I couldn't visit The Idle Hour without trying their award winning burger, it claims to be the best burger in the whole of Britain! And it didn't disappoint, I loved the melted cheese and onion chutney - although there was perhaps a little too much of that. And this was honestly the first burger I've ever completely finished in a restaurant, which is saying something! Normally with a burger I get bored half way though and just fill up on chips instead, but this burger kept me hooked until the last mouthful and it went really well with the gorgeous fries and lovely fresh salad with it.
Had a great night with the other half, a gastropub not to be missed!
I went to The Idle Hour last night & have to say I was extremely disappointed.Having had a couple of bad experiences in the past & as a local,I was hoping that my opinion would be changed, unfortunately it wasn't.I went to meet friends for a drink after work, they had been in pub for a while with a friends parent & so I went to join them.Despite us sitting at the bar and no-one waiting to be served it took the barman 10 minutes to acknowledge me & take my order - not a great start, but certainly forgivable.
We were having a lovely evening, but everything went wrong when we spotted their 2for1 cocktail offer, we decided to order 2 Caipirinha and 2 Margaritas.My first issue was that the drinks were delivered without care or attention (the margarita served in a tall glass, with salt in the drink rather than as a dressing to the glass, was frankly undrinkable).My second issue was that the deal which states 2for1, does not mention that what you are served is in fact a drink served at full price & a token for your free one - something I feel is a little misleading to the average customer.
We were considering staying for dinner,but knew we wouldn't be having any more cocktails, so asked the bar man if he could charge us for the two drinks & let us have the other two free (not unreasonable considering the 2for1 deal).The barman instantly became aggressive & shouted at us (ppl stared), telling us that he didn't make the policies & that "you'll never be happy until you get it your way."
When we tried to speak to the only other member of staff on duty he told us "your beef is with the barman, not with me." Not the greatest example of customer service I've ever seen.
They both made us feel extremely uncomfortable, although the barman did meet our request & refund us half the cost of the drinks. We left shortly afterwards, only to meet the other server outside smoking. He did apologise,but this was too little too late,we won't be back and wouldn't recommed it to