Bristol Lido — Restaurant in Bristol

In July, we booked a September couple's massage, swim and use of sauna/steam room/hot tub package. We were reticent after poor back-to-back experiences in the preceding year (once, our entire package was cancelled as they decided to renovate after we booked, and the second time it was cancelled with 24 hours notice due to illness).

The latter bad experience was compounded by how hard it was to get our money back. Even though it was cancelled due to their staff shortage, at that time we received an email saying that the Lido were "sorry we had cancelled". The promised refund didn't arrive within the promised 5 working days, and I ended up spending two weeks chasing by phone for a refund, eventually receiving it when I called to say I was escalating it to my credit card company.

Nevertheless, we thought we'd have one last attempt with a September booking.

24 hours before our booking, an email drifted in saying some of the facilities would be closed for repair which in itself was poor and continued the pattern, but we figured we'd go ahead with whatever remaining parts would be open and the massages.

On the morning, we turned up and were given robes and towels and told to make use of the facilities, making sure we were in the treatment room by 09:35 for our 09:45 massages.

On time, we were sat in a very chilly waiting room in our robes ready for our treatments when someone from reception turned up to say that they could not go ahead with our treatments because a staff member had called in sick. Bear in mind that at this point it's 09:40, just 5 mins before our treatment time, and the third aborted attempt at using the facilities.

Having gotten nice and cold in the waiting room, we duly got changed and headed back to reception. On asking for a refund, I was again sent an email instantly expressing the Lido were sorry I had changed my plans, which is factually incorrect. Meanwhile, while one person at reception is looking at processing my cancellation, I get to hear the other receptionist talking to a masseuse who was clearly doing the other half of the couple's massage saying that I had cancelled the treatment. Again, factually incorrect and ignoring the fact they cancelled a couple's treatment with under 5 mins notice by the Lido.

I explained that this wasn't the first time our visit had been cancelled, albeit this was a new low to wait until we're in robes in a freezing waiting room before telling us, and the email I had just received saying they were "sorry you have changed your plans" was factually incorrect when combined with their 24 hour cancellation policy to get a refund. I explained that last time this happened I spent weeks calling trying to get the promised refund to no avail until our credit card company was involved, and I wasn't comfortable leaving without the refund in writing given the erroneous email saying I had cancelled the booking with under 24 hours notice.

This resulted in a short two sentence email being sent to say I would receive an email in 2 - 5 days. Who knows if this time I will? History would suggest I'll be back chasing them again through October trying to get it!

I get that illnesses and issues crop up, but it seems absurd now that three times in a row our visit has been cancelled. Either we're playing with extremely long unlucky odds at such repeated poor service, or we're a representative sample of how many appointments are wasted and don't go ahead. Today's was particularly insulting, having let us waste our time and effort heading in, getting cold and sitting in the waiting room to then cancel.

Maybe the management team will just chalk us up to be statistically anomalies and claim each cancellation was an independently unfortunate event, but I'd caution other potential customers that we've had three such poor experiences and it seems beyond unlikely that we're the only patrons that do.

In the meantime, I'll hold my trust that - this time at least - the refund will come through, and if not I'll again be having to use my credit card company to...

So i was really looking forward to celebrating my partners 70th birthday at the Lido. there were definite pluses to our meal but quite a few missteps mostly in the service department . Our allotted table for some reason was not over looking the pool we asked to be switched which seemed to have a negative nock on affect to most of the rest of the service .The waitress tentatively approached the table 3 times with what seemed some confusion, i finally had to ask for menus( apology number 1) , we ordered bread for the table and some anchovies which turned out to be tinned anchovies in olive oil , not something i would of thought a restaurant of this calibre would use, not even 4 very small fillets on the plate and at 6.50 a bit out there price wise as you can pic up a tin at Aldis anchovies for around the same price or cheaper ( and yes i understand the cost of getting that meal to my table i was a Chef in another life )We had scallops and lambs sweetbreads both were amazing and served at a good pace , our main courses took around 45 mins to arrive and im not sure i got what i ordered it was supposed to be venison but looked more like a piece of steak while very tasty other patrons similar dishes looked somewhat different , we were told the reason for the delay was that the mains had been taken to the wrong table rejected by that table and then forgotten, Again something that i would not have thought a Mich one star restaurant would get wrong ,apology number 2 with the maitr "d taking off a portion of the bill i think a couple of non alcoholic drinks. On to the desert, again in comparison to other patrons our one piece of cheese cake took quite a bit of time to arrive, ( no apology this time ) at this time several tables who had come in after us who'd had the same number of courses had left with what seemed perfectly good service so im at quite a loss as to why our time there had this glaring lack of service. The restaurant this particular day wasn't that busy . Would i go there again ? Yes just to see if indeed it was a one off tainted experience, the food was...

I have wanted to visit here for soooo long! Finally got the perfect excuse and brought my best friend for her birthday. We were greeted at reception and given a quick tour of the facilities. We were given a robe and a towel each and we changed into these before going up to the massage waiting room. We were collected by our massage therapists and taken into our own private rooms for the massage. The treatment was lovely and the hour passed by way too quickly! We then were taken to a relaxation are and made a cup of tea which was lovely after the massage.

I would like to offer a pro tip at this point, there was an autumnal nip in the air and we hadn't remembered to take flipflops but the floor was super chilly on the toes! If you feel the cold like I do, remember your sandals or flipflops!

After we had booked time to use the pool and facilities. We had the best time popping between the sauna, pool, hot tub, and steam room. It was never too busy in any of the areas and they were all clean. We were incredibly fortunate with the weather and it literally felt like we had gone on holiday for the day!

We hadn't booked in for lunch but the smells coming from the kitchen were making us both hungry so we asked if they took walk ins at the spa reception and the lady said yes. We popped through a little door and were in the restaurant and were seated at a lovely table in 10 mins. Our waitress was lovely and we ordered some of the small plates and some lovely refreshing drinks. The food came out relatively quickly considering how busy it was (it was peak lunch time 1.30pm) and was well presented and oh so delicious! I don't often eat out so to me the food was amazing! The tapas style food we picked was so flavourful and the perfect amount for sharing. We were recommended a delicious pudding and enjoyed every mouthful!

My friend and I have been on a few different spa days together around Bristol and this by far took the number 1 spot! Thank you to all who made our treat day so wonderful! We...