The Romping Donkey, Sandbach

Visited in Aug 2008. We had great expectations which were sadly dissapointed. On the night we arrived the chef had just left for family reasons?! We were directed towards the basic menu they were offering. A few things put us off. The bar smelt unusaly badly of stale beer. I brew beer and know this bar was not clean. The beers on the special board were not available and the replacement served to the customer before was cloudy. My beers(2)were cloudy. The beer garden was littered with broken furniture and there was a broken go cart which should have been put out of reach. The ride-on 'metal horse' had rust holes which were a danger to small fingers. The grass was overgrown and the place generaly unkempt. This is a great shame as someone had invested in some excellent play equipment!! Did the chef elope with the gardener? All of these things gave us no confidence that the food was going to be enjoyable and we departed. The whole place looks like a potential gold mine if managed well.

5 Sep 2008 12:26

The Shroppie Fly, Audlem

We used this pub this year during Aug 2008. The barman was over familiar and the prices horrendous.The food was very mediocre. I asked for breakdown of the bill when I did not get handed one and I was told that it was not possible. The lady serving became flustered and curt with me. As I was politely insistant about seeing the breakdown believing there must have been a mistake the manager was called from upstairs to work the comuterised till. After 30 minutes they were able to reconcile the bill for me. The landlady was most indignant about being called away from watching 'x factor' on telly upstairs. I was made to feel the difficult customer rather than her apologising for a her staff not being competent with the computerised till.

4 Sep 2008 15:13