Lunar at the World of Wedgwood Review

Although I was looking forward to my first visit to Lunar at the World of Wedgwood near Stoke-on-Trent, it's fair to say I was a little unsure what to expect. The restaurant opened in November 2021 with renowned chef Niall Keating at the helm dishing out tasting menus, but he departed in 2024 and various other chefs have come and gone since. Nonetheless, the restaurant has continued to retain its 2022 Michelin Guide listing as well as being awarded two AA Rosettes in 2024, so I was still hopeful of a decent meal as I rocked up with my wife and two young children for lunch, on a cold January Saturday.

Being part of the large Wedgwood visitors complex (we enjoyed a nice wander around the V&A exhibition after lunch) brings the handy benefit of a large free car park a short walk from the restaurant, which is always useful. Externally, it's quite a smart looking place and the welcome on arrival was perfectly warm; coats were taken and we were shown to our table towards the centre of the restaurant.

It's clear a lot of effort went into the interior and personally I liked the decor; there were lots of touches and nods to both the heritage of Wedgwood and the name of the restaurant, including an enormous light up moon hanging from the ceiling. Other features include a large bar and a chefs table area too. Although the room has a spacious feel, for some reason a table behind us had been set up uncomfortably close to where we were seated, despite there being plenty of other free tables in the restaurant; it was a touch odd. The restaurant was fairly quiet when we arrived (apart from the incomprehensibly loud music) but did fill up during service which was good to see.

On offer at lunch is a three course lunch menu which on the reverse showed a set lunch menu of two courses for £24. Weirdly, all the dishes on the set lunch menu were just taken from the full carte menu (some even had supplements) which I've not seen before and makes having two menus slightly redundant in my view; they should just have one set lunch menu with supplements. There is also a short two course children's menu for young children.

Drinks wise, the drinks list I was given was fairly comprehensive with a substantial list of cocktails but it didn't list any spirits and there were barely any non-alcoholic options shown either (for instance, no non-alcoholic cocktails) which again, just seemed a bit odd. I took a stab they would have Hendrick's on offer and indeed they did (I actually went for the aptly named, but in no way connected to the restaurant, Hendrick's Lunar) whilst my wife and kids all had different flavours of juice. We also had filtered water for the table which is charged per person (hate to say that's weird again, but at a fine dining restaurant, it is) at £3 a pop.

Lunch for me began with the twice baked (not convinced it was) mature cheddar souffle, served on a salad of rocket, golden raisins and candied walnuts. I'm a big fan of cheese souffles but this unfortunately was one of the worst I've had; the souffle looked almost like it had come out of a packet and been warmed up and was severely lacking in cheese flavour. It was edible for sure, but a poor start to the meal. My wife and daughter had the same whilst my young son was happy with just a portion of chips.

Things did improve with the mains I have to say; my picanha steak was well cooked and although the bordelaise sauce wasn't exactly bursting with flavour, it was enjoyable, as were the accompanying chips and baby gem lettuce. My daughter went for the fish and chips which was good also, and my wife too did enjoy her chicken with cream potato and a very solid peppercorn sauce. One positive I will say about the food here is the portion sizes were large, so you're unlikely to leave here hungry.

Naturally, we couldn't resist trying dessert, but unfortunately the dishes we were served were the worst of the meal. My wife and daughter had the sticky toffee pudding which was, to be frank, closer to a school dinner offering than a decent in-house made dish, it was really, really poor. My caramel tart with honeycomb and mascarpone was better and a pretty inoffensive dish (albeit lightyears away from the best caramel tarts I've had) but as it wasn't on the set lunch menu, it cost me £11 which was obscene given the quality of the dish, albeit the Wedgwood plate it was served on was very nice. My young son had three small scoops of ice cream from the children's menu which were fine.

And that as they say was pretty much that. Overall, as nice as the venue is, clearly the original ambition of this restaurant has dissolved completely into a very mediocre experience. The food was the main culprit; it was all edible but nowhere near the standard I'd been expecting and to be honest it was what I'd expect from a decent chain restaurant, if not a little bit below that standard.

Service too was less than stellar; well-intentioned and friendly, but not exactly attentive and the food delivery was very, very slow. I thought given the level of food and service, the automatically included 12.5% service charge was punchy to say the least (of course, I paid it). Even when leaving the restaurant, there was no one at the entrance so we ended up hanging around while a poor waiter rooted through the cupboards to try and find our jackets; a less than auspicious end to an unexpectedly disappointing visit.