Axe & Cleaver in Trafford

Great little pub, came in for a Sunday roast, really good food, thanks Paul and Sophie for making us feel welcome!

Went there without booking 3 adults and 2 children for lunch and even with a funeral party just arrived they found us a table Service was very prompt and food great and good value. Just had Sunday lunch today and service and food was great. Paul and all the staff working today were great in looking after us.

Certainly we can describe this place as a very successful find. Having searched wide and far for a pub capable of catering for a small group of both meat eaters and vegans we found the Axe & Cleaver - a great success. We had been on the point of despair and began to believe it would be better to stay at home. Given the extensive menu which was hard to believe existed providing meals for vegan, vegetarian and meat diets there were also a number of dishes marked as gluten free. We can only say we all had a feeling of disbelief and a suspicion that it was all too good to be true. However, the food quality was excellent, served piping hot, with good sized portion control and nicely presented. The pub decor appears a little dated but is clean and tidy. Toilet facilities also were clean and reasonably fresh. Overall a worthwhile trip out with a lovely walk from Dunham Town along the Bridgewater Canal and back through Dunham Park - on one of the few warm, sunny and dry days all year. Many times it is so much easier to find things to criticise but that is not the case here. We can only provide compliments and say we hope that with so many pubs closing all around that this place continues to be a success.

Very nice and well-kept English beer. Average food

Very welcoming and good was delicious!!

We've just had a lovely family meal. The food was delicious. Yorkshire puddings to die for !! All the staff were brilliant , great value for money. Will deffo be back.

Food was high quality, especially the meats Waiters were very nice and kind (Paul, Sam and Sophie) Atmosphere was great! (Specials were very good try them)

Always a pleasure coming to eat at the Axe and Cleaver. Came with my family the other day in a tight window, with commitments before and after. They were very accommodating, served food in good time (but not so quick that it was rushed!), and the food was delicious. I recommend one of the current specials, the Duck Pie. I have been many times and will be returning many times again!

I was so disappointed in my recent visit here. The staff were not helpful. When me and my friend turned up the lady said they didn't have a table available even though there was at least 5 empty tables. She eventually checked with someone while we just stood near the back door like lemons. He seated us in one of the many empty tables. Then we served with baked apple tart that wasn't even cooked, and I have suffered with stomach ache and diarrhea because of it. I doubt I will be returning any time soon.

Seven of us went for Sunday lunch yesterday we were also celebrating 4 birthdays. The staff were absolutely wonderful especially Paul who looked after us. Alison and her team left a happy birthday banner on the table as well as a card, which is a very, very nice touch and at the end of our meal, they brought in a little pot of ice cream with four candles on it - that put a smile on all our faces simply excellent, and we shall all be going back.

Paul was an amazing example of a waiter and provided me and my girlfriend with a smile and great manner .

Popped in late on a Sunday, enjoyed a wonderful meal, great service with excellent food, will definitely be going again.

All a bit under par I'm afraid. Would not choose to go there again

Attended for Family birthday meal at 5pm. Sunday roasts were great. Unfortunately there was no roast pork left or rib of beef. Good friendly efficient service. Looked after by Paul and Kassie.

Went with my elderly mother for a meal one evening, nothing was too much trouble, menu was varied and the food was outstanding. We enjoyed it so much that we went back again the next night and had the same experience. We will definitely be back next time I visit the area. Thanks Paul and Alyson for a great time!

We've been visiting the pub for a few weeks since starting canal walks from a few miles away and it's become a favourite. Went tonight for dinner and as usual the food and service was fab! Paul took care of us, what a lovely guy, so helpful and very funny. We'll be back soon.

Nice pub, I had lunch with a former work colleague, The food was good and had a cracking pint of Guinness.

Nice atmosphere, lovely meal and friendly professional service from Denise

We've never been to the axe and cleaver before and we won't be going back, we went for Sunday lunch yesterday, we had 3 roast beef dinners and 1 turkey dinner. The beef was tough and chewey and the turkey was taste less, the so called roast potatoes were greasy and the vegetables in general were not the best.

