The Old Forge Lelant — Restaurant in England

Went here on a Friday night. We arrive at 7.20, we were greeted and welcomed to our table for two but then left for 30 minutes before we had to ask to order. The staff then took our drinks order and when our drinks arrived the staff member just walked off. We presumed they would come back as we still had food menus on our table... And we'd asked to order: but no one did. Another half an hour later, we said we needed to order our food as we'd been waiting an hour. The staff member took our order and avoided discussion (or an apology) with us and that was that. By this stage we were feeling underwhelmed and frustrated by the experience.

The food finally arrived a further twenty minutes later - although the dough ball starter arrived just after the pizza. The food was mostly good (particularly the cheese dough balls) - the four cheese pizza was a bit impoverished from a cheese perspective. The menu could do with better labelling of what is vegetarian/vegan - although the kitchen were able to answer these questions, it would be a simple adjustment to reassure diners with common dietary requirements.

At the end no one asked how we found everything but we were wished fairwell.

Overall - slow service: yes the restaurant was probably full but this would be typical at the weekend and not unexpected for the team there. Several tables arrived after us and received their food a long time before us. One particular table of 5 people were there when we arrived, had ordered during our arrival and a 6th person joined them 30 minutes into our sitting and ordered straight away, receiving their flood within minutes. This was pointed out to the staff and met with a surley response to suggest she didn't see a problem with it (and failing to acknowledge we had been waiting 1 hour mark without being asked to order at all). This did put my hackles up a bit as no apology or goodwill gesture was offered to make amends.

The food here is good. The service lacks compassion and warmth. I'd like to go back here for the cheese dough balls alone but feel put off by the experience.

Perhaps we were...

Wanted to go out for a birthday meal very last minute and saw The Old Forge. Checked online had only 2 tables free for lunch which was a treat decided to book and pop in for a spot of lunch. On arrival was greeted by happy young lady who showed to our table with no fuss. There was a go buzz in the restaurant which is also good to see but it wasn't to loud or off putting. The waitress came with the menus and gave us time before returning to take our drinks order. Once the drinks had come we were able to give our order to the waitress but it was a tough choice as all the dishes sounded incredible. I went for the chicken burger and my wife had the carbonara. Both meals arrived after not a long wait which I would expect from somewhere cooking fresh. Both meals were amazing and at very good price. Have booked again for next weekend to try the breakfast out but from first time there would recommend to all. One thing to consider is the parking it is limited but some off road parking back down the road or on road opposite...

We came across The Old Forge Lelant whilst looking for places to have lunch. We liked it so much that we returned a few days later for our last dinner in Cornwall. The food was delicious and we loved the Italian-Cornwall inspired menu. We had a selection of Dough balls, Padron peppers, Crab linguine, pizzas, Carbonara, Moules Marinere, chicken skewer - these were all great dishes, fresh, full of flavours and reasonably priced. Service was great, friendly, professional, approachable staff from greeting to settling the bill. The only let down for us was a Tiramisu - what happened to a traditional version? Sticky toffee and rice puddings were sublime! Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed both of our visits to The Old Forge and would definitely come back if ever in the area. Reservation is a must as it gets fully booked up pretty quickly. Thank you to the team that evening for...