Hawthorne Farm - Dining & Carvery — Restaurant in Leeds

“Is that supposed to be a veggie sausage?”

I’ll attempt to balance my criticism of the ‘Breakfast with Santa’ event with some (in some aspects) deserved praise. It was very clear that for many of the attendees, the event was enjoyable, their customer service experience exemplary and their food of a good standard. However, when a server visits your table, takes a look at what another server has left a customer with (picture provided), I can only conclude that our own experience was that the customer service lacked empathy and was downright insulting and the food of a very poor standard. It is no longer the 1990s and vegetarians should not be treated like lepers with the fare offered.

On ordering breakfast, we were told that vegetarian sausages would be brought to the table for my partner and I. On bringing the one cremated item out for us to share, we were told that “…there are only two left” and we were the ‘lucky’ recipients of just one.

You just wouldn’t bother would you. You’d apologise, say that the menu that states ‘We’ve got veggie sausages too of course’ was wrong and see if there was anything else you could do to serve the paying customer. You wouldn’t leave it for your colleague to come over and apologise for and-read this bit slowly-two adults being served with one vegetarian sausage-let alone one that looked like this.

Quite apart from charging them us for a nine month old eating a child’s breakfast when he quite obviously didn’t eat anything (“He’s only got two teeth!”) with the vague reasoning that “It’s an event” was also very disappointing when the event concerned was a thirty second photograph with Santa. In fairness, we were offered a discount for this; though 10% put me in mind of Scrooge dismissing the two Portly Gentlemen. £8.99 for a nine month to have a photo. “Well, you’re getting some money off aren’t you?” we were patronisingly told. Bah humbug indeed.

We referenced the incinerated item (decided it’s unfair to call it what it was marketed as) on paying and were asked ‘Well did you tell a server?” When we said we were told yes we had-this was one of only two items available for two adults to share-the response of “Well I’ll have a word with them” failed to offer any repentance. Who is ‘them?’ The wholesaler? The chef? The server? 90s DJ Mike McLean? The Harlem Globetrotters? We’ll never know, though I’m not sure it excuses what we were offered with no hint of an apology.

As I said, for many people I’m sure this was wonderful. For us, this was a a real disappointment.

"A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty fifth of December!" said Scrooge, buttoning his great coat to the chin. Now Charles Dickens most likely wasn’t talking about the Breakfast With Santa event 182 years into the future. But he was definitely...

Unfortunately I've now had to change my original positive review, due to my latest visit. I visited with friends and as we were too late for breakfast and too early for the carvery. We opted for the main menu instead, this proved to be a mistake. Firstly 3 of the orders came out incorrectly, as corn on the cob had been given instead of coleslaw. Not a big issue at all, but the older waitress had a very abrupt and rude attitude when we mentioned it to her. It was corrected by a more senior looking lady who was very apologetic. The waitress simply nodded in the direction of the gentleman behind the bar and said "it was him that messed up" ! (Fair enough luv) I had the mac and cheese which was adequate, but didn't seem as nice as when I had ordered it here a couple weeks ago. It appeared very watery and didn't seem as cheesy (for want of a better word). My friends had ordered a chicken combo and unfortunately the chicken wings they received were very undercooked and greasy, like they hadn't been defrosted properly. The all day breakfast was really good, so that was a win at least. We did mention about the chicken to the young lass and she apologised and offered us a cakeaway as compensation, but we said thanks but no thanks. It may have just been a bad day in the kitchen, but I've been coming here for many years now, so I can see how standards have slipped. There wasn't very many staff around, so the bar became very busy at times. Overall I would recommend that you just stick to the carvery and deserts, rather than the main menu (especially the chicken wings). I would strongly recommend that the pub also get some parasols for outside, as when we asked for one, they said that they hadn't got any, even though the tables are equipped...

I have visited Hawthorn Farm on many occasions in the past without any issues and normally the food is great. I'm not sure what was going on with them on Friday but I've been stewing over leaving this review for days since.

When we sat down and chose what we wanted to eat, I went to the bar and placed the order. Our party selected 2 standard carveries and a gammon and eggs. We were told it could take 20 - 30 mins for the gammon and eggs.

Whilst we sat chatting we realised that there was no cutlery and the table was sticky. There was absolutely no staff around to ask about it and the bar staff were dealing with a queue of people placing their orders. We ended up going to the end of the bar, grabbing the cleaning spray and cloth and did our own table - we also had to cobble together some knives and forks from other tables holders.

Those having the carveries went and queued and brought their meals back to the table.

It took a good 40 mins for my "gammon" and eggs to arrive. The gammon was not actually gammon (it was pork steaks) and the eggs appeared to have spent quite some time under the heat lamp as they were solid and rubbery. I poked at them with the fork whilst pondering if I should send it back.

Were it not for the fact that it had taken so long for them to arrive, the fact that the rest of the party had already eaten, and the fact that I was famished and couldn't wait again - I would have sent them back.

Hawthorn Farm - this was so far from the normal experience - what on earth is going on? Please get your house in order! As it stands we are very...