Large family party of 7, for my wife’s special birthday, including in-laws, arrived at 6.45. It was originally 7.30. Disappointingly, a large amount on the menu had already run out. Heaven knows what would have been left at 7.30. All the Sunday roasts, pies, soup etc had gone. We were going to leave, however out of loyalty stayed. We were left choosing from a very restricted choice, only 3/7 had starters and the mains were running out on the iPad, as we ordered. The food when it arrived was good, and the waitress did her best, in difficult circumstances. We go quite regularly to the Axe, however for such an occasion, we left very disappointed.

Went based on trip advisor reviews having been disappointed locally over recent weeks What a good decision- we had the rib of beef - a meal to remember that left little room for dessert Everything about our visit was perfect from reception to wait time to service and the quality of our main course Congratulations to all staff who were involved It was faultless

An important element of my meal was missing when served. I pointed this out to the waitress Kassie who was doing a really good job of single handedly manning the bar and taking food orders from tables. She offered us a free desserts as recompense, but then deducted the price of my meal from the bill when we decided we didn't want any desserts. She explained a new chef had just started and he subsequently apologised and admitted his mistake. These things happen. Other than that, I liked the place and would go again.

Lovely breakfast, good quality. Great customer service. Definitely worth a visit. I would highly recommend........

Very nice IPA and the shearing platter perfect for 2 people will be back for both

We had a small buffet, which was not bad Good service and friendly staff Good parking

Lovely lunch great value for money , excellent quality of food very efficient and friendly service from Alyson & Sophie. Not sure why we don't visit more never been let down by this place.

A lovely pub: great service, the staff was very friendly and made their best to make sure that we had a nice evening. Food was great, as well as the choice of beers. A very nice way to spend the evening and have a delicious meal. The outdoor area is nice as well, with trees and flowers and the overall atmosphere was relaxed and pleasant, no loud noises from people chatting or loud music, just great.

really nice food. great service

We went here for lunch today the food was absolutely amazing will definitely come here again 😋, Alyson and Sophie really looked after us ,we had a great meal thank you 👍

Great service, great food and drink, great staff including Paul and Sophie, great atmosphere and great locality, recommended.

We tried breakfast on Sunday and it was truly one of the best breakfasts I have ever had. We had eggs benedict, and a full English breakfast, and in particular the bacon was superb. You can tell that the produce is fresh and local. We will definitely be coming in the future and thank you Alyson for the great service.

Went for breakfast with a friend and food was nicely presented and good portions. Paul who served yous was very efficient and friendly. I would recommend 👌

not very impressed by our visit we attended to find lots and lots of empty tables inside however when we asked for a table we were told there were no tables and a wait of nearly 1hr if we wanted a table, considering the tables were empty i would prioritize walk-ins this is what we would of done when i worked in the bar / restaurant trade guaranteed income / speculative reserved tables

Great food and Beer. Amazing staff and ambience. Reasonably priced. Ample parking space and set in a picturesque location.

‘Country pub’ that doesn’t allow dogs. Needs to get with the times.

We had a lovely meal out with family. The food was lovely and the service was excellent. Emma and Sophie made sure we were well looked after and really made sure our birthday boy felt special. It always feels like we're surrounded by family when dining there.

Excellent meal in lovely surroundings including beer garden. Service was a little slow but it was a busy Sunday lunchtime so we understood why. Our server Denise looked after us well. Recommended, we will be back. Very handy for Dunham Massey.

Not been here for a while but managed a visit recently and again very impressed with all the food was lovely. Plenty of choice for drinks and the staff were brilliant. We cannot recommend the Axe and Cleaver enough. A+

A bit disappointed, very slow service initially, 30 mins before we were even offered a drink. Had run out of roast dinner and vegetables altogether ( 90 mins before end of service) Food tasted quite nice though, reasonable prices and the staff were friendly. croutons in soup were just soft pieces of bread, dessert was supposed to have clotted cream ice cream with it, but served with custard instead and my cocktail was supposed to be garnished with rosemary and raspberries but came with no garnish at all. Menus were quite tired and tatty and generally feels a bit unloved and a bit lacking in care.

