Reviews of Leather Bottle, Mattingley
Review by Sue Ashwell on 9th January, 2011
Add your review Date visited: 9th January 2011
My friend and I enjoyed a truly delicious Sunday roast chicken lunch, and attentive service.
However, what was surprising was the table reserved for us after I'd phoned the day beforehand to book a table for two in a quiet corner where we could enjoy a good chat. The table was in the corner of a very pleasant restaurant room, and it was fine although it was a table for four. Close to us were larger tables, and sure enough these filled up with families as the afternoon went on. Not ideal but not too intrusive. When we left the pub we took a final good look around the pub because it's olde worlde and interesting. We were surprised to find another restaurant room next door in the pub which would have been far more ideal for us: smaller tables, a log fire, antiques galore. Why oh why weren't we given a table there!!! And it wasn't as if it was fully booked as we could see a number of tables we could have sat at.
Wouldn't it be lovely if sometimes staff took note of requests. A lovely lunch and afternoon, yes, but it could have actually been superb.
Please think about your customers Leather Bottle staff!
Review by Gillian Pugh on 13th October, 2009
Add your review Date visited: 11 Oct 2009
Our family of 8 arrived for a birthday and anniversay Sunday lunch at 12:00. Firstly we were told that the prawn coctails were off the menu because they had no prawns, then my son-in-law ordered a Guinness and was told that this wasn't available either. We ordered various lunches but 4 of us ordered the Sunday roast - what a big mistake...the potatoes were like bullets and when eventually cut open tasted stale, the yorkshire pudding was like leather and the vegetables just shown the boiling water, but I will say that the 2 slices of beef were good. Needless to say we didn't chance the puddings as we didn't want to pay for another disaster! We did complain but were informed that there were no other complaints...I wonder how many people just leave without complaining but never revisit - I certainly wont be visiting again.
Review by David Harrison on 21st March, 2009
Add your review Date visited: Friday 20th March 2009
My wife and I, together with our daughter, took lunch here. I had read the less than enthusiastic review by Mr Burgess, but encouraged by the report following, decided to give it a chance. Clearly Mr Burgess had caught the place very much on an off day; our own experience was very much more in line with the other reports. We all had the salad which was beautifully presented; I greatly enjoyed the cottage pie and my wife and my daughter found the fish cake to be excellent. Service was prompt and friendly; this is an establishment to which we shall be returning.
I do hope that Mr Burgess can find the opportunity and the generosity to give the Leather Bottle another chance; I'm sure that his experience will be much happier next time!
Review by Richard Warsop on 3rd August, 2008
Add your review Date visited: 3 August 2008
I have just returned from a Sunday lunch at the Leather Bottle which was excellent. I had been fearful after reading the previous review but the management must have acted on Mr Burgess's comments. There were plenty of attentive staff to greet us, our orders were taken at our own leisure and the food arrived in good time and was marvellous. We were celebrating my father's 91st birthday and the Leather Bottle did not disappoint.
Review by David Burgess on 7th March, 2008
Add your review Date visited: 02/03/08
Last week I had the unfortunate experience of visiting the Leather Bottle for a Mother's Day evening meal. We had pre-booked for our party of four, having seen the special Mother's Day set menu which looked very good. On arrival there were no visible staff in the reception area, a worrying early sign of trouble to come and after a couple of minutes standing like lemons without even a perfunctory greeting we were finally ushered to our seats. We ordered drinks, starters and main courses and then waited, and waited. By this time we could hear mumblings of discontent from other tables, one man had left his entire steak and on another table next to us an angry looking customer was complaining that their main course had been served but they had been waiting for the accompanying vegetables for nearly 20 minutes, by which time presumably the charred looking main dish was stone cold. After 20 minutes without our drinks we complained and they eventually arrived 10 minutes later. By now we were expecting the worse and preparing our exit strategy. After an hour since sitting down there was still no sign of our starters, despite having had to get up and complain for the third time so we decided enough was enough. The adjacent table then told us that they had been there over 3 hours (yes 3 hours!!) and were still waiting for their desserts.That removed any doubts we might have had as we didn't fancy being there beyond midnight and with time still available to get to the local curry house we upped and left. At least we were not charged for the drinks but we wouldn't have paid anyway. This was truly one of the worst cases of dreadful service that we had ever seen. The waiting staff were all young teenagers and very pleasant and it was clearly not their fault but there was no visbile sign of any responsible management in attendance. It was clear that they had problems from the bad atmosphere and complaints that were evident throughout our stay. But this clueless management team,whoever they were, made no attempt to defuse the situation by telling people on arrival that there was a problem and that a long wait for food was likley. Nor during our hour long wait for starters was any attempt made to communicate with us, offer us a complimentary drink or two or even put a couple of bread rolls on the table, nada, zip, nothing. A memorably appalling experience and I would advise any potential customers to give this joint a very wide berth. They just didn't care one iota that they had wrecked a Mother's Day evening that we had been really looking forward to. What a contrast to arrive at our local curry house to be greeted by eager welcoming and smiling staff who took our orders quickly and efficiently and served us before the onset of the next Ice Age. Not too hard really is it Leather Bottle??
Review by David Burgess on 3rd March, 2008
Add your review Date visited: March 2nd 2008
On arrival there were no visible staff in the reception area, a worrying early sign of trouble to come and after a couple of minutes standing like lemons without even a perfunctory greeting we were finally ushered to our seats. We ordered drinks, starters and main courses and then waited, and waited. By this time we could hear mumblings of discontent from other tables, one man had left his entire steak and on another table next to us an angry looking customer was complaining that their main course had been served but they had been waiting for the accompanying vegetables for nearly 20 minutes, by which time presumably the charred looking main dish was stone cold. After 20 minutes without our drinks we complained and they eventually arrived 10 minutes later. By now we were expecting the worse and preparing our exit strategy. After an hour since sitting down there was still no sign of our starters, despite having had to get up and complain for the third time so we decided enough was enough. The adjacent table then told us that they had been there over 3 hours (yes 3 hours!!) and were still waiting for their desserts.That removed any doubts we might have had as we didn't fancy being there beyond midnight and with time still available to get to the local curry house we upped and left. At least we were not charged for the drinks but we wouldn't have paid anyway.
This was truly one of the worst cases of dreadful service that we had ever seen. The waiting staff were all young teenagers and very pleasant and it was clearly not their fault but there was no visbile sign of any responsible management in attendance. It was clear that they had problems from the bad atmosphere and complaints that were evident throughout our stay. But this clueless management team,whoever they were, made no attempt to defuse the situation by telling people on arrival that thee was a problem and that a long wait for food was likley. Nor during our hour long wait for starters was any attempt made to communicate with us, offer us a complimentary drink or two or even put a couple of bread rolls on the table, nada, zip, nothing.
A memorably appalling experience and I would advise any potential customers to give this joint a very wide berth. They just didn't care one iota that they had wrecked a Mother's Day evening that we had been really looking forward to. What a contrast to arrive at our local curry house to be greeted by eager welcoming and smiling staff who took our orders quickly and efficiently and served us before the onset of the next Ice Age.
Not too hard really is it Leather Bottle??
Review by Tom Mattingly on 24th October, 2007
Add your review Date visited: 9/14/2006
The Leather Bottle was a highlight of my visit. Traditional pub with plenty of historic artifiacts displayed outlining the history of the pub, friendly staff, and GREAT food. I visited with a group of 4, all of us have added the Leather Bottle as a must-stop for any trip to this corner of the world.
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