Lygon Wine Bar — Restaurant in Wychavon

This was the most disappointing of experiences, having looked forward to surprising my husband with this stay since mid November.

This is what you say on your website: “the laid-back atmosphere ensures this is the perfect place to unwind, relax and indulge. Sit back and enjoy a fabulously relaxed and exceptional menu created by James Martin, paired with locally sourced beverages and delectable signature cocktails.”

Our table was booked for 8pm. We waited almost 10 minutes to be greeted by front of house upon arrival. We were seated at 8.10pm, and our waitress gave us some time to review the menu, plus we were given some delicious cinnamon popcorn to enjoy. I ordered a ‘Starter Cocktail’ and a bottle of Marlborough Pinot Noir. We also selected our main course. We said we would skip starters but would instead have olives and breads to go with our drinks.

My cocktail took 15 mins to come to the table. The only reason the timings matter in this review is that, by 8.34pm, our table was rammed full of popcorn, wine, breads, olives, my ‘starter cocktail’, and our main courses. I’m sure you’re getting the picture here. Literally everything we had ordered delivered in the space of 10 minutes. Hardly a recipe for “relaxing, unwinding and lounging”! Indeed, the waiting staff were complaining because there was no room for all the food. At this point, we had to point out that we had not had time to finish the popcorn, which arrived first, or the breads and olives, or the starter cocktail (which was delicious, but didn’t go well with my main of Butter Chicken Curry).

At this point, I complained to the maître d’hôtel, who had been all but invisible all evening. Far from the reassuring conductor of proceedings you see in the best restaurants. I told him our experience had been more akin to a McDonald’s fast food dining experience than a high-end relaxing evening spent enjoying fine food and wine. His response was “so it was all a bit quick for you?” (this made me laugh) and “would you like us to take back the food”? I told him that would be a huge waste and would like him to think of an alternative solution.

I can’t emphasise enough that no £300+ restaurant experience should be done and dusted within less than 30 minutes. Regarding the food, my husband’s steak was pleasant. My curry was tasty but the rice had been overcooked and was extremely dry.

Our thanks to Jason (front of house for the hotel) for stepping in and giving a significant reduction on our bill.

This is not a guest experience that a hotel with the heritage of the Lygon Arms should want to be associated with. I have been coming here since I was about 8 years old, and I can only say that this has been a hugely disappointing stay so far. I do not know how close James Martin is to the operation here, but please don’t expect anything other than culinary mediocrity set in a fantastically...

We ate here for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and tea while staying at the hotel. I don’t mind if the food isn’t the greatest as long as the atmosphere and surroundings are pretty which they were. The food was very mediocre and expensive but the 1 star is for how rude and pretentious the waiters were. When having tea, the leg of the tea tower was placed in the umbrella hole of the table and the whole thing came crashing on top of us. Literally everything, plates, tea, cakes, a huge mess. It was really embarrassing and I was covered in food/tea. I waited a few minutes and no one came to help. I thought they didn’t see and was still forgiving of the simple mistake even though I was covered in food. I went inside to get help and the waiters wouldn’t make eye contact and I was pulling teeth to get them to clean/replace anything even though it was their fault it fell in the first place. I was forgiving of a simple mistake but so unforgiving of their terrible attitudes after. They didn’t clean it up, replace, apologize, anything, so we just left, after paying our bill. This experience almost ruined my trip. It still bewilders me how someone can be so rude and inconsiderate. Do you hate your job? Do you hate people? Do you...

Finally visited ‘Grill’ restaurant at Lygon Arms and thoroughly impressed with the entire experience (although totally broke as a result!)

Having seen some very mixed reviews from others about James Martin’s new restaurant at Lygon Arms, we were in two minds as to whether to cancel and go elsewhere… thank god we didn’t!

The service was excellent, starters (burrata and aubergines) and steaks (we both had 6oz Fillets) were outstanding - they were cooked to perfection.

We found the red Argentinian Malbec the perfect wine pairing for our mains.

Didn’t have enough room - or money - for desserts… which leads me on to the price.

It is VERY expensive - I appreciate inflation has got pretty steep lately, and James Martin obviously needs his cut for having his name over the door, but almost £200 for bread/olives, 2 starters, 2 steaks, 1 side, and 3 glasses of wine? Given we’re not in central London I must admit I was pretty horrified when I got the bill.

All said and done, it was an amazing meal but I’ll probs need to remortgage ahead of a...