The Lyle

Heros to Zeros How can it be so good and then so bad , no response to complaints, too much dissatisfaction to write about , Avoid until they get their S**t together , such a shame !!!
Jan 1st, 2023

Current management's disingenuous use of food photographs from when The Lyle was a fine dining restaurant and bar previously.The current web site has not been updated by the new management- we were duped. We booked our Christmas 2022 dinner based upon our previous experience. How disappointing. The Lyle now feels like a budget end restaurant and is no longer fine dining. Poor experience and not value for what we paid.
Dec 22nd, 2022

Christmas 2022. As an individual who has never ventured out on Christmas Day before, we thought we would spoil ourselves. How wrong we were. I have not the time or the will to list the catalogue of a shambles, our Christmas experience was. The only good thing, we are dining out on the experience. What a shame. Dinner at home in 2023.
Dec 15th, 2022

Run. Flee. Save yourselves! Having had previously had nothing but positive experiences at The Lyle (it was our goto special treat restaurant), I am saddened to report that The Lyle has gone so far downhill that it is currently underground and well on its way to China. Apparently it underwent a change in management earlier is the year and it is more than apparent that the new management care not at all about maintaining the restaurants previously high standards. The Lyle has gone from fine dining at very reasonable prices to not-at-all-fine-dining at fine dining prices. Once upon a time, each course was a delightful surprise full of innovative touches. Now the food is little better than below average pub food. My starter, the pork belly, was at least 80 percent jelly-like fat and, in place of a nugget of tasty crackling, was an unchewable sheet of pig skin more akin to 2,000 year-old leather than anything resembling food. The main, advertised as beef cheek, but replaced with lamb shoulder, was equally unpalatable. At least half of the meat consisted of the sheep equivalent of the starters jellified fat. The other half (the meat) bore the consistency of canned of tuna it was that dry. It was, however, unsullied with the burden of any sort of flavour. The truffled mash had clearly never seen a truffle in its life.. just as the rest of the dish had never seen seasoning. The broccoli also seemed to have been microwaved and so had the consistency of slugs wrapped in crepe paper. The meal was terminated after 5 bites of the main and the terrors of desert were not braved. They say that a good meal can elicit memories from the past, turns out that The Lyles food does the same unfortunately those memories are of the very worst cuisine a school might have to offer.
Jan 2nd, 2023

See below for updated review. 1st review: Have eaten here a few times as it's some of the best food in the area. Lovely decor, fantastic food and friendly service. Highly recommend. 2nd review: came got Christmas Day 2021. Awful experience. Horrendous service. Disinterest levels from management and staff which was beyond a joke. Took 40 mins to even be offered drinks (when the manager had already helped himself twice...) food was not what we specified in the pre-oeder (which was a whole other thing that was rubbish) and though the food was very good still at that time, you could see the chef being visibly angered at the lack of direction and experience front of house. No wonder he walked out months later. How they went from being such a great new restaurant with so much promise to the z-list comedy club it is seemingly striving to be is such a shame. If they don't get a new management soon and train their staff properly, then this place is going under very quickly. Save your pennies and go to The Beacon, Tallow, The Abergavenny or numerous other places where you will get a great meal and good service.
Dec 8th, 2022