Mums blasts historic pub after children 'told to turn iPads down' in restaurant

Two fuming mothers have blasted a historic pub after claiming they were told to turn their children's iPads down while they were having Sunday lunch.

The group, consisting of six adults and four young children, were dining at Sam's Chop House in Manchester City Centre when staff reportedly told them to lower the volume on the gadgets.

Taking their frustration to TripAdvisor the women slammed the pub in two scathing one-star reviews and accused it of not being child friendly.

Writing to the travel site they explained the only reason they needed the iPads was because the restaurant didn't provide any entertainment for the youngsters and had no children's menu.

The mother's added that their less-than-satisfactory experience began on arrival when 'rude' staff informed them they couldn't bring their prams into the restaurant but, once inside, they found only two high chairs were available when they needed four, reported the Manchester Evening News.

In her review Heidi S expressed her disapproval: 'I don't usually write reviews but I'm appalled at the disgusting service we received yesterday. We came to Manchester to visit family and went to what we thought looked a nice restaurant for a roast dinner.'

She continued: 'We was with four young children and told that prams aren't allowed in restaurant. This was not a problem we wanted high chairs for them anyways to eat their dinner.

'When we got to the table we asked for the high chairs only to be told they only have two! Had to stick one of my children in their pram,' she added.

Despite finding the roast dinner to have 'great presentation' Heidi was equally disappointed with the standard of food and the apparent lack of options available.

'There was no children's menu so my children couldn't have a meal! The roast dinner was horrible! Looks lovely, great presentation but I may as well go to Tesco and eat raw vegetables off the shelves because that's exactly what they were, RAW!

'The beef was nice but only had two small slices. One roast potato that was basically a boiled potato,' she vented.

Heidi described the customer service as 'horrendous' and claimed a staff member 'asked us to turn my children's devices down even though they weren't loud at all! We had to entertain them with iPads because the restaurant didn't provide anything for children to do like usual restaurants, not even food menus for them!'

And the cost of the meal was also a cause for concern for the mother, '£20.00 for a roast? I'd rather have gone to Toby Carvery for half the price and a much more decent roast dinner than atrocious meal they call Sunday roast', she said.

'Their target audience and preferred audience is definitely posh people who come WITHOUT CHILDREN and drink wine from the £100 bottle.'

According to Heidi the group reportedly felt 'very uncomfortable' and she has warned other families to avoid the restaurant 'at all costs.'

Joanne S also added her input in with her own review, saying: 'Booked a table for six adults and four children for Sunday lunch and the 1st issue was they only had two high chairs.

'The 2nd issue was we were told by rude staff for the children to turn their tablets down saying they had other customers in, bearing in mind these customers were talking louder.

'The 3rd issue was they didn't cater for children and couldn't even do mash so the children ended up not eating.'

She added that an adult in the group was so 'disgusted' and 'shocked' with the attitude of the staff that they decided not to eat either.

Joanne S summarised that the group 'did not feel welcome' and the roast dinner was 'not even worth the money'.

Sam's Chop House and Mr Thomas's Chop House on Cross Street are both managed by the Victorian Chop House Company.

The boss of the pubs, Roger Ward, 'held his hands up' and admitted that some things did not go as planned on the day the mums visited.

He commented: 'We do try, if we have got something wrong, we try to make it right. We take all complaints seriously and genuinely try to improve from it.'

'We didn't perform that shift at our best, but have taken significant steps on all the issues they've raised and we thank the customers for raising them.'

Ward clarified that on the date of their visit, there had been 'an enormously high number of children' visiting their two pub sites in Manchester.

He explained as a result of this there was a shortage of high chairs because two were being repaired and two more were being used by the other restaurant.

He added: 'At the end of the day that issue was rectified.'

Regarding the issue of a children's menu, Ward insisted that they are a child-friendly pub, and offer smaller portions of adult meals rather than a specific kids' menu.

He explained that the Chop House doesn't buy in frozen children's meals but offers smaller versions of the 'proper real food' cooked for adults.

'Whether we communicated that well on the day I don't know,' Ward said.

The manager concluded: 'I always apologize if people have a bad experience, and find a way to make amends. That's the only way to run a restaurant nowadays because we live and die by experiences people have. I don't believe attack is in the best form of defense, we can always learn by things we do wrong.'

'If you want to take your kids out in nice surroundings, we would always want to be that place, we are child friendly and dog friendly, it's not fine dining, but we do strive to be a nice place where kids and dogs are welcome.'