Excellent food Paul and sam were really helpful and friendly and a great atmosphere with the background music we will be back

It was my mums birthday and Paul & Sophie were looking after us. They were very attentive and made the birthday girl very happy. We even got a card and cake. We had Sunday lunch which was lovely

My friend and I have just enjoyed fish, chips and peas followed by a latte. The staff are very friendly and helpful and the atmosphere is welcoming. Had Sunday lunch today 11/8/24. Very enjoyable and made more pleasant by being served by jovial Sophie & Paul. Well done.

Lovely family pub, great atmosphere and lovely staff!

Pub looks very tired, seat covers torn. No sauvignon blanc! Food OK. Staff very nice

Saturday lunchtime surprisingly not at all busy. We were made very welcome, food was pretty good and arrived promptly. The service in particular was excellent.

Excellent service, many thanks to Paul who looked after us, I had the steak and ale pie and it was lovely, we will be back

Only a quick stop but food was good quality and reasonably priced

My five friends and I stopped by for breakfast last Friday. The food was excellent and our waiter, Paul, was cheerful and attentive. Highly recommend! Many thanks!

Really delicious, fresh, good value for money. Paul, Sam and Sophie (staff) were helpful and friendly. Can’t wait to come back again!

Great family pub, tasty food and hearty portions. Regularly updated menu and interesting specials, local Dunham Massey beer on draught. A good range of choices for kids too. Staff are fab, always friendly and organised, and there's a selection of seating inside and out (dogs only permitted outside). Perfect place for a quiet drink, a nice meal, or a get-together for a birthday or life event, in a beautiful location near Dunham Massey park and village ❤️

Angela & Kassie were fab and the food was just delicious. Many thanks, M&T

Excellent food. Great atmosphere. Outstanding service from Paul and Sophie. We will 100% be back.

Absolutely delicious food, very welcoming and friendly staff. The little extra additional touches that Paul , Lace and the team did for my friends birthday was a lovely thought and made it even more enjoyable. 100% recommend Axe and Cleaver for a relaxed meal out .

What a lovely place - food, service amazing and friendly staff. Highly recommend

A nice place and decent food but let down by the miserable and odd service from the Lady with short hair, also not attentive either considering how long we were sat down having a meal. Wouldn't rush back

80th birthday meal. There was a birthday banner and card on our table, which made the atmosphere extra special. Everyone enjoyed their meal and the service was attentive, but not intrusive.

Delicious reasonably priced meal here with great service from Denise and Kassie. Good selection of dishes, would recommend the chef specials for something a bit different from standard Chef and Brewer menu.

Excellent country pub with way above the average pub food. All excellent quality and prompt service. Peppercorn sauce was the best I've had in a long time. Great service from Paul and Kassie.

We have been so many times but more recently, we went for my Grandads Birthday. They were very kind, patient and went the extra step by putting a happy birthday banner on our table, gave him a birthday card from Paul and Axe & Clever Staff. One of the members Sam gave him a free pudding on a wooden board, with icing saying Happy Birthday. We all really appreciated their extra step by making his day more special Made us all feel welcome, was joking around with all of us. Great food options, overall would recommend going to this place!

Excellent service of fabulous food (Sunday Lunch) by Kassie & Leah Not forgetting Paul (bar service) thank you so much we will definitely be back soon

Really excellent food, unusual choices available different from the average pub fair.Ihad steak which melted in your mouth and the best peppercorn sauce ever at a pub, almost as good as my homemade!. The rest of my family had the fish from the specials menu which was excellent. Service by Lassie and Paul was very good. Great customer service

Another wonderful visit with my friend and Paul and the team and meal amd service was awesome xx will keep coming back Polly x

Four of us went for Sunday lunch on 30th June, as always the food, service and atmosphere was superb, we would highly recommend the Axe and Cleaver in Dunham, it is a credit to Paul and his team for make us so welcome. Paul & Pat B

Thanks to Paul who made the family feel very welcome - decent pub meal with great, friendly service.

