Cultivated - Cheshire West and Chester

We planned to visit odd fellows for afternoon tea having booked a night away in Chester for our belated anniversary and my husbands birthday. I’d booked via email with Oddfellows on 22 November to visit on 2 January at 2pm. We were told we could decide on the day if we wanted ‘sweet’ or ‘savoury’ afternoon tea. The website also stated prices at £18.50 or afternoon tea for 2 plus a drink each at £39.50....and promises a little bit of ‘odd’. Great! We arrived just before 2pm, I spoke to someone on the welcome desk to say we’d arrived (our name given) who told us to go through to the bar and someone would come to get us, order a drink if we wanted. So we did. Fizz and a Guinness, thank you. At 2.25pm I approached the bar and asked when we could go through and he said ‘whenever you’re ready’. Ok, miscommunication it happens. We went through but we weren’t actually on the list this is where I suppose the miscommunication happened... our names weren’t down. Anyway, we’re were seated immediately fine. The menus were on the table as Festive Afternoon Tea which was £20.something and no sign of the deal with a drink. We ordered a sweet and a savoury platter but I had to specifically request the deal. Drinks arrived but empties weren’t taken away. So on the table (for 2), we have two platters, two teapots, 2 glasses for water (not used) , 4 other glasses. Everything was just stacked on the table rather than just take 4 glasses and teapots away. Let’s say it was a bit cramped. The waitresses although were accommodating when we asked for something, it was all very disorganised and messy. The bill came....£90.something (remember we’ve had bar drinks) we were expecting £50ish.... The waitress had added the deal on twice again genuine mistake, but the response was “oh, I’ll have to get a manager to void it off”. The manager did, but no apology and to be honest he looked annoyed he’d had to do it. So overall, the food was lovely, drinks were drinks but the service let the experience down....I’m still trying to work out what was ‘odd’ about the afternoon tea and I just hope it’s not supposed to be the service. We won’t return I’m afraid.

I was treating a friend to an overnight stay near Chester with the first day being spent on a shopping spree in the city, something that was long overdue thanks to the covid lockdown. I tried to find somewhere a little different for us to eat that lunchtime as the restaurant we would normally use had sadly closed permanently. We found this a rather unusual place and opted for the tapas style small plates. With hindsight, we should have ordered less than we did as the portions were larger than expected. The decor was a little odd and not particularly to my taste. The service was fairly attentive without being over the top and as far as we could tell, all covid guidelines were followed.

I came here with a friend for lunch as part of my birthday weekend. The building is lovely, I loved the interior of the reception area and the loos but the restaurant was more modern and did not seem in keeping with the rest of the building. We both opted for the small platters and, in hindsight, we did not need to order as many as we did. The food was nice but nothing out of the ordinary.

Arrived for a pre booked afternoon tea. We won’t be back!!! Having stood in reception looking for a member of staff to show us to our table for a good 5 minutes, we were eventually shown through. Our afternoon tea arrived the food was dreadful : The sandwiches could have been pre made shop bought with the crusts removed. The scone was dry and crumbly, in fact I would say verging on stale. The 3 cakes I am sure had been frozen, were dense and dry. The best bit was the tea although very little choice in teas) and the macaron. The young man serving was very attentive couldn’t fault him but the food was an apology! I wouldn’t say it was particularly clean, thick layer of dust across the window sills and the toilets weren’t great.

Very disappointing meal. Staff and service was poor and lacked interest. As for the food, menu was vague, limited and seemed like your usual pub grub. When the food arrived the quality matched the boring menu and was low quality, cold and cooked incorrectly. Won’t be returning.