I returned to Coach and Four in Wilmslow after being impressed with their improvements to their…read moremenu including a gluten-free selection which sounded pretty impressive online, but the overall experience once getting inside was totally different.
They do have two entrances, the main entrance at the front has a couple of steps and the back entrance which I presume is a service/disabled entrance is often blocked off due to the close proximity of the car park.
After being led through the narrow pub into the dining area, I was surprised how the dining area was so small, it felt like an indoor patio, the tables were so close together and it was really noisy, it wasn't a nice dining experience at all. I also do feel uncomfortable with restaurants which allow animals for hygiene reasons and my cynophobia, and this one does.
I get they're trying to get a festive feel but they have Christmas Trees everywhere and eventually the moving lights give one a headache and they seem to get in the way, they had three in just one area!
My food was a mess, not only could I not get my first choice dish of the gluten-free toastie as they'd just run out of bread, but my food took over half an hour to arrive, it felt like waiting for death.
It was also really difficult to find a staff member when I wanted one, including to chase up my food and request the bill.
Despite being on the gluten-free menu, the chips are fried in the same oil as gluten-containing ingredients, this is one of my biggest frustrations. Why get gluten-free chips and list them on the menu when you're going to put them in that frier and mess them up so they aren't gluten-free? They offered to put some fries (not the thick chips I wanted) in the oven for me so I accepted this. I was told the delay for my food was the fries (I wasn't told it would take longer when ordering), I hoped they'd be worth the wait but they weren't, they weren't cooked all the way through and the obviously frozen fries were far too soft in parts, and others were as hard as a rock.
The meat wasn't much better, it was a pretty fatty cut, it had no flavour and it was chewy. Due to a lack of a gravy/sauce other than a cheap mayo (which even didn't satisfy a mayo lover like myself), I also found it to be dry. This is the opposite to a similar bacon chop dish I ordered at Sam's Chop House in Manchester city centre which was fantastic. The egg looked like it had been dropped on the floor, meanwhile, the vegetables, especially the mushroom was incredibly greasy.
Considering the price is pretty competitive and restauraunt prices, you can't judge the food as a pub anymore, for £12.75 I expect some sort of quality, and that wasn't delivered here.
I was excited to try this place as it did look nice and the main issue previously had been addressed, but this place seems to have got worse, mainly down to it being overpriced with slow service and inedible food, the hygiene rating for this place has also fallen from 5 stars to 4 stars in my last visit.
1*
