The Lansdown — Restaurant in Cheltenham

We popped in shortly before Christmas 2024. The main reason was to watch the football as the pub has plenty of screens and we've watched the rugby and football here before, plus the atmosphere isn't too bad.

The main bar area was pretty full and there were no free tables. As we wanted to eat that meant that we couldn't sit there, so we moved through to the area at the side, a good sized area with 12 other people who were, like us, waiting for the game to start.

So we took a table in this area and ordered our food at the bar. It then became apparent that another game was being shown in this area, so we asked 10 of the other twelve people which game they wanted to watch, so as not to be rude; no one wanted the game that was being shown, so we went and asked at the bar if the channel could be changed. Initially we were told yes, so everyone was happy. To clarify the remaining two people were having a meal and weren't interested in watching the game, so job done. Everyone was happy.

After ten minutes the channel hadn't been changed so we went and asked again, this time the guy said no, as he knew that there was someone who wanted to watch the game that was on (one person, four screens?????) - well this wasn't the case, as we'd spoken to everyone!

The barman made it clear that he wasn't changing the channel. So all twelve of us left this area of the pub and stood in the bar area, or at least we did until our food arrived some twenty or so minutes later.

When we sat down and ate our food there was now only one other person in the area which we'd all vacated, a lady who had been stood at the bar talking to the barman who'd told us that he wouldn't change the channel?!?! Umm.

So that wasn't great. Like us the other twelve customers weren't impressed at all.

Anyway, now to our food. I had the Christmas Turkey dinner, it was OK at best. The roast potatoes weren't great at all, they were really dry and barely roasted. The carrots were 'mushy', and the sprouts weren't too far behind plus the turkey was dry and the sausage, in the pigs-in-blanket wasnt well cooked. For what it was £15.95 was a lot of money.

My son had the festive Christmas burger with a portion of fries and a solitary onion ring! One of the saddest things you'll see this Christmas, sat on the plate, all alone, like it had been taken away from the rest of its family 🥲. The burger wasn't very tasty, it wasn't well seasoned at all, not very tasty or flavoursome and the sauce, which was cranberry, didn't add to the experience.

So our experience, including the meal, at The Lansdown wasn't great. We certainly won't be rushing back any day soon.

The decor and furnishings are also tired, there were big chunks of plaster missing in the corridor that leads to the toilets. The bar does offer a good range of beers, including low alcohol and alcohol free beers, lagers and ciders.

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Went on Saturday lunchtime, of the bank holiday weekend having prebooked for a table of four adults and two children. The dining area is full of TV screens playing football so potentially a poor choice of venue to start with.

After being seated, we were not advised that there was no table service and only realised this when we made our way to the bar to order drinks. We then chose our food and went to the bar to order, only to find out they had run out of most of the menu items, including Fish and Chips, BBQ Chicken, Steak and Ale Pie and several of the sharing plates. Given that it was only the Saturday lunchtime of a bank holiday weekend, this was very poor and was made far worse by the fact they didn't advise us of this when we were seated so we had to scramble to figure out what we could order from what they had left.

Once ordered, the food took over 45 minutes to arrive, during which time the toddler in our group had become very restless and upset and had to be calmed down with snacks, meaning they didn't manage to eat much of their meal.

The food was not great quality and several of the dishes were cold. The staff came across as very apathetic and unwilling to do much to rectify the situation.

We were planning on holding an event in their function room but may have to have a rethink...

I've had a few meals here, which have been nice, unfortunately though, I've had a bad one and it was so bad, that I've been put off of returning. I ordered a roast, not long after they started to serve at lunch time, I was told that I was the first Sunday lunch order of the day, so I expected the best dinner to come, as anyone would, freshly cooked. I was wrong, what I served was something that I wouldn't even serve a dog! The meat was fatty, sinewy and had visible arteries! It was also cold. The broccoli was hard, I could hardly cut it let alone chew it, the carrots and peas were cold and obviously from a tin, the potatoes were saturated in oil ans clearly been over deep fat fried and as ypi can see from the images the gravy was thin and oily! The whole meal was inedible and with a price of £13! It wasn't even worth £5. Really disappointed, how anyone could think that it's acceptable to serve someone this is beyond me, especially as the pub raves about their 'delicious roast dinners' When we complained I was offered anpther meal, which I turned down, understandably, my partner had nearly finished theirs, which they had no issue with but only had a sandwich. I was offered a full refund which I took and got an apology but I won't be eating...