CJ's Cafe and Milkbar in Blackburn with Darwen

Very disappointed. Will not visit Blackburn M&S again. No wonder sales are down and branches closing. Watched member of staff stood there watching the doors just look on while 2 mum's were struggling to get through the door, it was almost as though she was laughing!!!!! Went round the food section and the staff were unhelpful and rude.. once of a day M&S had quality staff as well as products. How times have changed. Very Poor

We booked this venue for my partners 40th. They accommodated us to bring our balloon arch and cake more earlier than our party to the venue which was a massive help! I paid a deposit and this includes a private section of the venue for you and your guests and buffet, there is an amount you need to spend behind the bar to get this back, but when you work out prices people spend it was actually amazing value. Even though there was some members of the public in the other sections they were also really lovely. Artisan Cafe and Wine Bar also allow you to book your own DJ/ Music entertainment or you can book their resident DJ for half the price. All in all a fabulous venue that I wouldn’t hesitate to book again or recommend to my friends and family for them book. Staff: Really friendly bar staff behind the bar who gave great service and chatted/ laughed with our guests. Venue: Stylish venue with beautiful decor, in the center of Darwen. It’s ao easy to find and the taxi rank is 2 minutes walk away so me and my partner could really let our hair down Buffet/Drinks: Really tasty food and lots for everyone… we had more than enough left over. They have a great range of drinks and shots behind the bar, they serve lovely Rose wine too! Booking: I spoke with the manager over Facebook messenger and this made it so easy to book at my own pace (as life does get hectic) and the manager was responsive and so friendly. Any questions I had were answered promptly and just the customer service itself gave me confidence in the venue. Overall 10/10 all round! Thanks for a really great night Artisan Cafe and Wine Bar x

The staff is amazing and excellent servuce

Only booked the Willows due to the majority of other restaurants not taking bookings due to EID week. Easy to make reservations, not as easy to receive customer service or food to be served. 11 meals ordered, only 7 turned up, the female who brought the last couple of meals out to the table asked is that everything, and before we could say “No, we are missing 4 meals” she had already turned around and not waited for an answer. I thought this member of staff may be a let down to the business when we arrived. The young women had no interest in serving our group of 11, looking at us at the bar and then turning away to carry on chatting to 2 construction workers, It was left down to a younger female staff member to take our orders as well as a male member of staff. Both were polite and took firstly our drinks order and then our food orders. Waited an hour for food, only for it to arrive mostly cold, but over cooked, suggesting the food had been overcooked some time ago, only to be served up an hour or so later. As stated at the beginning the rude female staff member served the last 2 meals and then ignored us after asking us if we had everything. After 15-20 minutes I went to the bar to ask where the remaining 4 orders of food where. The same, rude female staff member firstly tried to suggest that we all ordered our food at separate times and that’s why we were still waiting on food. I explained that this was not the case and the woman just shrugged and repeatedly kept replying “I know, I know, I know to everyone of my questions. The woman at no time tried to apologise or offer to chase up the issue with the food and just remained standing at the bar, chatting to people in the pub she was clearly familiar with. After another 2 visits to ask other staff where the missing food was, 2 meals where served a full 30 after the majority of the food was received. One meal was suppose to be fish and chips, the fish was clearly inedible, grossly overcooked to the point it had curled up for at both ends and had almost formed a circle on the plate. Again it was clear the fish had not just been cooked, it looked like a meal that had been ordered several hours before and perhaps someone had also been fed up with waiting and asked for a refund a few hours earlier (this also happened when another family cancelled their meals after waiting over an hour as we where at the bar inquiring where our food was). The fish most likely had been reheated for a couple of minutes and then re-served, it was 100% not freshly cooked. The 2 male staff and manager where very apologetic and eventually offered some of the group refunds, as well as offering my wife, who was celebrating her 50th birthday a bottle of Prosecco. We realise that a lot of things can go wrong in a pub serving food, but was is unacceptable is the female member of staff’s attitude to customers for the whole time we were at the Willows. Not one apology issued from her, not one iota of concerns towards customers, just breezing in and out, chatting to people she clearly knew, sitting at their tables, chatting outside with them, all while the younger girl worked tirelessly covering for her lack of interest and lack of work ethic. What should have been a lovely evening for my wife was soured by the food situation and the food quality, made worse by the lack of work ethic from certain, well one member of staff. We have visited the Willows 3 times in the past 4 months but sadly we won’t be returning in the future. Food poor, customer service was blighted by the woman supposedly working (it was difficult to tell) and only rescued by the professional, understanding male bar worker and the manager.

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