Lion & Snake — Restaurant in Lincoln

We visited your establishment on Saturday 18 Feb having booked that day. For 8 people we were lucky to get booked and were all excited. We arrived and it was clear to us there were two tables pushed together. Table 3 and table 4 and both numbers had been left on each respective table. As two families of 4 we made 2 separate orders via the app (QR code) and made sure that the numbers remained visible on the right tables. My families drinks came out relatively ok, the waitress said the others were coming. But they never did for a good 10mins or so. When they eventually came they were missing the fruit shoots for the children of which we got into a discussion about the fact they had been ordered but according to you they hadn’t so my friend had to show her confirmation. They then brought two orange fruit shoots. They ordered blackcurrant but were told we were out. May I add the app didn’t tell anyone this!

Cue around 40mins /45mins and my families food came. Kids meals were fine, husband had fish and chips and I apparently had the hunters chicken. I left half the chicken breast on the basis it wasn’t cooked enough, it had a kids portion of BBQ shoved on top with a slice of bacon. It was poor. I was around 3/4 way through my dinner and my friends had not turned up. We queried with a waitress and we believe the manager to come over. I asked about the missing meals and he said we had confused them as one lot ordered at the bar and one lot ordered on the app. We corrected him and said no it was all on the app. He apologised and went to the kitchen. Came back and said they would come in a few mins. Lo and behold they didn’t and we queried again and this same gent went into the kitchen. He didn’t return for at least 7mins so clearly was helping the kitchen cook the food.

Despite my families meals coming I spent a lot of time looking around. There weren’t many tables, and the ones there were eating. My friends had to wait 55mins for pub food.

The manager offered everyone a drink. Again saying it was confusing and they were busy at the front of the pub. My family ordered dessert which did take a while to come.

Overall the visit was disappointing. The food wasn’t something to shout about and it was appalling having to sit and eat our food whilst my friends sat there with two children absolutely starving. It ruined the first part of our evening in Lincoln. I rarely complain but it just...

A visit to historic Lincoln on a crisp cold but sunny day might for some be a roll of the dice or clutching at straws in an attempt to wish away the winter and focus on the harbingers of spring. And, there is no ground hog called Phil to soothsay and hasten that process. However, let's not get ahead of ourselves, The clear skies, sunshine at an angle unseen in main season and semi dry cobblestones are a magic to behold in themselves. And... Seeing the Dickensian style buildings in the twilight and the sun, blanket the sides of a huge multi faceted piece of medieval artwork in the form of a cathedral has the same effect as discovering a treasure, something truly wonderful that you would want to capture, savour and share with those you love. Alas how can a rectangular screen even on a £900 smartphone convey even minutely, the twilight, the panoramic beauty, the smile of those around you. The smell of wood smoke of an open fire adjacent, or the tactile feel of cobbles at your feet? It is only possible to enjoy this by being there and indulging all of your senses.

After you have wrung every second of indulgence from your surroundings! What now? There are two options, get in the car or bus and terminate the experience like an anti climatic lead weight... Or ... Wind down the experience like a feather gently descending going hither and thither and eventually and gently coming to rest. This is where our visit to the Lion, and snake took us. As soon as we walked through the door, the feel of warmth on our skin and the comfortable surroundings matched with the attentive and friendly disposition of the staff reminded us that our barrel was not empty and that more was in store. A nice tasty meal delivered hot along with a delicious drink has us recounting what we had just experienced and how we were going at least, attempt to convey it to our loved ones. In an unhurried respite from the cold this was just the perfect ending to a perfect day. A special thank you to the bar manager who went that extra step of the way to make that happen. We...

I’ll start by saying that the barman’s efforts are what made my score a 3 as opposed to a 1-star. On arrival I asked if we could start a tab as we were going to have food once we had looked at the menu but this is not possible. The food was fairly quick once we had ordered; my wife had lasagne and I had the beef chilli. On seeing it, I queried if the chilli was in fact a main meal because, at best, it was about 2 tablespoons of chilli, containing 6 kidney beans, very little meat and a very watery sauce. The barman raised this with the kitchen and it transpired that it was a new menu and I should have had 3 sachets of chilli, not 2. When I had almost finished my meal another small portion of chilli was delivered, this time with a few more beans but no more meat and it was just a watery. For the purposes of a balanced review, my wife’s lasagne was good. When collecting our dishes, the barman asked if everything else was okay and I mentioned that it wasn’t the best as the rice was cold, at which point he offered us desserts on the house. Whilst that was appreciated, and the sticky toffee pudding was very good, the main meal was the main event and mine was a failure. I feel sorry for the front of house staff when they are let down by the kitchen and any ‘chef’ who is the slightest bit conscientious would have realised they had not microwaved the correct amount of sachets of chilli once they saw it on the plate. Overall, a disappointing experience but the barman deserves a ‘well done’ for his efforts to resolve...