Three Cottages, Meanwood Park — Restaurant in Leeds

Visited today for a catch-up Sunday lunch with a couple of friends during a short trip back to the UK. Sadly I wish I had booked elsewhere on this occasion, which I’m sorry to write as we’ve been coming to three cottages for quite some time and are very local.

There are two sittings for lunch, and we booked the earlier of the two. We were well aware we had 90 minutes for the booking but were being hurried out after about 60 minutes. My suggestion is to space out bookings or take fewer covers if you are operating in such a time crunch that you need to pressure guests to leave after 60 minutes.

The lunch itself was fine, gravy was really tasty but the beef was very tough after being told it would be pink. Yorkshires and other accoutrements were generous. For about £25pp we had a decent roast. However the service really let the place down. The staff were very rushed off their feet and clearly quite stressed. Not their fault, but also not the fault of well-meaning customers either; to be honest I felt a nuisance just for being there. While I didn’t mind service taking a little longer, the attitude of staff was almost that it was our fault and that we should have eaten faster, or talked less, perhaps. Bear in mind we had ordered and finished our meal in less than 60 minutes.

By the time we got the bill (75 mins into the 90 minute booking), we were really being heavily hinted at to shove off. A shame, as perhaps if we had been given a little bit more of a relaxed sitting we may have ordered desserts, drinks etc.

Again - I don’t blame the staff, they were doing the best they could and stress gets to us all at the best of times but it rather spoilt the experience a little. Hire more staff or space out the bookings, I think.

Sadly, if I had wanted an in-and-out roast with curt service I would have gone to an airport Wetherspoon’s. I think given all the great options for a Sunday lunch in the immediate area, there’s no real reason I would visit again for lunch.

I walked over but this area is very popular at the weekend and not built for traffic thoroughfare so I would advise finding parking in meanwood and walking down if you’re able, rather than gambling on a space at the park car park!

Edited to add: thank you for the response. Would still visit for breakfast/coffee, but probably not the Sunday...

Short version: Coffee and fish butty awesome, great staff. Cons, long wait times and an expensive, sad, no-cheese "cheese sandwich".

Long version: Stopped by on a Sunday quite late and to be honest grateful to find somewhere still serving food.

Lovely place and a great location, we sat outdoors and although the inside space is beautiful, I was quite happy with the covered seating outdoors.

First off on the service, all staff were very friendly but it took a very long time to order. Food was brought quickly but waited much longer for drinks. They were busy, and I imagine overwhelmed. Knocked off a star for the waiting times but the attitude of the staff was great.

The coffees we had were lovely, although I am not sure the the additional 40p charge per cup for milk with americano is good value, as a cup of tea would come with milk (cold, not frothed) and there was no extra charge.

Anyway no biggie, the 3 star was because 1 sandwich was amazing, the fish butty, and the cheese onion toastie was abysmal. It was like the sandwiches came from two different places. The fish butty was enormous, loads of fresh tartare sauce and a healthy portion of chips on side. Fantastic and flawless. The cheese toastie was more an onion toastie. Sad and thin, it had more red onion marmalade (i honestly assumed it would be fresh onion too) than cheese. The cheese was a single slice from a packet and not melted. The portion of chips that (cost extra) came with the toastie was smaller than the one we got with the fish butty (which wasn't extra). Really strange, as like I said the other sandwich was so good, and holding the two together made the comparison of the sadness of the "onion sandiwch" even worse. I told a waiting staff member who said they'd let the kitchen know. We ate it all anyway as ravenous and as said was fine but the quality difference was shocking. Put it down to a "last order, not much ingredients left" scenario maybe, as the other three sandwiches my partner was going to get (burger, caeser, egg) had sold out. Would come again but maybe avoid the...

27 March 22. Went to visit today agitated young man on door took order said would be 30 minutes for food we said OK. Took a first name (seems like a flawed system). No receipt given or offered. 10 to 15 minutes later shouts for Alex 1 latte extra hot, tea and one toastie cheese and ham, no cheese toastie. Returned to door to ask where the plain cheese toastie was and rudely accused me of taking the wrong order. Not the fact that he had given me the wrong order. Apparently more than one Alex exists in the workd surprise! 30 minutes later still no cheese toastie. Asked the young lady said it was coming, nope not coming. Wife went to ask about the toastie and the rude man on the door started to say the wife of not listening. Mansplaining I believe it’s known as. When it was plainly him who didn’t want to listen. Went away with no refund no toastie. Will not be going back. Scott you need to sort this out give the customer a number, its not rocket science then write the number on the food boxes and the cups. Shout out a number for the drinks and then when the food is ready shout out the number for the food. Failing that employ a grown up to manage the place……

Well having seen the confrontational response it appears that yet again the owner has confused his Alex’s as this is the first review I have made. As for the Starbucks way, this works due to the quick turnaround if one had to wait 30-45 mins it would be chaos. I was sat next to the other Alex and he said that we had not taken his order as he wanted a cheese toastie, not the cheese and ham we had. So perhaps there was a third Alex. Not to mention the 5 food boxes the young lady tried to give my wife saying that was for Alex, with people waiting outside saying ‘go on...