Evelyn's — Restaurant in Manchester

I have never been so disappointed by a recommendation. I know trying to find a decent roast is difficult but we read the reviews and saw this place on all the blog pages and now I’m wondering how much they pay to have these out there.

We were greeted and shown to our table we followed to our table and loved the internal decor and that’s about it we didn’t get asked about allergies or anything like. The table was less than a centimetre from another table so we shuffled over. We ordered a lamb and beef roast, the hummus with chilli oil and cauliflower cheese an Asahi and Hibiscus Lemonade.

The lemonade was great. The hummus arrived first (ordered together) it’s consistency for us was too smooth and the chilli oil had no kick to it. The pitta I assume they make themselves is really nice.

The main event - The portion sizes and presentation look amazing until you realise it’s just the Yorkie that’s big. The meat portions are stingy for the price you pay. The Yorkshire pudding as you can tell from the photo is massively overdone we saw several tables swap theirs by request. The flavour on the beef was supposed to have a mustard rub but you couldn’t tell it was however cooked well. The lamb tasted lovely plenty of seasoning just small portions. The potatoes would have better use in a hockey game & the table next to us questioned if they were frozen potatoes. The carrots were nice and so was the cauliflower cheese.

We were never checked on throughout the meal not to ask if we wanted more drinks or if everything was okay. I had to request a knife because we didn’t have one. Despite the table being small nobody removed our empty plates that we were done with and stacked. When we were finished trying to get eye contact or anyone’s attention to say we were done was like pulling teeth. A staff member came and cleared our plates after about 20 minutes and didn’t ask if it was okay or if we wanted dessert coffee the bill or anything.

We waited for 30 minutes & after watching us getting ignored we got up and requested the bill and explained how disappointing the whole situation was. She reduced our bill and we left and will probably never return. We were definitely not the first complaining in there and if they carry on the same way I doubt we will...

We booked a table at 8:15pm on the 16th January. We arrived 5 minutes early for our table and our table wasn’t ready, instead of letting us sit at the side as there is no bar and we would have had a drink at the bar we were just stood like lemons in the restaurant with basically every diner looking at us.

We had left a note on our booking saying bringing the dog, as they are dog friendly! We were finally seated, don’t give us a booking if the table isn’t ready or you don’t have a table for us. We were finally seated at 8:20. And left standing like idiots in the cold for 10 minutes, might not sound a lot but we were literally in the way and looking at everyone, coats on and dog in hand. Anyway, we sit down 3 seconds into getting the table, I was taking my coat off, and the manager comes across and extremely rudely tells me she can’t have a dog on the furniture. Our dog is an extremely well groomed toy maltipoo that was wrapped in a blanket, I was taking my coat off to then put the blanket on the floor for him to sit ON THE FLOOR. I wouldn’t ever let my dog sit in my place for dinner??? I was so shocked that you would advertise dog friendly, you could clearly see us stood there for quite a long time for me to sit down for 3 seconds to take my coat off and be told off by this awful manager. I was so annoyed I could have left then and there however we had booked and we do like to support hospitality in the city, and we had to give our card details to book the table so would have been charged for being spoken to like a child if we did leave.

So we carry on with our dinner, and the food was vile. No salt on anything, the leeks, I have no words for how bad they were, the texture and then the dirt that was not washed off was too much. We are vegetarian and we tried every vegetarian dish and wish we hadn’t. There is no protein in any of the dishes for vegetarians and no complex carbs just vegetables, because we’ve not evolved in vegetarian cuisine.

Don’t go here, rude, bad food and certainly not dog friendly. My dog sat on the floor on his blanket the whole meal and you wouldn’t have even known he was there. What a waste...

I recently moved to Manchester and have been looking for a local spot to support — ideally somewhere that backs local business. My expectations are pretty straightforward: if the food’s good, that’s good enough for me. I’m not after anything fancy.

We visited Evelyn’s Café, and while the place was nearly empty when we arrived, we still waited around a few minutes before anyone seated us. After ordering, we were brought an item we hadn’t asked for. We let the server know, and he said he’d check with the team. We never heard anything else about it — no update, no apology.

We were served tea but with no sugar, even though the table next to us received theirs with sugar as standard. I had to ask for it. Throughout the visit, the server seemed far more attentive to the other tables around us — checking in regularly and even pouring their drinks — while we were mostly overlooked.

Then came the bill. The item we hadn’t ordered (and had sent back) was still on there. Clearly, no one had followed up on the issue. We had to ask for it to be removed. I also asked for the optional service charge to be taken off, as the service we received was well below par, especially compared to others around us.

Instead of just removing it quietly, the waiter made a point of asking — in front of everyone — whether there was an issue with the service. Not wanting to cause a scene, I just said no. From that moment, his attitude shifted entirely. The best way to describe it is like a child throwing his toys out of the pram — he became visibly stroppy and rude, which honestly just reinforced my decision not to leave a tip.

This gentleman (barely) was clearly annoyed about not receiving a tip for sub-par service, but the business should be more concerned that I won’t be returning as a regular — and I won’t be recommending Evelyn’s to those around me either.

Ironically, what would have been his tip ended up being a contribution to the next place we visited — where the service was genuinely warm, attentive, and worth...