Wheatley Arms, Ilkley — Restaurant in Bradford

We booked this hotel room in February when we knew we would be attending there for a wedding reception in September. In April We visited the hotel and enjoyed a lovely lunch there We explained we had a room booked for September and asked if we could possibly see a room. We were told they were being cleaned and had not been allocated yet but we were assured that because of my disability that we would be given a room on the 1st floor. When my husband took guests to the hotel the night before the wedding to help with decorations, he enquired of the time we would be able to access the room the next day. He was told quite bluntly that we did NOT have a room booked.my husband showed the manager our booking on booking .com. The manager said that our booking had been cancelled by the company thats used used for bookings. No attempt was made to help rectify the situation and no concern was shown at all and no apology offered. Fortunately, another guest at the wedding had to give back word on their room and so the staff were informed of this and we were able to have this room ,but unfortunately it was on the top (3rd) floor ! Obviously we knew it wouldnt be possible to change the room as the hotel was fully booked. The young lady who booked us in was really kind . When my husband returned home after midnight we spent well over an hour on the phone on the day of the wedding of the wedding to booking.com who straight away assured us that our booking with this hotel was indeed still viable and that they had not been informed of any cancellation of our room at all. They were extremely kind, helpful and concerned about the terrible predicament we were in and offered to find us another hotel and refund the difference of well over £30. We had no help ,apology or sympathy from The wheatley Arms whatsoever. We wondered if our booking was 'cancelled ' to offer for wedding guests (which of course we were but had booked our room weeks before the wedding party had been offered rooms) which was could then be charged at a higher rate than when we originally booked it 7 months earlier. We felt really let down . We recently stayed at The Crescent Inn , Ilkley and enjoyed a beautiful room ,an excellent evening meal and breakfast.

However, despite all the stress that was caused to us - we really enjoyed the wedding reception that was held there. The venue itself is really lovely .The food was all well prepared and well presented and the pizzas cooked on site for all guests in the evening were delicious. The staff really worked hard and were attentive to the needs of the guests from when eveyone arrived . Breakfast choice was really good and the food was well well presented too. Moral of the tale is -make sure your booking is still active and has not been cancelled. Hopefully our disappointing experience was a rare occurance. Other than that, enjoy the food and the surroundings ,the place itself is really very nice and we didn't let our experience with the room spoil the beautiful wedding day we had been so looking forward to for a year. It was a special , joyous occasion a celebration of the marriage of a couple we love very much in a beautiful place serving excellent food. A good time...

Arrived at The Wheatley at 5.30pm on Sunday 8th December to a very busy pub. We waited a couple of minutes before being taken to our table. There were a lot of customers just having a drink and not many eating. We waited a short while before being asked if we would like a drink. Our drinks came and the young male who served them asked if we wanted to order food. We ordered for ourselves and also ordered for one other person who we were still waiting for. Shortly after, our friend arrived. She sat for ages before finally stopping a passing staff member to ask if she could have a drink. We waited nearly 45 mins for our starters. The food overall was nice and very tasty. We waited a long time for our starter plates to be taken away (To the point we had piled the plates up at the end of the table).

The pub had now quietened down. After waiting another long interval, our main course finally arrived. We were not offered sauces or anything. We politely reminded the waiter we were waiting for a peppercorn sauce for a steak. He went to look for it and it was not ready so, said it would be with us shortly. Time passed, steak going cold, my friend was forced to get up and go ask where her sauce was. She asked a tall dark haired male who seemed to be a manager. Straight away he entered the kitchen and came back out with the sauce, plonking it on the end of the table. Another friend on our table asked if we could have some apple sauce. He went back into the kitchen and returned with it. Whilst he was getting the apple sauce we realised we had not been given a steak knife for the steak. As he put the sauce down, we asked for a steak knife the which he lent over our table, (both hands on each corner at the end of the table) lowered his body as if he were talking to a child and sarcastically asked "Do you want anything else?". Never in my life have I or any of my friends been spoken so in such a vile manner. We were all absolutely speechless and in shock. He seemed to disappear soon after this. We finished our mains, plates cleared and we asked for a dessert menu. A waitress now serving us who was very polite and friendly.took our dessert order. Another long wait and a female (possibly a manager) asked us if we were okay as she cleared our glasses. I replied saying "we are just waiting on desserts". She came back a few mins later and set our table for dessert. Dessert came and was polished off sharpish. Again the food was great.

2h and 45m later we all walked to the bar and split the bill before leaving.

Overall the service was not great. Non of our food was courtesy checked. We had to ask for almost everything instead of being offered. Fair enough the younger staff just seemed a little inexperienced but the male managers behaviour was unacceptable.

We did not feel comfortable complaining at the time, but we will not be returning and will not recommend. All 5 of us are from the local area and were looking forwards to the visit. Very...

The hotel itself is lovely but my experience was less than ideal.

I always inform hotels when I book that I am a medically diagnosed Coeliac and require gluten free options for breakfast. I have had no problems with this request for many years as gluten-free products are now so readily available. On our first morning I mentioned that I would need my breakfast to be gluten-free and ordered the ‘Full Yorkshire’, when it arrived the only difference between mine and my husbands was that I didn’t have a Hash Brown on my plate. I was concerned that I had Black Pudding, it’s possible to get gluten-free black pudding but this didn’t look like the ones I had had so I asked the server to check for me. Whilst she went to the kitchen to check I ate part of one of the sausages on my plate, I immediately knew there was something not right though as the texture was too dense. When she returned with the list of ingredients for the Black Pudding I said it wasn’t suitable as it contained Barley and requested she checked the sausages. I wasn’t surprised these weren’t gluten-free either but was very upset that I had eaten some. We had to change our plans for the day (which was my birthday) as I was really concerned I would become ill and need to be close to a bathroom, it absolutely ruined my day. I fully expected that they would have gone out of their way to ensure they had gluten-free sausages for the next morning but they didn’t, nor did they on our last morning. I left feeling very upset that I hadn’t been looked after very well at all, I was cross to see that they had Vegan sausages on the menu but not gluten-free, my diet is not a choice it’s a requirement to keep me healthy. For the sake of popping out and getting a packet of GF sausages my birthday and my holiday was ruined. We will not be returning even though we liked the room, the ambiance of the hotel and the area. I feel very let down.

In response to the owners comment...My condition is not an allergy, it's an autoimmune condition that means my body can't tolerate gluten and reacts by damaging my internal organs. I appreciate that there were other gluten-free options on the menu and indeed made full use of this when we ate dinner on two of the three nights we stayed. Given that I was staying for 3 nights and you make a VERY big deal about how fabulous your breakfasts are a bit more effort to accommodate my needs would have been appreciated rather than just saying I could have picked alternatives. Once I told your staff my dietary needs it becomes your responsibility to ensure that food served to me is suitable if you don't then your are liable for criminal offences and potential...