Crafty St Martin's — Restaurant in England

We came here for a Valentine’s Day meal, with my last time at this restaurant being at least 8 years ago… and I won’t be leaving it so long before I return again!

Service was quick, kind and polite. The staff kept an eye but the atmosphere was relaxed and quietly confident. Speaking of the setting, it’s February. It’s COLD outside, but the restaurant was a perfect warmth (some places ram the heating up when the weather is poor, but at Crafty, they noticeably nailed it) - good job, well done. We were sat near the kitchen and it was nice to see that everything was under control, and calm, so the noise didn’t filter out into the restaurant.

For starters we ordered the mac and cheese bites and a Caesar salad (not on the starter menu, but they were more than happy to oblige). The mac and cheese bites were eating temperature, but still crispy, and the bbq sauce complimented but didn’t overpower. The salad was excellent - crunchy, crispy, fresh with a creamy Caesar dressing.

We ordered the Krispy Klucker and the Crafty Cheese. We appreciated that we were asked whether we wanted our beef cooking pink or well done, as well done is how we prefer ours and not all places do it like that. However it was still very juicy and flavourful. Seasoning was on point. The chicken burger was also cooked so it has a crispy coating but the chicken wasn’t dry.

We had one portion of the standard chips and one of the Jammy Fries. Both were without fault. Loaded fries are often just chips topped with something, but these had the flavouring throughout the portion. I don’t know how they make the bacon onion jam, but it was delicious.

All in all, a 10/10 experience, with a price tag that makes it good value. We will...

Dissapointed to the point where I had to walk out. Despite coming to St Martin's for Coffee nearly daily I had the worst experience coming for a burger. After making a booking for 6pm I was told my name was not on the list but that I could be given a table for one hour instead (as though the lady was doing me a favour). Once we sat down we realised that we didn't want to rush, and if we couldnt stay for the 1.5 hours we were promised when booking then there is no point. We asked if they could check the system again for our booking (instead of the paper print out) and we were made out to feel as though we lied about out booking. To add to this we also got told that that 'bookings are for one hour anyway' when the member of staff (who was actually the manager) knew she was lying. I'd rather not give my money to a restaurant that tells customers they are lying and then lies themselves about bookings. She also had the cheek to laugh and smile about it - despite seeing how upset I was as a customer. Not sure what the arrangement is between St Martin's Café and whoever runs Crafty Burger, I'm assuming they rent them the space given all of the staff are different in the evening. I'm sure the food is great, shame that the manageress has no customer service skills, uses sarcasm with customers and thinks she can lie plainly to their faces. (the table waiter Jake seemed to be trying his best, no issue with him). Needs a new manager, someone who is less arrogant and has...

Awesome burgers, nice place, a bit pricey and always busy. Book your table in advance! My recommendation: "El Gordo" burger without beef, just pulled pork.

TLDR; These burgers are surely the best I've tried in Leicester, it's totally worth trying them. They serve them in two sizes, regular and XL. For a normal person I would recomend to stick with the regular size because the XL is hard to grab with your hands and eating burgers with cutlery makes no sense for me.

Why didn't I give a higher rating? 1st. The price. 2nd. Personal experience: I ordered the meat barely cooked, almost raw, and it was clearly too cooked. They kindly offered to prepare other one, but being with more people I would have felt uncofortable eating alone after the rest had already finished, so I declined the offer. If they ask how you want your meat cooked, they should pay attention. 3rd. Again, personal experience: we booked a table for two and when we got there they didn't have a table for us because they couldn't see the reservation. We showed them the confirmation email they automatically send after you make your booking, they placed us in an improvised table where according to them they usually don't sit clients, between the entrance and the toilets, no wonder why they try to avoid it.

I need to say that the staff were really nice to us. Maybe we were just a bit unlucky. After all, I would still go and...