Booked a table for 16 as a celebration for a family birthday. Was told we could have 4 separate tables, which we were ok with (not thrilled but understandably a large booking). Arrived at 1:15 and waited 20 minutes for an order to be taken. 2 people ordered starters, which arrived in 15 minutes. 45 minutes later our meals started arriving. The food is nothing special and the table staff seemed utterly terrified. After finishing our meal, we then waited another 15 minutes to order dessert.The majority of the group ordered red velvet cheesecake whilst the rest ordered various other desserts. 20 minutes after this order, we had a young waitress come out and say that they had run out of red velvet and that we would all have to change our order. We asked for a manager because by this time, we were fed up with 2 fed up children in the party. The manageress came over, seemingly itching for a fight. we explained the issues with the delays etc and her response? -because we had ordered starters on one table, it had delayed the rest of the meal (by 45 minutes?)- even though there were several individual bills , that running out of dessert was typical of marstons and that it was all being done by 1 single person in the kitchens. There was no apology of the sort, her attitude was basically 'tough, you've eaten it and you've got to pay'. I honest thought she was going to ask one of us outside to settle it. We eventually got offered (by a terrified waiter) 20% of each bill and resumed waiting for a pudding. It was another 30 mins of waiting and confusion (2 orders for dessert to take out was delivered on a plate with ice cream twice) we finally all managed to eat our dessert and leave. All in all a terrible customer service attitude for low quality food.

Have used before and didn't have any complaints. Not sure what has happened, but yesterday we waited 2 hours for our food to arrive. Two of us ordered an item from the specials board, it took them over half an hour to come and tell us they didn't have that and could we order something else! We were a large group and did not expect them to get all our food orders out in one go, but as some of us had to leave earler we ordered first and got our meals after others in the party. When i enquired as to the long wait the waiter really couldn't even think of an excuse. By the time we left, some 3 hours later 5 of our party had only been served their starters and the main meals were just arriving!! Ours was not an isolated problem, other diners were complaining too. I will never visit this plave again and if i ever need to mention the Forge it would be to advise others not to bother going.

Me and my boyfriend had been to the forge on many occasions over the past 5 years and never really had a problem until 2 months ago. We decided to have an evening out and the forge seemed like a good choice. We arrived and the pub was cramped! It was a saturday night and so this was expected, we waited over an hour for food and put it down to how busy the pub was and let it go over our heads. A few weeks we decided to go visit the forge again for sunday lunch with my boyfriend's family. Again we waited over an HOUR for food and when we asked a server why there was wait she said that a chef had not turned up on the morning so they were understaffed. If there was a wait on food, customers should have been notified not left hanging around with empty bellies! After filling in an online survey to review the new management at the forge, my boyfriend won a £25 voucher to use when we next visited the forge. We were hesitant but decided to give the forge one last chance. Last night (12/05/2012) we booked a table for 8:00pm and arrived 5 minues prior to find the table we reserved was taken. This wasnt a problem and staff were polite nd found us another table. However it was cramped and I kept being elbowed by the women at the next table! (Yes it was that cramped.) We had to wait half an hour for our food order to be taken and then another hour for our food to arrive, so we didn't eat until 9:30. Again we were not told of any wait on the food and we again asked why the food was taking so long. The manager's reply was "well we have had a couple of big party bookings in" UNACCEPTABLE! It seemed excuses were being made when someone asked why there was a wait on food. We decided not to stay for dessert (McDonalds mcflurry seemed a better option) and paid the bill with the voucher we had recieved. We still complained and went home and filled in a survey to express how disappointed we were with the service. This evening my boyfriend recieved a phone call from the manager about the review we had left. She was extremely rude and shouted at my boyfriend during the phone call. When he expressed he would take his cutom elsewhere in future the Manager's reply was "oh fine! You do that!" This is NOT the way to deal with a customer complaint. I would avoid the forge and its rude manager AT ALL COSTS! they are not worth your custom after the experience we had and we are now going to contact the Marston's company and make a formal complaint! AGAIN AVOID THIS PUB AT ALL COSTS!

Nice atmosphere but that was where nice ended ! We have been before on a few occasions recently and besides slow service food was passable . Tonight however it seemed to have deteriorated somewhat! The salad consisted of just lettuce ,we had to ask for a better selection and received a 1/4 of a tomato a thin slice of cucumber and a ring of onion! Dismal! All of the meals were sub-standard . We thought the pudding would pacify us but instead of a normal sized slice of cheesecake we received a very small piece! All in all the food was not worth the money and they are obviously cutting corners to save whilst robbing the public blind.

Female staff member was very polite and our drinks were served correctly. I recommend* eating at The Forge (2 for 1) restaurant at Gornal - the old Poacher ' s Pocket. We went for an unforgetable meal at Saturday lunchtime for a delicious Steak and Ale pie.
The fact that the carpark was empty when we arrived should have told us something about the place '
The pie was as tough as old boots - but did contain some meat because we found some - the chips tasted of stale oil and the mushy peas were flavoured over-whelmingly with gravy flavoured wet stuff.
We were honoured with being asked what sauces we would like with our delicacies - and received a personally hand-delivered (entire) 3 sachets of mayonnaise. Neither myself nor my wife could finish our meals 'not because they were so big - but because we didn ' t want to spoil our Saturday afternoon digestion.
My wife did say something as we left - but I don ' t feel that our comments will change the standard of the food. I know that we had 2 for 1 - but I ' m praying now that that doesn ' t also apply to a dicky belly!

*NOT