Le Bistro Des Amis — Restaurant in Skipton

Xmas meal for 5 people: We were seated promptly like you to grab a drink at the bar before sitting down, so it feels like you're nice and settled before ordering. Our server came over quickly to take our food order, and offered us more drinks. The drinks were unfortunately forgotten about, it was only a bottle of water and a glass of wine we'd asked for, but it didn't appear.

One of our party ordered 2 starters to come out at the same time as everyone else's (seen as the rest of us only had mains) she specified this, and yet one of her starters came out before anything else and they waited to clear it before commencing bringing the rest of our meals out. I was told before coming by a staff member that there were vegan options and I only found one, on the whole menu. I ordered this anyway, trusting that with our previous visit we had enjoyed the food we had got served, and it was good, if a little spicy, which it didn't really specify. (I'm fine with spicy things, but anyone not too into spice as a vegan would have struggled to eat here unfortunately). The seafood moneybag that one of the party got was a favourite at the place, we saw a lot going past our table, and the sausage and mash was a hit for one of the others. When it came to desserts, we asked for menus and another round of drinks, nothing arrived. We were chatting away and kind of just forgot about it, realising it was maybe time to get a move on to the bars! But it would have been nice to have a look, have another drink and stay for a little. Unfortunately we weren't able to. Upon getting the bill, there was multiple mistakes on it that had to be amended, one of the party only had 2 drinks, they'd charged us for 4, and the price of the tagine I got was different to the price on the menu, which isn't ideal really. This should be amended as I'm not sure how many other items this has happened to. And lastly, the service charge was a lot, especially for the service we actually received. There were 3 members of staff just polishing glasses behind the bar upstairs at one point when we had been waiting for drinks. Just seemed a little bit silly to automatically put a charge on there, when we would have likely given more if the service had been better.

Good points were: The atmosphere was great. Decor was lovely, very Christmasy, and very chilled place despite being busy. Polite and friendly staff. Good food.

Not so good were: Automated service charge. Dessert menu and drinks that didn't arrive. Prices are different on the bill to the menu. Limited vegan and veggie options.

I would try this place again, maybe at a less busy time and not in December. I do understand it can get super busy with parties and getting food out on time. Things do get forgotten, but I feel there was quite a lot of mistakes for such a popular and well known restaurant to make and to then pay a service charge we didn't expect...

We booked a meal for a birthday celebration and were left disappointed by the service we received and especially by the poor management.

Due to train strikes, we were running slightly late - tried to ring three times and left a voicemail, which nobody picked up. When we arrived, we were shown to our table, and waited approximately 15 minutes for somebody to take our drinks order, we then waited a further 15 minutes for our drinks to arrive. I had to eventually ask a waitress to take our food order after waiting about half an hour. After confirming our starters twice, and waiting an awfully long time, they still got the order wrong and my mum was left eating by herself.

After apologising, the waitress said that they would be happy to offer a free dessert to our Auntie (whose birthday we were celebrating) to which we said thank you and agreed a free dessert. At the end of our meal, the same waitress came out and said that management were not prepared to give us any discount/free desserts but they said we didn’t have to pay a service charge ha!

At this point, I was completely appalled that Management sent a young girl, I’d say about 17/18, to tell us we would not receive a discount for poor service so I asked for a manager. Apparently their manager was holiday so they went to get somebody else! I can safely say, having worked in hospitality myself, I have never encountered somebody with such a poor attitude. He did not apologise when he came over, he simply said ‘you were 30 minutes late’ as though that was an excuse for the poor service we received. He then continued to say ‘well you can have your free dessert because that’s easier isn’t it’.

Whilst I appreciate that the restaurant was busy, there was no management or somebody more ‘senior’ looking after service, only three young servers upstairs, for a busy Sunday! You could clearly see they were trying their best and this is no reflection on the servers, but more so on the ‘manager’ I dealt with who had a terrible attitude.

It’s a shame because the food was quite nice and we enjoyed that. But the encounter I had with the ‘manager’ or ‘chef’ will put me off returning again. Do...

Last night we went to le Bistro des Amis and we will never be going again. We have been customers of the restaurant since it opened but had not been for a while.

We arrived around 8:15 PM to see if they had a table free for two people; the restaurant seemed unusually quiet – now we know why.

The starters were OK if somewhat overpriced, £10 for a spoonful of pate, but the problems really started when our main meals arrived.

I ordered steak frites, I asked for it to be rare. When it arrived quality of the meat and completely overcooked, even for well done. I then asked if they cook another one properly. The waitress came back and informed us that the chef stood by his view that it was it was rare, and the kitchen is now closed. Steak does continue do cook after it has come off the heat, but not to this extent. The staff did not even know where the meat had come from, based on what they served, possibly they did not want to admit the source.

Just before this they had turned away 2 customers at 8:35 PM on a friday night , in an almost empty restaurant indicating that the kitchen was no longer taking orders.

The meal itself was inedible but what was disappointing was the customer service, the staff appeared to be much more interested in their own social gathering than they were in serving their customers.

We have eaten all over Skipton for more than 20 years and we have never left a restaurant without eating a main course, we recently had a perfectly cooked steak at the Cock and Bottle; is not a difficult dish to cook. I only wish we'd read the other reviews before we decided to go back, but until it is under different management we will never return – what a shame as it...