Blackhorse Skipton — Restaurant in Skipton

This is a bit of a tardis-like pub: it's much bigger inside than you would think when you look at the front, but you could fit a lot of people in here.

There is wheelchair access via a cobbled courtyard to the side (ouch), and some doors at the end, although these are a potential struggle if you arrive on your own, because on one of the pairs of doors, only one was unlocked, with resultant skinning of knuckles to get through the other. And the night I went, I'd have been unable to get served due to the need to negotiate stairs to the only open bar, were it not for helpful friends.

I was driving, so can only attest to the fact that they serve acceptable diet coke, but I'll give props to then for also serving coffee and hot chocolate for non-drinkers: that's not so common here in London, but I'd like to see more of it.

The thing that really ticked me off was the food. There are warnings about the menu on the pub's website that basically imply anyone who can't eat gluten has some super-rare allergy and that anyone else should be fine with the little bit of gluten they won't avoid getting in your meal. That's both frustrating and inaccurate.

Coeliacs make up 1% of the population, so we're not that rare, and yes, a couple of crumbs will do harm. I'd love to see fewer pubs trying to do blanket disclaimers and place blame on customers for having some esoteric condition for which they can't possibly cater, when actually it's not at all hard to create excellent gluten free food, or control cross-contamination and prevent people getting ill.

I sat there watching my friends eat, because the pub, with their warnings, are clearly not prepared to guarantee even a sliced tomato would be safe to eat. Looked nice, too, but with the current approach to their food, I doubt I'll ever know for myself whether I was missing out.

All in all, it seems unlikely I'll go back. I'm hoping that, when we move to Skipton in 2018, I'll find somewhere that is more welcoming to those whose needs are...

Thursday night 20th July 2023 at around 6.45pm. Excluding the two bar staff but including ourselves I counted 9 people in the whole of the premises. Now as ex hoteliers and publicans we prefer to give positive reviews rather than negative ones but the Blackhorse is a real exception to the rule. After reading the majority of previous reviews we decided to give the Blackhorse a visit. On entering the bar we approached two bar staff and order our drinks we had a cordial conversation about the trade in general and we moved on to find a table being very quite all bar the 7 of us we picked a table and guess what yip it had a loose top and wobbled, for the interest of the management that was table No 39.. So we picked another more stable table that being No 37/38. We then picked our food one steak and the other a gammon steak. The food was ordered at 18.58pm now what could go wrong. As the bar was very quite we assumed the food would arrive pretty quickly and hot nop the food arrived 37 minutes after ordering and was ungraciously banged on the table now you might think that to eat your meal you would require cutlery 🍴 so off the wife went to find cutlery 🍴 to be told we will bring it to your table in five minutes nop she said I'll just take it with me. So to sum up both plates of food arrived and were cold COST £24, no cutlery or napkins we purchased a bottle of wine to go with our food COST £15.99, both meals were returned and refund given sadly we couldn't and didn't ask for a refund on the wine as we had opened it but hadn't consumed any of the contents it was probably the most expensive carry out I've ever had TESCO £5.99. If I could have given minus stars I would have. Is it no wonder that the pub trade is...

Today’s visit was just terrible. If you want to know why read on, if not then you only need to know it was so bad we will not return. We ordered our meal with the waiter at the bar and it came with a soft drink included - great. Take a seat, cutlery is brought to us then nothing but waiting, so I go get another drink and wait a little longer so now after 40 minutes I speak to the waitress telling her my table number and asking why the delay - she apologises saying there’s only one person working in the kitchen. Ok, continue to wait another 15 minutes and then go back asking when my food will be out to me. I tell her my table number again and she says she’s sorry but the guy who took the order was wrong to do so as my menu selection was sold out. I ask for a refund the waitress went to fetch someone else to do the refund - that someone came out to the till (didn’t speak to me) and told the waitress how to refund and that person then disappeared back to the kitchen. I then asked the waitress to call the manger so I could complain- the same person who came to sort the refund then appeared - she was the manager. I complained and only then did she apologise. She went on to tell me that she had told the waitress half an hour ago to tell us that they had sold out of our order. Obviously someone is not telling the truth here, is it the waitress who blamed the waiter or is it the manager who blamed the waitress. What was obvious is that the manager didn’t have the courtesy or good manners to speak to me when she came to the till to do the refund. To add insult to injury it was only after leaving I realised I was refunded £1 short. Went...