St. Helens Metropolitan Borough Council St. Helens reviews by real event-goers

Review of Absolutely Fabulous Gin Festival Comes to Saint Helens Town Hall

Had a good time, lots of quality gins on offer, the music was good, loved the venue, only criticism , the food was cold, a bit disappointing for the price paid for the VIP ticket .

Review of Absolutely Fabulous Gin Festival Comes to Saint Helens Town Hall

At first seemed highly organised, met at the door, shown to VIP area. Instructions thereafter a bit hit and miss. Booklet orientated you to how the token and different gins system worked. A food menu was hastily placed on the table as we sat reading the gin guide, with descriptor and a price. Our VIP ticket included the price of food so we were puzzled. So I asked where we got our food, and was told to go downstairs and get it when we were ready. Our wrist band would indicate to the caterers we had prepaid. We had a gin, then went downstairs to get something to eat [19.00h]. We chose Chicken curry, rice with salad and a Mixed platter -both were placed in takeaway containers. The caterer asked for money, so we showed him our wrist band. Then was told the caterer would be serving the VIPs at 20.00h, so no need to come and get our food. They were embarrassed because they'd used takeaway containers, and offered to plate it. We politely declined and made our way back up to our seats. Others followed us down to get some food, they had theirs brought to the table on plates by the caterers.
A friend on our table who arrived later than us, had a platter placed in front of her, with meats, she's a vegetarian. She asked for a vegetarian option. So the platter was removed, then after a while a plate with a bread roll, chips, salad and a spicy spring roll arrived. After trying to eat this, she did complain and received an apology and some drink tokens. The point is the food system was not explained. It seemed that all other VIPs were served a platter, so no choice of the other menu items. 20.00h to serve food is late, when the event began at 18.00h, we arrived at 18.15h. No real vegetarian option. The food was built up to be excellent, but in all honesty, it was fair to good. Fried chicken and spring rolls were tasty. The burger bun, hard and cardboard like, the chips barely warm, the dry bit of salad, was more like a coleslaw without the mayonnaise binder. Sadly the food was a total washout. Gins great, although 1 person on the bar initially caused a long queue, until that was corrected. In the meantime, with a queue 10 deep, a number of people went downstairs to get their drinks.
Bar staff, once staffed properly were lovely and helped develop the atmosphere. Music was really good. The venue was very grand. Given the situation with the food I think the VIP tickets are overpriced. However, if a better choice of hot and cold food can be served, in a more coordinated way, the price is a tad more acceptable. Also, no mention of where to buy the gins to take home, so an opportunity for additional sales lost?

Review of Absolutely Fabulous Gin Festival Comes to Saint Helens Town Hall

Great evening. Something completely different. Not to crowded nor not to noisy.

Review of Absolutely Fabulous Gin Festival Comes to Saint Helens Town Hall

Excellent afternoon in VIP area tasting a great selection of gins

Review of Absolutely Fabulous Gin Festival Comes to Saint Helens Town Hall

The VIP experience really wasn't - the food was disgusting and the one extra drink didn't compensate. We enjoyed the downstairs event purely because we were in a group. A good selection of gins was available and the service was ok.

Review of Absolutely Fabulous Gin Festival Comes to Saint Helens Town Hall

What a brilliant night!!! Well worth the money and we had the VIP Tickets. The range of gins was great and the brochure informing us all about them was very good. We are definitely going back to the December event. The way the town hall was decorated was fabulous and we really felt and were treated like VIP's

Review of Absolutely Fabulous Gin Festival Comes to Saint Helens Town Hall

Lovely range of Gins with a variety of tonic and garnishes. The town hall was a great place to host this event.
Staff were all lovely.
The band were great!

Review of Absolutely Fabulous Gin Festival Comes to Saint Helens Town Hall

Very nice use of a beautiful venue
A great selection of gins. £5 for a single and a mixer was reasonable.
Only problem was the music was too loud and we were there to chat (Not knocking the band there were talented)