Olive & Rye — Restaurant in Leeds

4th place my quest to try every English breakfast place that has been recommended to me in Leeds.

Price: £14.50 + £3.75

Service: Normally whenever I walk pass there's always a queue waiting to be seated, today I was able to get a seat immediately. So I cannot speak for their peak hours, but the food and drink arrived quickly right after I ordered. The staff were also friendly and polite.

Atmosphere: Music over the speakers and a gentle hustle and bustle of daily conversations going on in the background, easy to relax in. My only personal nitpick is the lighting.

Beans: To be honest, I think this will depend on whether you like the classic baked beans out of a can, or a trendy restaurant's version. It was nicely spiced, with a hint of smoke and a suggestion of heat, a bit too acidic for my taste, but I found myself wishing I was eating some good old beans on toast instead.

Hash: Incredibly crispy and thicker than what you normally get. A very agreeable hashbrow. Personally I like it slightly spiced, but there's nothing wrong with just seasoned and fried potato.

Pork belly: To replace the bacon and sausage is a feat and a title I don't think many can live up to. First things first, it was tender and juicy, melted in your mouth, but maybe a bit too much. Just a coat of fat across your entire mouth (well yes I am eating pork belly what did I expect), which overpowered all the other flavours I was hoping to taste on the crust. The skin was crispy, but ever so slightly tough to diminish the experience. Do I think it lives up to bacon and pork sausage? Not really but that bar is hard to cross. Good thing the tomato was huge so use that to cut through all the fat.

Toast: Finally a place that butters the bread!!! I've had unfortunate experiences before where what was once a delicious piece of sourdough was tough to chew and a battle to get through. This is not the case, the crust was crunchy and won't hurt your teeth and the bread was pillowy and soft.

Tomato: So when I saw the plate, I was slightly apprehensive. It was one half of what looked to be a watery, barely touched a pan, supermarket tomato, and it was bigger than average. My expectations were thankfully disproved and it was a juicy (as juicy as a out of seasoned tomato can get, and thankfully not as watery as I feared), well seasoned tomato (heavy on the pepper, which I greatly enjoy). However, I feel like if you're going to go the lengths to make the classic English breakfast fancy and posh, why not invest a bit more in the tomatoes? Using heritage tomatoes here would be nice, and wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb on the plate. A tomato that was more grilled and slightly charred would be nice, and one that was sliced thinner rather than just half a chunk of tomato on your plate. Granted, I am visiting when tomatoes are out of season so perhaps the experience will be different in the summer.

Mushroom: Nothing remarkable, I don't think it's hard to screw up a mushroom. Well seasoned and cooked in butter (:]).

Black pudding: I confess, I am not a fan of black pudding, and whilst I tried my best to get a good sample of it, I could not stop my reflexes of trying to throw it up. Sorry :(.

Eggs: Another item I don't think you can screw up, whilst I did order over-easy eggs, I'm not too picky and this was still enjoyable, especially since it was also...

We came here for lunch and whilst the food was reliably great, the service unfortunately really let down the whole experience.

Our table was available shortly after our arrival. However once seated, we were waiting 15 minutes to be served for drinks. We ordered two lunches and three drinks including a smoothie. Our hot drinks took around 25 minutes to come which felt too long having already been sat around waiting to be served. Also, there were a lot of waiters around walking past us and preparing unoccupied tables with water jugs and cutlery, yet our table still hadn't been prepared yet.

When food arrived, the waiters still hadn't prepared our table with cutlery and my partner received his food but mine didn't come. After 5 minutes, a waiter brought out food for myself which was not what I ordered. No apology was given at this point and my partner was left with his food to eat with no assurance of when my food would come. This seemed to happen to the guests on the table next to us too.

It then took another 5 minutes for the correct food to come for me, by which point my partner had nearly finished his meal, and still with no sign of the smoothie. When we got the bill, it included the smoothie which never came in the end which we had to remind the waiter of.

The quality of food here was reliably good however the waitering felt unprofessional. Staff were friendly but seemingly had no training in their role, letting down the high quality of the food and the reputation of the restaurant. There were lots of waiters so it didn't appear short-staffed either - in fact we had four different waiters serve us! - it just felt very disorganised like there was no-one in-charge and the waiters were each covering every table in the restaurant without communicating between one another. I'd like to return for the food but the service felt farcical and has put us off...

My husband and I are regular Sunday brunch visitors and were looking forward to our brunch this morning. But .... and we are always very reluctant to leave negative reviews and definitely take no pleasure in being negative on this occasion. We have noticed since Christmas that service seems to be a little lacking and we ALWAYS book in advance so having to queue beyond our allotted time and then behind seated AFTER walk ins is a little irritating. This morning was no exception and then waiting for quite some time before someone took our order compounded that. Our order was placed and we did have to wait quite some time. Our food was delivered, my husband's favourite bacon pancakes and my avocado and toast with bacon. Beautifully presented as always. Unfortunately mine was a huge disappointment, overcooked poached eggs. They were solid. I eventually attracted the servers attention who seemed offended and said she would get someone to come and "sort it". Eventually a gentleman took my plate to replace the eggs. My plate reappeared with two fresh poached eggs. It was fairly unceremoniously dumped on the table and then I had to wait for cutlery. My husband had finished his breakfast at this point. The previous two eggs had been removed and replaced on the original avo on toast. By this point the bacon was cold and unappetising and the toast impossible to cut. I ate most of the eggs and left the rest. The staff seemed completely disinterested and no one checked to see if I was happy with what had been delivered. Very disappointed with the poor level of service and £30 for a half inedible brunch is really pushing it. I've never had to send food back before (ever) and I don't think I've ever encountered such poor service. Olive & Rye has been a favourite food spot of ours for years but the recent poor (and disinterested) service has been...