The Hornet

I have been meaning to re-​review the Hornet for a while since I gave it a second chance, and honestly I wish I wouldn’t of bothered.
I want to start by saying I came back in abdominal pain, which is a syntomn of when my body receives gluten.
When I got to the resturant, I was furious that they couldn’t find the reservation I made hours earlier on the phone, lucky they was a table or I would of been furious.
This resturant is also very hard to get to, it is annoying because you can see it on the main road but have to go miles out of your way to get to it.
Remember when you come here, to order at the bar and they bring the food to you.
My starter was a Tomato soup with Non-​Gluten bread, I waited for it very patiently, and waited, and waited, finally I asked where it got to and apparantly they put it down as a main. I said I wanted this as a starter and it is on the menu as a starter, if the server couldn’t get that right, they much be uneducated and unworthy of a job, even as a launderette.
35 minutes later my soup did arrive, and it was nothing special, they wasn’t alot their (I admit it was £2, but I would of paid more for a bigger portion) and it did not taste home made, just something out of a tin. The butter was very hard and hard to spread, you would of thought it would of meleted in 35 minutes.
After that, I got my main course near enough straight away and I could of been in tears, the peas just tasted canned and simply not right, the mash was of course frozen and don’t get me started on the chicken. I ordered a Chicken New Yorker, and the BBQ sauce was awful, they wasn’t even much on it, the rest of the chicken was bland, The cheese was too strong for my liking and as well as that, it did have a funny taste to, the bacon wasn’t much better. I also feel like as well as the canned soup and frozen mash, this could also be out of a packet.
The Gluten Free Menu was a terrible photocopy, so much so, I had to bring the menu up on my phone. I was annoyed, I had to get this myself. One of the servers said she would bring it to me when I asked her, but she just simply ignored me, she never came over with it, after I got it, or even appoligised.
I felt guilty giving this place one star without fully trying it, so I decided to come back, and I rather wish I didn’t, I would not reccomened this place for my worst enemey or even his pet. I want to go far to say, I don’t know why this resturant is still surviving, I described this as one of the worst 3 resturants I have ever been to in my last review and now I can bring that comment back into circulation, now I have tried the food, and paid the price in days of being really unwell.

I’ve been here twice was quite excited having watched it being built, to be honest the food is not great and the assistant manager is just plain rude we waited over an hour on both occasions for our food to be presented with cold chips and undercooked steaks there are far better restaurants in and around rochdale.

Getting back on track with reviewing!!!
We’ve been to The Hornet three times now and the quality and value for money is excellent. I never really expect too much from a chain pub, frozen products, microwaved to within an inch of desiccation and average service, but The Hornet has exceeded those expectations and become a regular on our list for when the hunger pangs strike.
Our first visit was a Sunday, about a week after it first opened its doors, and we were in need of a good roast dinner. We chose to sit in the over 18s area (essential if you have a low tolerance for screaming children) and when we arrived it was just starting to fill up (opens at 11, we arrived at 11.30) but within about 15 minutes, the place was bustling and very busy. We ordered a big plate Sunday roast (beef) and a burger and the meals arrived promptly and with a genuine smile.
My plate was huge! Thick slabs of tender roast beef, crispy Yorkshire pud, scrumptious roasties, veg (cauliflower, carrots and beans) unctuous gravy and condiments. Very very tasty, well cooked and utterly satisfying. MrZ had a massive burger that he ate with gusto and the bill with 2 drinks came to just over £20. Bargain!
Our second visit involved another Sunday Roast (one large, one small for our guests) a Bombay Bad Boy burger for the hubby (lamb and mint topped with a bhaji) and a Mild or Wild burger for me (I went wild!). Again the meals arrived with hardly a wait, were well cooked and super tasty, and the bill was under £40 for 4 people.
The third visit was a table for 6 on a Friday evening (the only space was in the kids zone… boo!) the place was stupidly busy and my urge to slap lots of childrens legs was reaching it’s exploding point. Our food took over an hour to arrive (we got apologies eventually) and they had messed up on the steak order, sirloin instead of rump. However it was delicious. This time we had ordered a mixed grill (massive and meaty) chicken skewers with cola chipotle sauce (mmmmmmmmm) cheese pie (fabulous) and the obligatory MrZ burger (yum) along with the steaks (cooked well and juicy).
All in all, it’s a good place to go if you want unpretentious, tasty food at an incredibly reasonable cost, in a friendly and informal atmosphere. Now what are we planning for this weekend???

The Hornet is a newly opened pup/​restaurant that is a member of the Hungry Horse chain of eateries and drinkeries, so if you’ve ever been to one you’ll already know what to expect, lots of choice and decent size portions for not a lot of outlay in terms of cash.
Like I said this place has only been open a couple of weeks, it’s so new it was a field in November!
I’ve be twice now in the last 2 weeks, and both times i’ve had really nice food. The first time we went I had a really big burger that was lovely! Not Almost Famous lovely, but lovely all the same. It came with 2 burgers, chesse, bacon and onion rings and fries with a little pot of burger sauce and a pot of bbq sauce, and I have to say I struggled to finish it all.
Ange went for the big plate sunday roast option (Beef) and that too was massive, and really nice!
Yesterday I had a burger again, but this time I had the Bombay Bad Boy burger (Should that be Mumbai?), which is a lamb and mint burger topped with an onion bhaji and slavered in hot sauce (not as hot as id’ve liked, but very tasty). Ange had the Mild or Wild burger, which is a burger topped with a chicken fillet and all the usual trimmings, and then topped with a choice of either chipotle, jalapeño or habanero sauce, which she really enjoyed too.
All in all a really nice friendly place that i’ll be going back to again on Friday :)