Coventry
The Botanist Coventry

The Botanist Coventry

Unit 4 Cathedral Lanes Shopping Centre Broadgate, CV1 1LL, Coventry, United Kingdom

Steak • Chicken • British • American


"We booked a table to celebrate a get together the night before our wedding for 15 and preordered all of our meals which included a package of three courses and welcome drink, all sent to the restaurant a couple of weeks in advance. It was just an absolute disaster from the get go. As soon as we sat down I was given a stapled together document of all of our preorders to ‘check through’ for some reason, despite sending these by email in plenty of time and not really being sure what I was supposed to be doing as the waitress looked really confused. I had screenshots of everyone’s orders luckily. Despite it being a group booking where we wanted one table, they sort of squashed two tables together that didn’t fit so we were essentially on two separate tables apart from each other. Our drinks turned up just before dessert and not once did anyone come to take our drink orders separately to this. We had to go downstairs to the very busy bar to get a drink with waiting times of around 15 minutes. There was a staff member wearing a red shirt with I think penguins on it (date Friday 15th December) and I never ever name and shame anyone but this man who I think was a manager screamed at the staff from the top floor down to the bottom so incredibly loudly that it made everyone in the upstairs area so, so uncomfortable. He was just rude to everyone and your staff shouldn’t have to put up with that. A number of the desserts didn’t turn up and those that did were wrong. I was accused of not including some people’s desserts in the preorder, even though I had clear evidence that I had. We had a rude waitress with a face on her as though we were in the wrong and a massive inconvenience to be spending several hundreds at their restaurant and were only ever polite at the endless mistakes terrible service. In the end they took money off our bill for all of the errors, but I’ve never been made to feel like dirt in a restaurant before like I have there. It was beyond awful. Do NOT go there during a busy period i.e. around Christmas and don’t expect them to remember your preorders or even be treated with respect whether you’re a staff member or a customer. Absolute shambles."

The White Lion

The White Lion

Hawkes Mill Lane, CV5 9FQ, Coventry, United Kingdom

Pubs • Steak • Pizza • British


"This was my first visit to The White Lion since its refurbishment. I’ll start with the good. The refurbishment has been tastefully done and has improved the pub, and staff were lovely and very helpful. However the food was a major disappointment. Two of us ordered the grains and greens salad. When it arrived it was tiny, it was in a very small bowl, we were amazed they could call this a main course salad. If we had ordered it as a starter or side dish then it would have been acceptable, but this was supposed to be a main course It was called a grains and greens salad. Well, there were plenty of greens but you had to search for the grains. One of the salads was ordered with chicken. There were three tiny pieces of chicken on it. We did order side dishes with the salads but were tiny too, the Mac and cheese took two or three bites to finish! We did complain about the salads and our server said that there had been similar complaints and that this was the portion side the pub owners had told them to serve. They did offer us complementary desserts, which was a lovely gesture, but hte salad should have been a lot larger to be called a main course dish. Two of our party ordered the skewers, the portion size for these was marginally larger than the scalds, but still in the small size. For this started sized plate of not much more than lettuce I was charged almost £18!!! This was not value for money. Both of us who ordered the salad left hungry and disappointed. I have eaten main course salads at other pubs and restaurants and they have always been substantial main dishes, not stater sized small bowls. The other meals that were ordered were slightly better, although the skewers weren’t very substantial either. I will not be returning to the White Lion for food, and wouldn’t advise anyone who is hungry , or who doesn’t like being over charged to do so either. All of our party felt the food was very overpriced for the quality and quantity, and none of us are in any hurry to return."