Lezzet Mediterranean bistro — Restaurant in England

Myself and partner had a table booked at 2:30pm, we booked this on Monday afternoon. We arrived five minutes early, our table wasn't ready, we were quite happy to wait outside. We were then called in at 2:30, and seated on a table for four, there were just two other tables occupied in the restaurant when we walked in, and the far right of the restaurant was empty the whole time we were in there. We ordered our meals, deciding not to have starters. We also ordered a bottle of wine, I would say, that took about ten minutes. We sat and waited for our wine to arrive, it didn't, and 20 minutes later I asked a member of staff where it was. Finally we got a drink, along with a jug of water. Just after getting our wine the mains arrived, in total I'd say we'd been in there 35 minutes now. We finished our mains, plates were cleared and we were asked if we'd like dessert, we ordered and within seconds of the staff member placing our order he came back over to us, he said...I don't want to rush you, but, you have 20 minutes left of your allocated time, my first reply was, we had sat here for 20 minutes waiting for a drink. He went on to say, each table is given 90 minutes, my partner said, well, our table was booked for 2:30pm, that's what time we were seated, when he approached us, the time was 3:25, we had been in the restaurant for 55 minutes, so, according to their 90 minute per table policy, we had 35 minutes left. We were then told, it was because the table before us had over run, how could this be? Why didn't they tell that table, about their 90 minute policy? Instead they chose to spoil our meal. All of this, and we hadn't even got our desserts yet. Desserts came, we actually didn't feel like eating them. The same member of staff came back and said, don't rush, we have done some jiggling around. I pointed out, that we weren't going to rush anyway, and told him to leave us to get on with our meal, after all, this was eating into our allocated time. Dessert plates were cleared and we were then told...this is what we tell all our walk ins. This man, was the person that actually took our booking on the Monday afternoon, he was also the man, that went to check we had a booking when we arrived. He then pointed out that they have done some jiggling around, I replied, realistically, that jiggling should have been done, before we were approached, that would have been the professional way to deal with a situation that was no fault of ours. Absolutely disgusting way to treat customers, totally unacceptable, unprofessional, and show's lack of organisational skills, and...

EDIT: Please see below for the original review - On our return visit a couple of days later, there was no outside seating so the staff were far less busy and were able to give the kind of service we had last year - this was a much more pleasant experience and the food was back to the high quality we expected (we did go back to the food we knew tasted delicious rather than risk trying something new again). Overall we'd recommend Lezzet's and say our 2nd visit was an aberration but would warn against going when it is full inside and out as the staff will be very, very stretched.

Our 2nd visit, we had been looking forward to this for nearly a year. The restaurant had been very good booking us in after lockdown lifted but when we arrived, it was not a good visit.

It took us 25 minutes to be allowed to order drinks and when we tried to order food at the same time we were told a different lady had to take the order. After another 10 minutes we still hadn't had anyone arrive (nor our drinks) and when we tried to get the waiter's attention by talking to him or eventually waving the menu in the air in front of the staff stood at the bar, we were ignored.

After 40 minutes we finally got to order from the same lady who took our drinks order and the food was not as good as last time (that's partially on us as we tried different things but the sac kavurma was particularly bland). Finally after desert (a nice baklava) they brought us the wrong bill and the table who were waiting for us to leave had to wait a bit longer (outside where they had cleared away the tables and chairs) as we couldn't get anyone's attention to give them money. It took us nearly 2 hours from start to finish well over half of which was waiting to order/for our food to arrive.

We have another table booked for Monday so I may edit this then if the poor service...

It is unfortunate that I have to leave this review. I came to this place on Sunday. Waited outside. Girl waited ignored me completely, as if I was not standing there, for about 10 minutes. Then I walked in, asked someone if I can have a seat outside (first come first served). Was told YES, go, we will bring you the menu. Went, sat. Another 15 minutes, menu came. By now, a family sitting at next table started complaining. The elderly lady even went to that ignorant girl, and said - it has been 40 minutes, can you at least bring beers that we ordered?.... So, after menu, I waited another 15 minutes. Since no one approached, and the girl waitress in glasses continued successfully ignoring everyone sitting, and just walking in and out without any purpose, I WALKED OUT. Instead, I walked to ASKIM restaurant, another Turkish food place right around the corner. I was seated there promptly, drinks and food came on a timely manner also. If you look at TripAdvisor, Askim hotel is ranked higher than this dump. Why? It is now very clear to me - much friendlier service, better food. Too bad... LEZZET means enjoyment from Turkish. Well, there was NOTHING enjoyable in this encounter. Will NOT return. However, since Sunday I have already eaten at...