Bistrot Pierre - Ilkley — Restaurant in Bradford

Things go wrong in the hospitality sector As they do in all parts of the service industries. It’s what happens when they do that perhaps tells us most about how a business behaves and if it measures up.

I booked, or thought I had, for dinner on Christmas Day at Bistrot Pierre, Ilkley. It’s what their website advised. I booked and got back a ‘booking confirmation’ with a reference number. I still have the screenshot on my phone.

It also advised a deposit of £20 would need to be paid (and a pre-menu selection); there was no mechanism to pay this online so when I didn’t hear by the deadline I went in to the restaurant the next day, Christmas Eve. I was told my booking had been cancelled and I’d been sent an email. There was a problem with the online booking system, continuing to book in customers when there was no availability.

I hadn’t seen the emails. I’d been busy and hadn’t checked my emails. You might ask, is it enough to send an email - it’s important, not the least, courteous, to ensure potential customers know where they stand, or don’t. I too work in a service industry and for many years was Chair of the Ilkley Literature Festival. When events were cancelled the Festival team did their utmost to advise bookers and ticket holders of the situation, calling them directly to make sure they knew.

Bistrot Pierre did no such thing. I was told, when I went in, that there’d been several such instances- that there was a glitch in the online booking system, which was taking bookings. ‘Several’ - not too many then- pick up the phone and speak to someone. It’s for Christmas Day, people might want to make alternative arrangements. But no ‘you were sent an email’, hardly a conciliatory email when I did read it, a perfunctory apology, which is all I got too when I called in. It was like ‘computer says no’ (or in this case ‘yes’); restaurant says ‘no’.

So compute this, dear Bistrot Pierre. It was clear I was to be a solitary diner (table for 1, bit of a giveaway) and would likely to be spending Christmas by myself (my daughter lives in London, a doctor). It was also evident, if the restaurant manager had bothered to look and ‘compute’ that I had mobility issues - I’m walking with a stick at the moment after a knee replacement operation, and waiting for the other knee to be fixed. But there was no , ‘oh, let’s see if we can try fit you in. After all it’s going to be too late to book elsewhere’ (as indeed it was). Nothing, no fulsome apology : not the restaurant’s fault you see; computer at fault. Well, Bistrot Pierre, the computer system you use, is your responsibility.

So, I’ve got news for you Bistrot Pierre. Through 2024, I’ve regularly come in for Sunday lunch, maybe once a month, perhaps more often, and despite the fact that the food is consistently okay, and your staff are convivial and helpful and I like them (not you Mr Manager) I won’t be coming in again. There’s quite a lot of competition in Ilkley, so I’ll go elsewhere.

So, if you’re reading this, I hope you’re enjoying your Christmas lunch. But maybe you should consider that a business is all about how it treats its customers. Not in this shoddy way I...

On the afternoon of Sunday, 1st June my wife and I checked-in for a ‘’relaxing’’ stay at the Bistrot Pierre Crescent Inn, Ilkley after travelling from the Midlands to visit family in Yorkshire on my birthday. Upon checking-in we were offered a pokey hotel-room called the ARNCLIFFE, on the first floor. We found the hotel room to be very tired and to a poor housekeeping standard with threadbare carpet, cobwebs, poor cleanliness in the bathroom, poor furniture, and tv (see attached photos). The worst downside was the constant sound and vibrations coming from the restaurant kitchen extraction directly below us. This was rather unfortunate as I had a tiring day, so I was looking forward to a ‘’relaxing’’ hour before our evening meal. Anyway, there was no chance to being able to relax as advertised, so I returned downstairs to ask the Duty Manager if we could move to a better hotel room. We were offered another room that was even worse, and after consulting the Manager we were not allowed an up-grade to a better room. However, the Duty Manager assured us the kitchen extractor fan would be switched off at 9pm, so at least we could sleep through the night. The next morning, I complained to the Manager (Peter) that the hotel had not delivered the relaxing 4-star hotel experience we were expecting. Only for Peter to encourage me to take the matter further. As he agreed the Arncliffe room is inferior, so he could pressurise the Company to invest in a refurbishment. Although, Peter had assured me the hotel was busy that night, there were only two other couples in for breakfast. Anyway, we left the Bistrot Pierre Crescent Inn at Ilkley feeling undervalued as a paying customer, and will not return. If this is an example of this Company’s hospitality, it is no wander the organisation is in trouble with several of its sites...

Beyond awful. Had been to Bistrot Pierre at Ilkley some while ago and had a bad experience, but reading the good reviews here our party decided to try it again, wish we had not bothered. Staff at bar had not got a clue what drinks were available. When we started our meal we had to ask for everything, salt and pepper please....jug of (warm) water please....cutlery is old and tarnished and looks dirty. I had opted for the Roast Chicken dinner which was described on the menu as....All our Sunday roasts are served with roast and dauphinoise potatoes (this is a Bistrot roast after all), braised red cabbage, broccoli, carrots, Yorkshire pudding and red wine gravy. WHAT I GOT WAS A SLAB OF DRY CHICKEN WITH A TUB OF OVER SALTED FRENCH FRY MICRO CHIPS! might as well have gone to McDonalds! We ordered coffees and after they were served we sat waiting for milk/cream sugar, eventually had to call waitress and ask for this! Some of our party commented on how empty the large restaurant was for a Sunday afternoon, only 4 tables occupied as far as we could see, obviously the locals know to avoid this place. Then even though they had insisted that we leave a deposit on booking of £10 per person, they tried to charge us the FULL bill and seemingly did not know that we had paid already. UPDATE.....After being asked to contact the manager, I did so offering to help in any way to give advice on improvements........2 weeks later and no reply! Obviously could not care less about customer comments or improving their...