Lamb And Flag — Restaurant in Leeds

I’ve been a fond user of this pub since I moved to Leeds almost four years ago but tonight was enough for me to never go back again.

I sat down tonight with a friend of mine from the Netherlands, keen to show them some of my local watering holes as they have never been to Leeds before. We ordered two drinks and sat down at a table upstairs, some of the other tables upstairs were reserved so we used one of the tables near the stairs that did not have a reserved sign on it.

Around 30 minutes into our drinks, one of the bar staff came over to our table and told us that we “need to leave.” I was a bit taken aback at her request for us to leave as I interpreted it initially that we needed to leave the venue. I asked her why we needed to leave and she said she needed the table as it had been reserved. I was a bit taken aback as she had initially said that we needed to leave, without any request that we first move to another table.

The tables downstairs were full so it seemed a bit unfair that we needed to give up our table, although I do understand that in the Christmas period things get busy and sometimes reservation tickets for tables are sparse. We agreed to leave the premises entirely and try another local pub, which we communicated to her as we were almost finished with our drinks anyway. She scowled and looked at us as though we were stupid and she said she needed the table for a party coming in at 16:15. There was no reservation ticket on the table (as there had been on the other tables) but we agreed to move once we had drank our almost finished drinks. Without even a thank you she scowled at us again and stormed off with a loud sigh.

She walked past our table a number of times, staring at us and making us feel uncomfortable. She then walked over to the table and slapped a “RESERVED AT 16:15pm” plaque down on the table as we were finishing our drinks. The time was around 16:20. My Dutch friend was quite taken aback at this and I was highly embarrassed as I had experienced such an attitude from the bar lady, and I was trying to show my friend some fantastic Leeds bars.

We finished our drinks and my friend headed to the toilet, where I was getting our things ready to leave. She then stormed back over and snatched the reservation ticket from our table and rudely said “you can keep the table.” Before I could even explain we were leaving she had stormed off.

I worked in a bar as a manager for four years until 2019 and can completely understand the stress of the Christmas period and running a bar under such conditions. The bar lady was incredibly rude to me and my friend who had already agreed to leave our table and there was no need at all for her attitude and passive aggressive behaviour. It made both me and my friend (a first-time visitor to Leeds) feel quite uncomfortable. Had there been a ticket on the table we would not have sat there. Even after she had come over and asked us to move tables we had already agreed to leave. What she gave us was unnecessary attitude and not even a “thank you”, given we had agreed to move.

I imagine a lot of reviews (as I have been a bar manager myself) will be scoffed at as I know how rude the general public can be, but this was unnecessary rudeness from the bar lady and I was quite taken...

This was by a longshot the worst wedding meal I have ever had, anywhere. I cannot rate the food in the main bar below, but what we were served as a BBQ style buffet meal, was just nothing short of shockingly bad and abysmally disorganized. We first got a starter plate of cold seafood (A4 sized) to a table of 10 people, which looked nice, but was hopelessly too small and I barely got a taste of it. Next, there were apparently platters with burgers coming in, though I only heard of them sometime later, as they never ever made it back to our table. I am sure they were no better than the ONE sausage roll that I got next, which was on plain bread, nothing else. The “meal” finished with some chicken kebabs … that was it!!! There was no sign of any salads, condiments, veg or even chips for crying out loud! Any street food outlet would serve up better fare. After some time, a single bowl of spicy coleslaw appeared from somewhere, which would have been nice to have before. I was joking if the meal would finish with a tray of butter an hour later. Who on earth organized this in the pub? If you’re not able to handle a private function in the room upstairs, do not offer it. Me and the rest of many of the guests were left starving till we got to the wedding cake. The guest who handled the cutting and distribution said she had never seen wedding cake get eaten so fast, which is no wonder, as most of the 90ish guests were still famished. Some clearly ended up ordering food from below and eating it out on the balcony, so as not to embarrass the newlyweds, who we tried our best to shield from the debacle, not to ruin their day. A fair time later, I noticed two platters of cold chips on the bar counter. If they were subsequently ordered after the disaster of a “meal” or forgotten to be handed around is not clear to me. All in all, I had a meal of a sausage roll and chicken kebab, that was it! How was it that there was nobody coordinating the serving? I am just lost for words; it was so bad.

Please don’t bother apologizing for falling short of “your 5-star” standard. This was about as far away from 5 star as I can imagine. The occasion was ruined for me and we left as soon as we could without being rude to the newlyweds, as I needed to get something to eat at that late hour. There is no point in asking me to email you, as I can’t see how this can be made right. The whole day and trip were spoiled by the shocking service and meal, so I just want to warn others, before they even consider booking a function...

My husband and I recently attended a wedding celebration upstairs at the Lamb and Flag in Leeds. We were part of a group of between 80 and 90 guests. If I could give a rating of zero, I would do so. The starter comprised of a tiny platter of salmon and salad to be shared out to a table of 10 people, which was a morsel of food for each person. A basket of hot dogs arrived at the table and was passed around. There was one hot dog per person, but no condiments were served with it. Some baskets of burgers were passed around to the other tables, but none arrived at ours. I asked about a vegetarian option, and I was told that it would take about 10 mins which was fine. The meat eaters had finished their food by the time the veg burgers were served. This is an indication of how little food they had rather than a complaint about waiting a bit longer for my food. The veg burger was a lump of what looked like processed chicken in breadcrumbs or batter served in a bun. It was hard and clearly overcooked as I had difficulty cutting it. There was no salad, chips or anything else with it. I couldn’t eat it as I can only describe it as disgusting, and it didn’t look like it was vegetarian. Condiments and a very small bowl of coleslaw were served when everyone had finished eating. All of the group that I was with were still hungry. There were empty plates with other food remains which indicated that some of the guests had ordered food from downstairs. (Which they probably had to pay for out of their own pockets) People were eating extra portions of wedding cake to make up for the meagre food rations served by the pub. I ordered two glasses of wine from the bar and was astounded to be charged almost £20. To add to the atrocious quality and shortage of food, there seemed to be no manager or coordinator to check on the guests. My husband and I had travelled from abroad to attend this event as had most of the other guests. More than likely, I will never return to Leeds so definitely won’t be returning to this pub. However, it was a shameful way to treat the bride and groom who I’m sure had to pay a hefty bill and were...