The best restaurants in Willington and Findern South Derbyshire East Midlands

Poor food cold expensive for what it was will never eat here again

I absolutely love this place! The food is incredible and the location is nice and relaxing! You can sit outside next to the canal if the weather is good or stay inside in their recently refurbished restaurant. There is plenty of parking and areas for kids to play! Outdoors they also have gazebo options which are perfect to go with an infant and keep them protected from the sun but still be outside. I have been going to this place for years and will continue doing so.

Really busy on a Friday lunchtime which is always a good sign. Excellent menu difficult to choose! We opted for fish finger sandwich with fries and halloumi sandwich with fries, one of us opted for salad instead of fries and this wasn’t an issue. Only negative is the coffee - not a good flavour and served luke warm. This was swapped swiftly for us and the staff were lovely and the service was good. It’s also very dog friendly. Would definitely recommend.

We went here the other day for a family get together. There were 15 of us and we couldn't have asked for better service. We were made to feel so welcome and the food was lovely. Thank you for making our annual family reunion a really special occasion.

lunch with the ladies on Wednesdays. Already booked Christmas lunch

Had to just make this post. Was greeted my the most two loveliest bar staff ever, Charlotte & Hannah I believe they were called. Had to just share this pint of Guinness and black I was served. You ladies give Banksy a run for his money. Highly delightful evening. Will definitely be calling time again x

Had a really nice toasted gluten free sandwich (hummus & pepper) here whilst sitting outside in the sun with a great view. It came with side salad and crisps. Always feel awkward emphasising that I will be really ill if it has any gluten contamination, but was not made to feel bad about it at all which was nice, and was offered reassurance that the sandwich would be toasted in a wrapping. Had a pot of tea, the teabag was a good strong one & they had soya milk. Will be back.

What has gone wrong!? This place was always packed and the food and service used to be amazing and was always the go to place for great food and family get togethers but sadly not anymore. Both our meals were absolutely terrible and although the gesture of free cake as an apology was appreciated we will not be returning. How any business can survive like this is astounding. A birthday meal booking for 14 has since been cancelled and rebooked for Riverside Farm, Nottingham whose food and service is outstanding just as the Cherry Tree used to be.

I was enjoying a pint outside the Boardwalk in the afternoon on Sunday 27th October 2024 when one of the staff came around clearing the tables. She rather curtly enquired if I was ordering something as this was ‘the cafe area’ and the pub area was ‘over there’. It was a busy afternoon and I couldn’t see any places to sit ‘over there’. There is no signage to indicate the relevant cafe and bar areas – several types of tables are in use outside so the difference wasn’t obvious; it wasn’t evident that there even was a differentiation. Indeed, there were two vacant tables adjacent to mine, so it wasn’t as though I was preventing other customers from sitting down. I abandoned my drink and left the site immediately as I found the incident acutely embarrassing having taken place in front of other customers, and will not be returning. There is a clear need for improvement both in staff training in customer respect and courtesy; and in the signage outside the refreshment areas on the site. Subsequently, I contacted Mercia Marina who forwarded my e-mail to the relevant establishment on-site but they did not even deign to reply. Clearly, they have no interest in customer satisfaction. Mercia Marina needs to take responsibility for all the businesses in situ, as shortcomings in one outlet reflect badly on the reputation of the entire site.

We've eaten from here before and it was good. However, this time was very disappointing. I had the crispy beef strips in batter. I have these regularly from my usual Chinese so I expected them to be similar. Unfortunately they were just batter - I cut into one and it had the thinnest strip of beef in it that I just couldn't taste. Portion sizes were good but maybe focus on the quality of food as opposed to quantity.

Only 5 minutes away but the chicken and fried were stone cold. Gravy and rice were hot

The shop says it shuts at half 10 online but it’s always shut at least an hour earlier whenever I go?? Update your opening times

Sign as you enter the restaurant says to order at the till with your table number and your food/drinks will be brought to the table for you. This is not true, you have to queue, serve yourself, pay and take your own order to the table. There are no trays at the start of the long and slow queue so you have to juggle plates and drinks as you move down the line. You have to serve yourself from raised cake stands that are ill-balanced and not easily reached (whilst also juggling other items). The hot drinks are then ordered at the end of the line, holding up the rest of the queue while you wait for them to handed to you so you can then pay...and then they offer you a tray! There were 3 staff behind the counter, two doing drinks and the till and one just stood about, nobody helps with service. The cake and drinks are very nice, a little overpriced but you expect that at a garden centre, but the overall experience puts me off going there. It's simple - remove the sign, put the trays at the start, same staff required, one serving food FOR you, one on hot drinks and one on till. Put the till separate to the line (empty back wall) and then nobody is held up, if you just want a cold drink and cake then you can bypass the wait behind the hot drinks folk and go straight to the till

Ordered food through the drive through and the employee rushes myself and had to tell them to wait whilst we was still thinking on what we was having. Once we got the order and got home found they had made numerous mistakes and when we phoned them was talking g to them then they just hung up and tried numerous time calling g them back they just couldn't be bothered to pick up. I would certainly not go back there again also would advise other people to give this place a miss

catch up with family, who we hadn't seen in a while, we decided to book in the ibis so we could stay longer. Weve eaten lunch here a few times having the carvery. 4 family members were stuck on A38 we explained this to staff and said we'd order when they arrived, we got informed the kitchen shut at 8pm this was 7.30pm, it doesn't say this on the site it says kitchen open till 10.00pm and bar 11.00pm. Luckily they arrived at 7.40pm oredering straight away, the scampi was very sparse, gravy for steak pie was 1 lump or 2 best meal was the steak, we got told if we needed deserts it wouldn't be a problem 5min later we got told it was take away only, we decided not to bother, we then got told the bar was shutting at 9.50pm this is advertised as 11.00pm. Dissapointed as this really spoilt our night, If we'd had o known we would have gone into ibis to their bar. Went for breakfast next morning as thought this should at least be better but no, everyhthing cold, toast pre done rock hard, we did mention this to waitress who did appologise, dont think we'll go again in a hurry we'll look for somewhere else.