Was served today by Denise. Very friendly and attentive 👌🏼 We had the halibut, duo of chicken, and the mushroom pie as mains, all tasty food and good size portions.

My family and i absolutely love this pub, both the food and service is always fantastic! Plenty of gluten free options with the Bakewell tart being one of our faves! Special thanks to Denise & Leah who are always happy to help.

Lovely place, great food and service. Highly recommended.

Served by Angela and Cassie.Very efficient and courteous.Food very good and generous portions.

Booked last wednesday 5 30 pm. Ordered a pint of madri came it was very cloudy asked for it to be changed . Came back still cloudy we was the only 2 people in the pub waited a while for the meal . I got overcharged complained staff told me the refund would come into the bank in 3 days that was a week ago still waiting cant get hold of anybody not available shocking

Never going here again. Used this restaurant a lot, including for taking my work team for Xmas dinner there for several years in a row. This is how you think customers deserve to be treated - we drive 14 miles to visit you, we order the Chefs Board (see attached screenshot) as a real treat (we're dieting, and this was the one 'treat' meal of our week, so as you can imagine we'd been looking forward to it for days). When it arrives it's nothing like what's listed on the attached menu (we especially wanted the camembert and the terrine, both of which were missing). Waitress says she'll ask the chef for some camembert. Comes back saying 'chef says if you want it you'll have to go the bar and pay for it'. I showed Waitress the menu I was referring to (it's on your Google page) and get told 'that's an old menu'. Nothing else. No attempt to rectify your online menu error. No apology. Just an option to return the food, or eat it. Wow. We ate the food you brought, only because we were very hungry. It was average. You've gone from one of our favourite places to eat, to one that we won't visit again, purely because of that 5 minute spell where something went wrong and you had the opportunity to fix it, but couldn't be bothered.

Had a lovely breakfast on Friday morning was served by a great guy (sorry I forgot your name ) super vegan sausage and regular sausage barm , and lots of coffee ☕️ , super relaxing atmosphere.

We went with our five year old boy for a Father’s Day lunch. Staff created a welcoming atmosphere. At our table we were looked after with friendly personal and attentive service by Paul, and also Denise. Delicious food, beautifully presented. Variety of options, including several vegetarian and vegan. Good local ales, and summer cocktail menu. It felt a relaxing environment for adults and children. Nice touches like colouring in with Father’s Day theme, and crayons for kids, and on Father’s Day two menus to choose from for children. We thoroughly enjoyed it and hope to return.

Just had excellent lunch.Quickly served by Alison and Paul in a very friendly manner

Just wanted to say a big thank you to the two ladies who made my grandma’s birthday really special by bringing out a surprise birthday treat. Food was lovely and staff were attentive - this was even during a private function. Thank you again!

Lovely pub but unfortunately our two early evening visits in a row left us feeling sorry for the other staff. The very efficient bar Manager person was unable to raise anything regarding a smile or welcome! Really lets the venue down and obviously doesn't want to work in this business, suggest a move in career to something not in the service trade. Five wakes during the week perhaps an excuse, but even more reason for at least a curtious smile maybe!

The sunday roast was nice,but there wasnt much veg,only a few peas,a bit of broccoli and a few slices of carrot.The yorkshire pud was a fair size but when you cut into it,it was like cutting up a large crisp,it was that thin and crispy.

Good food great service Thank you Paul

Had a very nice and relaxing meal with great service from all the staff. Highly recommend the Axe and Cleaver especially after we've done a walk around Dunham.

Amazing meal will definitely go back again. Only taking bookings when we went but managed to fit us in will make sure we book next time.

It's a shame to post a negative review of this place as there were several positives and it's in a lovely spot. We visited on a Saturday afternoon for lunch and sat outside as it was decent weather. The food was generally good, the main issue was with the service. The lady taking our order behind the bar was extremely unfriendly to the point of being rude and frankly looked in a very bad mood. Everyone can have an 'off' day, fine, however the food then took 40 minutes to arrive and we had to ask where it was. We were a group of 2 families sat at the same table and there was a large gap between the arrival of our meals, meaning that our friends were all but finished by the time our dishes arrived. When it did arrive, they'd missed part of our order. There are lots of good pub options in the area, some customer service training is required I'm afraid.

