Myrtle Tavern — Restaurant in Leeds

Where do I begin.

I hate bad reviews and much prefer to leave nice reviews, however on this occasion it’s a bad review for the most part.

On arrival we joined the queue which was at the bar as there is no separate area to tell them you have a reservation so we waited a while before feeling fed up and asking a passing waitress. She was lovely and booked us in, asked our preferences and sat us down.

Then we ordered food which some of it seemed a little pricey however I said “probably decent for the price and fresh” wow was I wrong.

Calamari was dry and rubbery (frozen or microwaved is my guess)

Fish a chips wasn’t too bad but the fish was extremely greasy (dripping/swimming)

The child’s pasta in tomato and basil sauce for £5.50 (usually a kids meal cost includes a pudding but not here that’s an extra £3) pasta looked like Passata sauce or Aldi own brand smooth pasta sauce and no basil in sight (make my own for less than £1)

The 5 bean chilli and basmati rice was bland not spicy and the rice was dry and crispy. To get rice soft on the inside and rock hard crispy on the outside it’s been sat under a heat lamp a while. No taste and a huge disappointment.

So when the waitress asked my opinion I was honest. I told her that her service was lovely but the food was below par and not worth the prices.

OK then I went to go pay, stood in queue again which wasn’t a problem until the owner announced that anyone in the queue could be waiting 15mins or more as those ordering on the app got priority! So I said what about paying for food or do I just leave. He said he would sort that separately and went to find the waitress, as he returned I had questioned the bar staff how it was fair that an app took priority over others and suggested they tell their patrons this on arrival so save the bar queue. He said quite rudely I will add “do you h e a problem” I was in the middle of saying no I don’t have a problem just don’t think it’s fair when he abruptly and nasty interrupted me “clearly you do, you have her grief already, forget ya bill just leave” when I tried to say I don’t have a problem I was just being honest he put his hand up and said forget your bill and just go! I was in shock! Rather than say “sorry your food wasn’t very good and ask what the issues were (normally as a business owner I would want to fix issues and improve the service) he turned his back and walked away!

Out to the play area we went, I promised my autistic daughter that she could play after her meal and that means something weather he liked it or not. Outside is a nice little climbing frame with 2 swings, 2 slides, and some other little fun bits on it. While there the waitress returned our little girls teddy to us and I assured her I thought her service was wonderful and I hope her rude, arrogant, clueless boss doesn’t speak to her how he spoke to me AND he should be very happy my husband didn’t come to the till with me cause it would have been a whole commotion with how nasty and vile he was.

He doesn’t deserve customers and unfortunately he has no idea how to make his business successful for the right reasons. Gordon Ramsey would have a field day with that idiot and probably a field day In...

We have eaten at this pub a few times now and always really enjoyed the food. More recently we were kindly invited to try out some of the gorgeous new menu (August 2023) a we thoroughly enjoyed every bite. So much so they wondered if they even needed to clean our plates 😅🤩

We enjoyed;

Sharing Plates of Paneer Kebab (Roasted paneer and mushroom kebab drizzled with a yoghurt & coriander coulis) & Sea Bream (Pan roasted sea bream, with stir fried vegetables in a soy & ginger broth). Both REALLY tasty. The paneer was marinated in Indian spices and the coulis went really well with it – I always love good chunks of paneer! The Sea Bream skin was crispy and the fish cooked beautifully and the broth that the vegetables came in was delicious. Sausage & Mash. Quality meaty sausages and lots of creamy mash and thick onion gravy – beautiful. Chicken Schnitzel (served with fries and salad). I am still dreaming about this fabulous MASSIVE schnitzel. The breadcrumb coating was so buttery and delicious – you have to try this, it’s superb. Triple Choc Brownie with Vanilla ice cream – sooooo dreamy and so good. See how happy my faec is below haha.

The menu includes; mains such as Fish & Chips, Burgers, Carbonara (which looked a popular choice and I would like to try this next time)etc ranging in price from £11.50 – £16.50, Sharing Plates such as Chorizo, Padron Peppers, Prawns etc priced between £4 – £7.50 and Desserts such as Cheesecake, Sticky Toffee Pudding etc priced from £4.95 – £6.50… and don’t forget they do Sunday Dinners too… (keep reading!)

If you’re coming here for Sunday dinner I would advise to book (and be aware the car park is a little tight) as the pub seemed a very popular place indeed and all for good reason.

Four of us went for Sunday dinner and we all went for the roast lamb! The lamb didn’t occur a surcharge which was great to see as a lot of other pubs/restaurants would charge more for lamb if they even have it on the menu at all, so we were really pleased about this. Other meats on the Sunday Roast Menu were beef or pork loin (you can get all three meats for an extra £2) and they also have a vegetarian Nut Roast option (£14.95). All meals are served with garlic & rosemary roast potatoes, creamed leeks, stuffing, roasted caramelised carrots, savoy cabbage, Yorkshire pudding and stock pot gravy – all for £15.95 / £8.95 kids.

There was absolutely nothing to fault with these Sunday Roasts. I loved how much veg there was (picture taken in 2022 so veg options may have changed). Everything was tasty, comforting, cooked really well and went down a treat with everybody.

I would definitely recommend visiting for a meal here. The staff were really friendly and helpful as well as the food...

It was busy busy busy today and it caught a few people out. There were enough staff, enough beer but sometimes businesses can be overwhelmed by the speed with which demand on the bar can happen which is manageable but in waves it can occasionally lead to delays. Today was nothing short of festival level traffic and to have 3 parties in, live band, food offering not to mention personalised service with drinks being delivered it was challenging at times.

With this in mind our group were ordering drinks on the app , and ordering the next round as soon as the drinks arrived from the first order: This ensured we were never kept hanging around waiting for drinks and clogging up the bar in the queue . It was somewhat a surprise to me given the level of trade that many people had not worked this out. That said the staff were buzzing around serving drinks and food all day under the red hot sun and to be honest pulling it off in the most part. Some folks were a bit ticked off at the wait but being in the best beer garden in the best pub in Leeds what were people expecting?

The poorly organised were dissadvantaged today by not reading the room, not knowing what the orders were until they got to the bar, and asking people in the group what they wanted when they were in the hot seat . A real lesson for the future this is the busiest pub in Leeds with a plethora of staff and professionalism but getting sporadic orders in a ham fisted way is always going to slow service down so get organised and know what you want in advance of getting to the bar.

In other news we had the Goulash the portions were plentiful and the goulash was as authentic as you would expect as the chef is Hungarian and the food was where it needed to be. Soft bread accompanied the meal making it wonderful and there was no queue for this.

In all the band was great, the food was epic and the service was brilliant once we worked out that ordering in advance was...