Reviews in West Derby

I?e gone Retsinas for years and the food and service is excellent. Great for a local restaurant.

Visited the Retsina a couple of times now and was very impressed with the food and service. Excellent for a local restaurant and value for money.

Lovely food, service is spot on. Certain dishes were quite pricey but worth it. Best chinese restaurant I've been to.

Pricey, but the food was excellent and the service quick.

don? often go out for meals, especially with being a fussy eater, so when I do I like to go somewhere that does a variety of food, nothing too spicy or strange. At the beginning of October, my boyfriend took me to the Stag and Rainbow for a meal. He chose this one because other pub restaurants are integrated with the pub and drinkers and diners are mixed. Luckily, the restaurant section at the Stag and Rainbow is completely separate and treated as thus. Upon arriving, we were asked if we wanted smoking or non-smoking. The smoking section is mainly near to the toilets and the non-smoking is nearer to the entrance. We chose non-smoking and despite not reserving and it being a Friday night we were seated immediately at a 2 seat table. The lights are subtly dimmed within the restaurant so that it? a more private and romantic atmosphere, but not so dark you can? read the menu or see what you?e eating. Each table had a tea light candle in the middle, which is rather romantic but beware of the heat coming off it! The one criticism I have of the Stag and Rainbow is that drinks can take a while to be delivered to your table when it gets busy. We had to wait up to 10 minutes at one point because our waitress was so busy. The drinks are reasonable pub prices though so this is a bonus. I ordered a Pepsi and my partner had a lager shandy. Upon being seated we were offered a menu each and given plenty of time to peruse it, but not so much time we were getting annoyed. We chose a starter each plus one to share! I had the soup of the day, which was leek and potato served with half a sliced baguette and butter. I would have preferred croutons in my soup but I just put bread in it instead. Me and my boyfriend also shared a portion of garlic bread - 2 slices each, very delicious. My partner had chicken goujons for his starter and they came with a dip. He seemed to thoroughly enjoy them. There is a wide array of main courses from salads to steaks and pasta. Vegetarians aren? extensively catered for but there are pasta options to suit them plus salads and a couple of starters. My boyfriend chose a steak for his main course, which came with chips and he requested vegetables instead of salad, which they were happy to do. I had fish & chips. The portions were decent sized and very tasty. The fish was soft enough with slightly crispy batter and the chips were well cooked too. Tartare sauce came in a little side pot but I don? eat that so I removed it. The waitress was happy to provide sauces when she gave us our dishes, including vinegar and tomato ketchup. My boyfriend's steak was cooked as requested so he was happy. I know this sounds like a small order but many restaurants ignore your requests. Other options I was tempted by were the pasta with cheese sauce, and chicken. Being greedy, we decided to peruse the dessert menu when it was offered to us. We? resisted ordering that at first in case we were full (and in fact I was full but I couldn? resist something sweet! There were about 7 desserts to choose from including apple crumble pie and ice cream dishes. We both chose the apple crumble pie with custard. The pie was nice & thick with crumble but the apples inside were far too crunchy, almost uncooked. The custard was lovely though - not at all lumpy. During the meal, I got up and went to use the toilets. There are only 2 cubicles in the ladies?toilets but they?e clean and well-maintained. My only gripe is that you have to walking through the smoking section to get to them so if you?e an asthmatic like me it? best to hold your breathe on your way in. As the night wore on, it got busier and busier in the restaurant and it took up to 10 minutes to get a glass of Pepsi, although the poor woman was doing her best, in all fairness. A couple more members of staff working might have been nice. The meals for both of us, plus several glasses of Pepsi and 1 pint of lager shandy came to about £43. Considering how much we ate I think that? very reasonable and I? definitely go back there for a meal.