The Ship Inn, Styal

My wife and I visited the nearby National Trust Style Mills on Sunday 30th October 2011.
We decided that we would call for a Pub Meal, what a mistake! The Ship Inn looked fine from outside. We went inside and ordered drinks and meals at the Bar. I ordered Broccoli and Cheese soup followed by Grilled Salmon with Jacket Potato and salad.
My wife wanted Italian Chicken as a main, but with Mash and not chips as advertised. With a little hmm it�s not usual but I will see what we can do the order was taken. My wife also ordered a sweet, Jaffa sponge with ice cream. The waitress/barmaid took the payment. We then went to sit down and noticed that the surroundings were not as clean as we had initially thought on entry. The upholstery on the walled bench seating was greasy and sticky at the edge of the seat, the wall were marked with damp in places with some of the paint leaving the wall. Looking around the glass on the pictures frames was filthy. The carpet had sticky patches in different areas. The whole place looked as if it was ready for a makeover and good clean right through.

I had ordered Theakston�s Bitter which I drank slowly, although it definitely was not the best that I had ever had it was only slightly better than the worst. My good wife had her usual a medium sweet white wine which was her usual type and said it was ok. There is no too much that you can do with a branded bottled wine but beer is a different matter.

After 20 minutes the soup arrived it was like water, you know the type that�s dried and cones from a packed, but too much water has been added. There was no taste of any cheese at all and to make things worse the accompanying sliced hot dog roll was warm but as dry as a board. It was so hard the knife could hardly cut it.

The main courses arrived. The grilled Salmon was unlike anything I had ever had before, dry like a ships biscuit on the outside and a grey colour on the inside. I separated the fish with my knife and it fell apart lengthways revealing what looked like 2 very thin slivers of fish placed back to back and then grilled. Perhaps it had not been defrosted giving rise to the dryness on the outside and raw on the inside. It tasted awful, the little I had eaten left a lingering taste in my mouth for the rest of the evening. The jacket potato was hot and the only thing I enjoyed in the meal. The salad leaves looked as if they had seen better days and had just been woken by being tipped out of the bag. My wife faired a little better and said that the Italian chicken was not too bad. To be fair she also said that the Jaffa sponge was tasty.

Very near where we sat were a young couple who came in and ordered a meal but I did notice neither of them got very far with it, both eating only half and covering up the other half on the plate with the opened serviette so they would not be spotted. It reminded me of one those old films where they cover the body up with a sheet because its dead.

The staff seemed as if they all had the cares of the world on their shoulders and were there because they were forced to be. A smile and a cheerful word cost nothing. People don�t go out to be miserable they go out to have a good time and enjoy themselves.

All in all I would never ever recommend visiting this excuse for a Pub / Restaurant. I feel sorry for saying this because I did feel that it had the makings of a really good pub given the correct care and attention and some �Customer Relations Training� for the staff.

Davy Boy.

3 Nov 2011 20:51