The Garden Restaurant at the Mollington Banastre Hotel & Spa

Great food, you won't believe this pub serves food this good We ordered steak & ale pie, tortellini and fish & chips Very happy we stopped by here.

Ugh, not impressedIf this is "pub of the year", then London has serious problems.

Afternoon tea started ok, the waitress was pleasant, taking our order and this was brought out quite quickly. The sandwiches were nice but the cakes were generic shop bought iced cupcakes, macaroons and cheesecake which we didn’t eat (we took them home but nobody ate them) The scones were over warmed so were a bit hard. Coffee was lukewarm. After we were served we didn’t see anybody again so no refills of tea etc. and we had to go to reception to ask them to call someone to pay.

Unfortunately my lamb shank was the most boring I've ever had no flavour. My husband had the pork and both meals had exactly the same base with the meat placed on top with a bit of garnish. There was no difference in the plates apart from the meat on top. The service was incredibly slow. We waited 45 minutes for our first course, however my creme brulee was very good after another lengthy wait. We had booked the next night but cancelled.

The experience was let down by the quality of the cooking which was barely up to that of an enthusiastic but low skilled home cook. The menu looks OK at first sight but the descriptions flatter mundane dishes unimaginatively cooked. I made a late booking over a long weekend when I learnt that my son his girlfriend and her parents from Korea would be visiting Chester. Most places were heavily booked. The restaurant at the MB was almost empty obviously others knew more than I did. I wanted somewhere with a pleasant environment and a garden view. The Mollington Banastre restaurant looks out over a lawn that was OK but the hotel seems to suffer from a lack of investment. The front car park is heavily potholed thereby offering a poor impression on first arrival at the hotel. The ambience was OK and the lady who took our orders for drinks and meals was pleasant and efficient. So : service good, ambience OK, quiet enough in the restaurant for conversations (few other guests! but the cooking needs to improve greatly both in range and execution. I make these comments recognizing that the restaurant is pitching itself as mid range but at £165 for six (most of us had only two courses no coffee I found the evening a disappointment.