Sunderland - Pompey Ranger Review

This store located on the edge of the town centre takes up 2 store fronts but has a number of businesses that have gone under surrounding it. It is quite a small store and is only on one level though there is a large enough space for a mezzanine storey but this has been used for a large wooden arch reminiscent of a railway arch. The toilets are at the back and to the right, the service area is to the left and there is a number of booths along the right. A few interesting items of object d'art including a mixture of model chickens on the back wall. There is a ten pin bowling centre in close proximity as well as a Empire cinema.

There was a bit of a queue waiting when we entered despite being able to see 5 empty tables in the restaurant, I guess the staff like to practise kettling of customers in the queue. Eventually the bottle blonde member of staff saw us to a booth and he was friendly and helpful which made him stand out from some of his colleagues. The water machine was broken and where I've seen this in previous stores they have provided jugs of water in its place. I asked another member of staff about getting some water and he told me to use the hand sink for water and was very much less than helpful or polite. I then turned on the tap at the sink and placed my hand under it to find hot water I tried turning the tap the other way and after a few minutes of standing there waiting I still wasn't able to get cold water to come through. The unhelpful brown haired member of staff walked past several times and I hope my glare burned into him but still no cold water, in the end I gave up as I'm not interested in getting legionaries disease nor consuming water that's been through a industrial hot water system.

The floor was also not clean, under our table I could see bits of bread roll, bones and a chicken wing, across the store I could see more debris left uncleared on the floor, the toilets also smelt of vomit and for these reasons I score it so low on the decoration and cleanliness. Whilst the décor was acceptable the hygiene and cleanliness of this place was diabolical.

I wasn't holding high hopes for the food when it did come out after this experience but was very pleasantly surprised as the food was very top notch. The chicken was perfect, succulent, juicy, cooked perfectly including the skin and it was dripping in sauce. This pleased me greatly along with the size of the chip portion and they were golden, well cooked and hot. The food definitely saves this store and explains the queues even when some of the staff aren't alluring and the floor is scattered with bones like a medieval castle.