Garden Room Restaurant in Cheshire West and Chester

I really don’t like giving poor ratings because I recognise the difficulties in the hospitality industry at the moment but there were few saving graces here. The Mollington Banastre used to be one of Chester’s best hotels and excellent lunch venues but I hadn’t visited for years. When I saw a voucher on offer for afternoon tea I bought one for my wife and two friends for a trip down memory lane. What a disappointment. The dining room was empty but for us and lacked warmth and atmosphere. The food offering was incredibly poor. The sandwiches lacked taste and imagination, the scones were small and along with the cakes looked and tasted as though they had been bought up the road at Morrisons. The only positive was the service which was good. Afternoon tea isn’t necessarily a good guide to the main aspects of a hotel but the quality and ambiance we experienced give me concern. It will be years again before we choose to come back.

Afternoon Tea, sandwiches a joke. One was like licking the inside of a mustard jar. Hardly any filling in any of the sandwiches. Cakes cheap and supermarket bought. Scones well, worth about 10p each, no jam given with. Hotel resteraunt itself full of spiders, mould, scabby curtains. I wouldn't go, I just wouldnt

I received a gift voucher for afternoon tea and visited today. I haven’t been to the Mollington Banastre for years and I was shocked how run down it is. The windows haven’t been washed in a long time, they were filthy with cobwebs everywhere. Not a great start. The lady on reception was very welcoming, she escorted us to our table and also served our drinks and food. She seemed embarrassed to serve our afternoon tea. Is she the only staff member? The restaurant was empty, there was only the 2 of us. It was so dated and dirty, thick dust on the woodwork and a huge cobweb above our head! Our afternoon tea was the worst we have ever had. 4 finger sandwiches, all with mustard over the outside of the bread. Lemon drizzle cake and chocolate cake, shop bought, 2 flat scones covered in icing sugar to hide how bad they were. That’s it. We left the majority as it was inedible. We stayed a total of 17 minutes and could not wait to leave. I will not be returning and will advise friends and family to avoid.

First time at this 3 star hotel. The staff encouraged us to leave a review on here as we left. We booked a Groupon deal for a traditional afternoon tea at this hotel as it seemed a real bargain but the reality was we got what we paid for. £19 - £4 discount was cheap for 2 people. We arrived early and so we thought we might have to wait. They served tea for 2 whilst they prepared our meal but after 40 minutes we wondered if we'd been forgotten. Sure enough we were told there had been a mix up and so they apologised. The afternoon tea arrived and so we noted that what we have doesn't match what was advertised. They gave us 4 sandwhiches each one of which contained mustard which we left & small victoria type sponge cakes + 1 scone each. It was noted by us that the cakes were almost certainly bought in & not made fresh in the hotel as we expected. So the overall first time experience for us wasn't good alas. If you buy this deal realise it is not a bargain. Providing mustard & ham sandwhiches I suspect is not normal & would suggest they offer a different choice to customers. It seems there are some good reviews of the overnight stay & spa facilities in this hotel which we haven't tried but we won't be returning based on this experience of a simple afternoon tea.

Booked with a Groupon for a birthday treat! Very underwhelming afternoon tea. 4 small finger sandwiches each for the savoury layer. No sausage roll or other savoury option. 6 quarter pieces of obviously supermarket bought cake on second and two small, but admittedly fresh scone on the top. Chipped plate and bog standard teacup. The mustard on the ham sandwich nearly blew my head off and had to scrape most off. Only one person on reception who also served the afternoon tea. Very friendly but had to hunt them out to get a fresh plate and hot water top up when they should have come to check if all was ok. Better afternoon teas available elsewhere. Oddfellows in Chester much better and similar price with Groupon. Hotel could be fabulous. 1970s monstrosity on front which spoils the appearance. Garden at the back nice though. Very dated and in need of an upgrade. Not sure why they produced such a poor afternoon tea if they are trying to attract business to what is quite a remote location.

Bought as a gift with a Groupon voucher - embarrassingly this was the worst afternoon tea we’ve ever had. 9 small sandwiches (for 2 people) - 6 of these were cheese and onion! Surely someone could have boiled an egg for some variety! The scones were provided without jam or butter, the cakes were cheap sickly shop bought ones. Won’t be back - or buy Groupon vouchers again!

