Slug & Lettuce

We walked in, asked if they had a table
for 8, was given a very curt ‘no’. So we went next-​door and had some lovely food served by polite and friendly people. Don’t waste your time in the slug and lettuce, life’s too short.

We often go the the Slug and Lettuce on the Headrow in Leeds, so on a day out in Harrogate we thought we’d eat here.
Not the brightest move as we planned to go through to York later and wanted to eat fairly quickly.
We arrived at noon and as it was quite empty our drinks order was dealt with very quickly. When we came to order the meals, we were given a long list of what wasn’t available; no burgers at, no tagliatelle primavera and a couple of other things were off.
Fortunately none of our choices were affected, there was a quick query over whether I required the salad or the wrap version of the Morrocan Chicken; I chose the salad. We ordered bread and hummus to share as a starter, this arrived in 10 or 15 minutes and was very nice.
Unfortunately this followed by the information that there was no Chicken Makhani; Lou opted for a rare rump steak with peppercorn sauce instead. Forty minutes later the people at the next table, who’d arrived while we were eating our bread, received their food.
We couldn’t catch the waitress at that point but did manage to get her a little later to ask about our food. She consulted with our waiter, who told us that they were very busy (at somewhat less than half full this was a bit of a stretch) and if our food didn’t arrive in five minutes, he’d go and look for it.
Our food did arrive soon after, the fish pie was a bit short on fish, the Morrocan Chicken was a wrap not a salad and the only hot item was the steak, though the chips with it weren’t, which suggests that everything else had been sitting waiting for the steak.
We ate it because after more than 90 minutes wait we were already going to be late and we just couldn’t be bothered to hear more excuses.

We’ve eaten here on a number of occasions, and it’s a favorite of kids and adults alike. Staff is accommodating, food selection is good (vegetarian options in particular), and we’ve always between seated quickly (even when part of a large group including eight kids!). Beer selection is decent — they had Bombardier and Black Sheep on this last visit. Only down side is the wafting of smoke every time the door was opened. Recommended and we’ll be back.

Unlike other reviewers, we have a very different set of requirements in our pubs! We arrived with eight kids in tow (all below the age of 9) — you can imagine how most places would «welcome» that kind of entourage. But the S&L were delightful. The waitresses helped us move tables around so everyone could sit where they wanted, and handed out crayons and paper to the masses. Not that it kept them quiet, but that was okay too as the ambient background noise masked the rabble’s babbling.
Now, it could be that I had my first English beer in a LOOOONG time here, but everything was delicious! Simple fare, of course, but I was looking for precisely that, and the S&L delivered mightily. God love ‘em.
The only thing that could have improved the experience was elimination of the cigarette smoke barrier outside. Ban smoking — good! Ban smoking anywhere near where you’ve just banned smoking — better!

This place claims to be upscale, and it’s full of the most boring people you’d ever want to meet.
Drinks are sort of pricey and the ambiance is dull.
Skip it.

Looks like it’s going to be good but food and service are below par. We waited an age for food which wasn’t that complex to prepare and the staff didn’t seem bothered by our enquiries as to where it was. It sets itself as a designer trendy bar but we thought it was well, a one-​visit only type place. Never again.