Red Lion

Centrally located in Bakewell, this accommodation offers a delightful breakfast and friendly, accommodating staff. Guests appreciate the clean, comfortable rooms and convenient amenities.

I was staying in the area for work and decided to have lunch before going home. Solo-dining, especially for women, can be daunting. I picked the Red Lion because it's quite large and has little nooks to hide in and dine fairly inconspicuously. This attempt was, sadly, ruined by the bar member (short grey hair, glasses, over 50), who decided to make an example of my solo-dining. As I ordered my food at the bar, she asked me if there was any other food for the table. I said no. She asked again, slowly, if that meant that there was no other food being ordered for the table: I confirmed that this was the case. She then said loudly, in a high pitched voice "Aww, just you by yourself then"? This felt patronising and insulting and I wish I had left then and there. Sadly I continued with the order of steak sandwich (rare), which turned out to be more of a lettuce and mustard sandwich with some overcooked and tough pieces of beef thrown in as an afterthought. The "bloomer" bread was standard white bread which was a little stale and the fries had been cooked a significant amount of time before serving, and had clearly been reheated. They were dry and I left most of them. Overall, an unpleasant experience marred by bad food, average beer and terrible service.

If the chef put as much effort and attention into the food, as the young lady behind the bar did her phone, then perhaps they could have achieved even the very basics; Onion rings were undercooked, and mashed-potato suspiciously similar in texture and taste, to ‘packet mix’ - Not good!