I booked a Sparkling afternoon tea for four people and 1 being gluten-free. Through a Groupon deal. I also rang to confirm that the hotel could cater for me, having coeliac disease and require strict gluten-free food. I was assured by the reception that it wouldn't be a problem, and gluten free Bread and scones were available. On arrival we were the only people in the restaurant and it was really cold. I explained I had booked a gluten-free afternoon tea. After we were waiting quite a while, the lady ( who just dressed really casually.... not in a normal waiting on atire?) Told me they didn't have anything suitable for my afternoon tea!!!! Even after I had rang to check when booking. I was so shocked by this. It surely is a stable item in a hotel catering kitchen!! I was offered a Halumi salad with chips. I asked for some meat ... Ham or chicken surely some cold meat could be available. I received my salad with packet ham on top. My mum and sisters were given their normal afternoon tea. They didn't enjoy it!!! The brown bread was very stale The scones were really dry and hard. No jam, so I went to find some from the breakfast buffet area. My Mum is 87 and said the scone had seen better days. We asked for another glass of Prosecco as I wasn't sure if we were entitled to another glass, but we were given 1. We then got ready to leave. On the way out I asked to pay for the Coke my mum had. I was very shocked that we were told that the 4 glasses of Prosecco plus the Coke was over £40!!! £40!!! No way for little glasses of Prosecco!!! After explaining what horror experience we had had we paid half in the end ... But!!! What a horrible time (mothers day present) for our lovely mum!!!! Avoid at all cost!!!!

Stayed for 2 nights with our dog. Great garden and peaceful stay. Nothing too much for the staff and very close to Chester.

Excellent food, chicken is well recommended, you do need to ask for a children's menu, drinks and food not over priced.

I had a voucher for my birthday from Next and Mollington Brook was one of the recommended places for Afternoon tea. When we arrived, there was no one at reception to greet us or take us to our table. After a few mins someone came and apologised and they were friendly and took us to our seats. The restaurant itself was spacious but dated. We immediately noticed that our crockery & cutlery was dirty. However, there was no one around for ages to asked for it to be changed. We had to grab clean crockery and cutlery on the table next to us before our afternoon tea arrived. When the afternoon tea arrived we were disappointed, coffee was filtered and tasteless. The cakes were stale and sandwiches were dry and boring. The scones however were nice and we were pretty gutted to only have 2 between us given the rest was disappointing. After we finished again no one was around to take our plates therefore we decided to stand up and leave. Fortunately we had a voucher but at £15 a head this isn’t great value and we would not recommend visiting here!

Afternoon Tea was disappointing! Detail is everything! I had AT at your Hotel last week with my granddaughter- crusts left on some finger sandwiches- choice of either tuna or egg on the plate ‘Photograph taken’was not my idea of AT to be honest! 3 fingers of tuna and 3 fingers of egg between two,,, absolutely exstraudinary- I expected at least four varieties of finger sandwiches which is what most Hotels provide for AT....,In addition the small cakes were very small many with cream in- not everyone likes cream with everything! The cream for the scones wasn’t whipped properly- quite runny and presented on the plate in a bigger than usual glass dish ‘which looked absolutely dreadful! I could hardly call the presentation sophisticated ‘it was far from that! The presentation all round left a lot to be desired! Tea pot was badly marked and looked generally dirty and unpolished. Knife and forks also needed a polish -and I have no idea why we would have needed a fork....,as no salad was in and around the sandwiches as garnish! The waitress didn’t speak very good English -making her unstanding of what I was expressing to her.....difficult for her to comprehend! The Hotel interior needs updating- it’s tired - dark and dreary- and would benefit from an update- bringing into the 21st Centuary- which includes the Front of the Hotel ‘which is very much lacking in curb appeal - and the drive and car park is full of holes and bumps! The company who own this Hotel should be loooking to spend money on it...to bring it into the 21st century to compete with other Hotels in the area! The Mollington Hotel could be a really classy place ....if only it could be brought out of the dark ages!!!!

Not worth the money at all! We had voucher for 2 worth £34 There were 3 quarters of egg mayonnaise, 3 quarters of salmon, 3 quarters of ham - where did the other quarter go, why not put on the plate to make a full 2 rounds of bread. The 4 types of cake were delicious but so small we could not cut into 2 to share We have been to lots of places for afternoon tea - this was the worst. On the plus side, the scones were delicious.

