived to a warm welcome and were immediately taken to our table upstairs where upon our drinks order was taken within a couple of minutes..a litre of house red £13.My partner and I decided to share the meze at £16.50 per person,it consisted of 5 or 6 cold dips,vine leaves and Turkish bread, followed by 3 hot starters-spicey sausage,grilled haloumi and a filo cheese parcel...everything was freshly prepared and delicious.Our main course was equally delicious and consisted of grilled chicken,lamb,salad and rice. Our friends opted for the avocado and prawn starter followed by the moussaka,they were extremely happy with their choices also.Our meze ended with a plate of fresh fruit and we all had a coffee.The total cost for the meal which included all the above food,2 lites of a perfectly reasonable house red and 4 coffees was £95. We will definitely be back to sample the delicious food and enjoy the friendly relaxing atmosphere and service..go on, give it a visit!!

1st march 2008. our party of eight went for our first meal last night,we were not to impressed. The first table we sat at there was a smell like a sewer. So we moved to another table. The meal was over priced for the quality and portion size received. And on receiving our bill we had been over charged £10. much to our disgust.

Heard this was a decent eating place and was disappointed to find it was a pub. The food was as you'd expect, dry & bland. Good one to take the kids but not an evening meal for two. Overall average.

We visited The Railway to celebrate my wife's 40th birthday. Given we're from Australia, I wanted a local restaurant that provided authentic local food from Lancashire. We were very impressed. The service was friendly and attentative and not too 'over the top'. The information on the menu was first class. We had bread to start, which arrived promptly - and was really flavoursome. The food arrived after about 30 minutes and was delicious. The dessert was a treat. And overall we enjoyed real value for money in an upmarket restaurant by Lancashire standards. We will visit again and next time will take our two children.

We have been to mjs a few times before and went again last Saturday. It is good to see it getting busier each time we go. When we went the service was good. The food was, as is always excellent, we had red mullet, the black pudding and goats cheese fritter 2 excellent sirloins and a liquorice parfait, and its nice that Steve (the chef) takes a tour of the tables to make sure everything is ok. Our visit was made even better when we got an mjs loyalty card. We will be back time after time. Its GREAT!!

Called beforehand to book a table & was informed (rather rudely) they didn't take bookings for 2 people. Not a problem as when we arrived we got a table straight away. The lady who greeted us was friendly, although the gentleman who took our order & served us most of the night was incredibly rude & it seemed we were more of an inconvenience than a paying customer to be honest. The food was really great (but I suppose it has to be to charge them prices if the waiter doesn't even smile!) We were asked if we wanted sweets/coffees after having been left 20 minutes with the menus but we declined & asked for the bill. After waiting for over half an hour (unable to catch anyone's attention) we ended up going to the door to pay (which to be honest we could have walked out of without paying & am sure we wouldn't have been missed). I left feeling very robbed of a nice evening as I was made to feel very unwelcome, unimportant yet £55 poorer! If your after fantastic food this is definitely the place for you, however if you deem customer service just as important (as I do) I wouldn't even pick the phone up to book a table, let alone step a foot through the door.

went on Tues 19th Feb at around 10pm, not a soul in the place, bearing in mind it was a Tuesday evening. They could have easily turned us away, but what to the contrary they couldn't have been more welcoming. Excellent service and excellent food at a reasonable price, couldnt fault anything, a great experience, definitely to be repeated.

My boyfriend and I visited on Sat and was very happy with our meals. Great service too!

My wife and I have been eating at "SMITHS ARMS" for the past 12 months.It is always clean and warm even in winter with roaring fires.The food is excellent,but be warned the portions are large,there is an over 60,s smaller portion menu £7.50 for two courses excellent value,Only down side - for 12 months the vegetables have been the same peas and carrots. Please chef can we have a change.

Stay away would be my recommendation. Staff who can't remember orders, sluggish, if friendly service. And the Hunter's Chicken? Carbonised chicken covered with leathern bacon, rubbery cheese and smothered in sickly "woodsmoke" BBQ sauce - which had also found its way into the sauce on the stuffed pork. Awful, truly awful.

Great, great location, great service and blimey many must agree as it was packed with a waiting list!