Food was exceptional. Highly recommend. Will be returning

The food here is always lovely, with good sized portions and a friendly service. Our servers, Kassie and Alyson were friendly and chatty and always smiling. A credit to the team.

Popped in for lunch on bank holiday, lovely food, great service

Shocking Sunday Lunch, Frozen vegetables still hard, processed Turkey. Aunt Bessie’s frozen potatoes. Cauliflower cheese looked like frozen cauliflower with a cheese single melted over it. Very very disappointed, do yourself a favour and go somewhere else as this place is far from cheap as well.

Food was average, one member of staff was fairly grumpy, another was very chatty and pleasant.

Not been to the A&C for several years; however, the food, service & atmosphere haven't changed - our experience was excellent in every way. We're going to make the A&C our preferred destination in the future. The menu caters for most & prior to ordering we were asked whether we had any dietary restrictions

Such a bad experience and bad customer service and the manager didn’t even care when I complained. Won’t be coming back again.

Went to Axe & Cleaver, i booked a table a while before we went they took my number ,and when we got there no one in the place no chef , and a taxi had droped us off so we had to phone another taxi to go some where else , they did,nt ring me or leave a voice call will never go there again .

Just had Sunday lunch to celebrate my wife's birthday. There were 7 of us and a young baby. Despite it being busy, the service was excellent, and we never felt like we were kept waiting. All 7 of our meals were 10/10. My 7 hour beef rib was stunning and Mrs W loved the Shepherds pie. Will definitely be returning

Sunday dinner was amazing Highly recommend the beef rib

Paul & Kassie were very welcoming and accommodating and the food was great 👍

Used to love this place but the service was absolutely awful. The lady behind the bar was so rude and unhelpful when we were ordering food which then took an hour to arrive after being told there would be a half hour maximum wait. We ordered an adults roast dinner and a child’s roast dinner and when they arrived there was the same amount of food on both plates.

A clean and 'oldy worldy ' pub. The pub/restaurant had a warm feel to it, and food is great, catering for different diets. The food did seem a little over priced however, with main meals ranging from £14 to £25. The service was a bit 'wobbly'. We took a seat but we're waiting a while. Approaching the bar, we were told that it's table service however after nearly 15 mins I had to remind the them. Apparently they had two private functions to cater for earlier. Understandably this isn't a busy city restaurant, but it's frustrating when staff are not on their toes or recognising customers. As it just leads to the customer feeling anxious. Trying to get the bill and pay afterwards was a little awkward too. The food was good quality, but I would maybe expect a little more on the plate for the price, especially at a standard restaurant/pub. They also had dog biscuit machines etc, which I thought was a nice addition.

The food here was amazing and the service was just as good. We were served by Sophie and Paul (I am really sorry if that's wrong) they were both very kind and professional. We will definitely be coming back.

Just had a drink and some crisps. Excellent staff service.

Kids fish goujans were 95% batter and the garlic bread was very small. Ordered steak sandwich with nothing on it and then got salad, onions and Mustard in it then complained about and they just took all the salads, onions and Mustard off. The salad was dry and dead chips were cold and the sharing platter was very unsatisfactory, underwhelming and greasy. Overall would not recommend

Great afternoon buffet and service provided by Neil, Ryan, Alyson, Paul and Sam on 13.2.24 following my mother’s funeral. Everything went perfectly and we very much enjoyed the food and the relaxing surroundings.

We were really disappointed with our food. It was greasy with extremely dry looking salad on the side ( that was left on even when I said it looked like old salad)...I wouldn't recommend at all.

Absolutely lovely pub, food is fantastic and the service is warm and friendly.

Only called in here briefly to see friends after a funeral service. Staff very welcoming and hospitable. I have made a wish to return here and sample the food. My first impressions were very high.