I just thought I would share a little feedback on the recent 90th birthday function we held at the Brook Mollington. As background, the event was for 30 ppl, and was a celebration we held for our Nan’s 90th birthday. We requested an afternoon tea for all, from 3pm to 6pm. The cost per person was £14.95. To say that we were collectively extremely disappointed would be an understatement. Our expectation was to have the sandwiches and cakes presented on a “tower” type cake stand, and to have the tea/coffee served to each guest. I would suggest that this would be a typical presentation of afternoon tea, and would have made the event even more memorable. However, the reality was far from our expectation. The reality consisted of a “buffet” style presentation of some disappointing sandwiches, the fillings of which were just awful. The bread was clearly days old, and seemed barely fit for consumption. The fillings were not only uninspiring, but almost tasteless. The highlight was likely the cucumber sandwich, which consisted of the thinnest single wafer of cumber placed inside a triangle of stale bread. I really do not have the patience to continue to try to describe the inadequacy of the tinned tuna, wafer thin processed ham or grated tasteless cheese fillings. With apologies, I have better things to do with my time rather than to try to describe what was passed over as “a cake selection”. I think it is suffice to say that over 50% of what was offered to eat remained on the trays when we left. And then we come to our expectation of being served the tea/coffee. This again was a “help yourself” offering, consisting of a flask of tepid water and a selection of “high street” generic tea bags. The guests were then expected to marry the tea and tepid water together, with the hope of making something drinkable. Almost all guests failed. Coffee drinkers fared no better, with a flask offering of what can only be explained as re-heated coffee from the hotel breakfast service. It was thick, stale and, for the most, tough to drink. In summary, the celebration behind the event was the most important thing, and for this reason only, the whole family and friends enjoyed their time there. However, to have the sheer audacity to present this as an afternoon tea was embarrassing. To spend nearly £450 for the pleasure of such an offering leaves a bitter taste in our mouths, perhaps a stronger bitterness than the actual sandwiches, cakes, tea and coffee left. In fairness to the general public that might be contemplating the Brook Mollington for similar events, we will post our reviews on online also. Regards, Nan’s 90th Birthday Crew.

A present in the form of a voucher for afternoon tea turned out to be very disappointing. Service and food was poor. The hotel has clearly seen better days and seemed shabby. The small sandwiches were made of tuna, egg and thin ham with a slice of processed cheese, three of each for two equalled 9 fingers we shared the odd one. Cakes were miniature variety straight from the packet. The scone and cream was good.

quality of food in the evening excellent ,prices reasonable. good range of choice ,well cooked & tasty

visited the Mollington for our Wedding Anniversary 11th May, we had our wedding at the Mollington which was the best day ever, and chose the venue today for a celebration meal, absolutely delicious, mouth watering, six of us had a meal, all different and all plates were emptied, would highly recommend

Had Sunday lunch here today. The food was tasteless, unimaginative and hardly edible ...cold soggy toast with pate , undercooked roast potatoes ..I could go on. It was all very basic ....everything tasted 'bought in' . Service was slow but pleasant enough. We asked for the bill twice but it never came so went to pay at the desk.we were then asked to provide details of what we had eaten /drunk since they had no record. Glad I have no money invested in this place! She said she would have yo rely on our honesty!!

Generally the food was good and hot but they can not cook duck so avoid that. Service was good and the waitresses were excellent

We met friends for lunch and were not disappointed. Very interesting decor and good choice of items for lunch. Staff were exceptionally helpful and friendly. We had a great meal - tasty and well presented. Were impressed enough to book a night there in january. Special deal. Hope it is as good as our first experience. Thank you for a specal event.

Would be okay in the summer months, breakfast was okay but again for a 4 star hotel the better quality produce should have been used. You can tell a pre-packed supermarket sausage from a good quality sausage and the same with bacon, but it did fill a hole. There were plenty other cold options available instead of a cooked breakfast.

Food is excellent and staff great. Beautifully cooked by Chef Craig, couldn't fault it. Three great courses and lovely breakfast each day.

Great choice, well presented and great service. The restaurant is very peaceful and relaxing.