Lil's Bar and Bistro in York - Phone Number, Reservations, Reviews

Extremely poor customer service.

Great location by the river… ordered and paid for food. Husband and daughters meal come out … ten minutes later mine arrived. No one asked if they wanted condiments with there’s and no one around to ask 😞😞😞 mine arrived and guessing it had been forgotten about. No one about to complain to but the roll was burnt so just ate the bacon inside … when we left they cleared the table .. no apology when i mentioned it just there let the chef know

Wonderful establishment, fantastic service.

Pro’s Lovely location next to the river. Friendly and attentive staff. Con’s Overpriced for what you get. 2 breakfasts and 2 fresh oranges £37! Sausages were cremated as were the mushrooms. Bacon full of fat and the scrambled eggs were bland. I couldn’t even finish it. We won’t be returning.

The room was spacious and the bathroom generous; we've been travelling for ten weeks and this kind of thing makes a difference. But, no bar fridge in the room which is cheap and easy and would also have made a difference. The food is pub food, well done but short uninspired menu. But, again, a truly great location right on the river, walkable to everything. The riverside outdoor bar was a blast. Good service from all staff but particularly Sammy. Recommended!

We came in to have a cappuccino, and only after we had ordered, did we read the terrible reviews. We began to lament our decision to sit down, but lo and behold, two large cups of frothy cappuccino were delivered promptly. With the view, the flavor, and the service, it deserved a five today.

Lovely food in a lovely location, family of 4 for evening meal and all had very tasty food and friendly service.

So just a day trip with friends, a bit of shopping, bit of site seeing. Generally having a relaxing visit to York. Came across here, whilst walking, staff were friendly enough, as the found us a table, loverly setting it was. Four drinks ordered whilst mulling over the menu. Decided on, halloumi fries, two fish and chips, two lills burgers. I wouldn't say it was the cheapest of meals, but expected in what is a tourist area. Yes, nothing to complian about with the meals, another round of drinks, decided against puddings, don't think I could do another walk on over full belly's. Yes, would be quite happy to visit again, on a future visit.....

Had dinner there on a number of occasions. Friendly staff,had a lovely welcome from a member of staff,Sammy. Allows dogs,which makes life easy. Love the place ,location and staff.

In a lovely area. Sat inside food and service was excellent. Recommend the steak pie absolutely delicious and enormous. Price also reasonable.

Had a really nice breakfast here with a nice view of the river, waitresses were very nice and did a great job. Watch out for the geese who also want to eat with you if your not careful haha.

Full English breakfast was amazing and the staff were very friendly. You get a discount if you are staying at the hotel.

Blown away with the excellent service the staff here are so efficient even in the hot 🥵 temperatures of this weekend made our stay in York fantastic (we come this weekend every year) huge shout to Holly absolute legend will definitely return soon x

Stayed at lils on water front and was a lovely little hotel room with a veiw. Staff were really freindly and breakfast was amazing. You, also why you are there, which we didnt know when booking, is that you also get 25-15%off food and drink from the hotel and sister bars next door and we did save alot of money with the amount of drinks we had 🤭 The waitresses and waiters were absolutly on the ball when you are sat in the sun outside and always looking to make sure you needed another drink,there were queues for tables and they knew if people were pushing in and made sure the 1st waiting got there seats,shout out to Holly she was amazing.keep up the hard work guys and keep applying that suncream.will be back next time we visit x

Absolutely shocking customer service, ordered the ceaser salad and found a large black hair in my food, we told the waitress and she took it back, because of the already long wait we decided to have a refund instead of waiting again, the young girl came back to say the manager won’t offer a refund because we couldn’t show the black hair as evidence, really couldn’t believe that, the manager didn’t even bother to come and see us just gave the poor young waitress to sort it out, can’t believe they think we were that desperate to make up a story about hairs in our food…wrong pub in right location and they are getting away with it, hopefully they will get found out, reporting this to the York EHO, I wonder what the kitchens are like if we’re getting human hairs in our food 😵‍💫

Very nice staff serving this afternoon. We just had cakes and coffee and a wine all really nice . The 2 ladies serving outside very friendly and welcoming brilliant . Good/ great location we will return breakfasts looked nice . Bit expensive, it's York, not London, but the location was worth it .

Awful place. Service was very slow and poor. All meals were either missing items or incorrect. Hot drinks were cold. One person in our party had to re order as they did not bring the order. She was left eating by herself as the rest had finished. We were assured the missing items had been removed from the bill. This was not the case. The staff member (assuming manager) was rude when these issues were raised and refused to rectify them. Will not return.

I went to the bathroom after placing my drink order, when I returned from the bathroom my drink was blown off the table I was met with “do you want to buy another we don’t control the weather” Appalling attitude from the waitress wish we had. Read the reviews before taking a table!

Absolutely appalling customer service. Had one sip of my drink and left. Left a very bitter taste as far as customer satisfaction and service was concerned

Had a really nice meal and served by staff who were friendly and professional

If I could give zero stars I would. Absolutely shocking service. Waitress spilled an entire pint on my jeans and not so much as a free drink was offered. A simple sorry… I am not saying it fell on the floor. The whole pint went all over me and I was given blue roll which they then promptly took back. Nobody came over afterwards to offer any kind of apology or drink and once we had finished, they simply said thanks, bye. I cannot believe the complete lack of customer service or care. Avoid this place!

I have lived in York for four years of my life, had some of the best pints in the world here, but this pint, from Lil’s, has to be the WORST pint I have ever experienced, anywhere on the face of this green earth. Never again.

Location is lovely - right by the riverside. Our server was extremely pleasant and dealt with a very problematic couple professionally. I wouldn't have had the same patience ! Slightly strange though that we had to pay as we went on with ordering as opposed to paying the whole bill at the end. As another reviewer has said, the tables (albeit on cobbles) were very wobbly and we had to keep our feet on ours to keep it steady. Drinks all decanted into plastic glasses - fair enough if they are the rules but other establishments barely metres away were serving in glass so didn't really make much sense. One meal ordered (I wasn't hungry) which was fine but pricey. Drinks overall also pricey and a pot of Earl Grey tea was described as undrinkable. So had a reasonable time in the October sun but sort of wished we would have gone elsewhere and spent our money there.

Amazing Sunday roast. Great food, attentive service and a really lovely afternoon.

We came to Lil's for breakfast, there were 4 of us in our group and we all enjoyed our meals. The service was really good, we were seated straight away and the staff were helpful and attentive, we'll definitely be eating here again on our next York trip 😋

Service wasn’t great the waitresses were talking and not taking our order. After ordering we waited over half an hour to receive the food which is was some garlic bread with some chips. Not a big order. Food was tasting good can’t complain about that but service and time to get it ready not good at all!

We were welcomed with a smile on our first visit and nothing was any trouble. Our order was taken and all our individual needs were met. Food was hot and freshly prepared and nothing was any trouble for them. On our last morning we visited for a second time and were again greeted warmly. The lady remembered us and our little quirks, remembering who liked what tea and sauces etc. We had 3 suitcases that were brought in for us and we were automatically given the 15% discount that they give to returning customers. We did not need to produce our previous receipt. Would recommend the breakfasts as their is a large choice as well as the usual full English.

Wonderful place on the bank of the river. Superb food with generous amount of food. Value for money. Customer service is great too.

We decided to stay overnight (we did in 2019 and enjoyed our stay then) but were given a different room. I am not sure if all the rooms have gone downhill since 2019 but it was filthy and had obviously not been cleaned properly in a long time. The shower had black mould /staining and the toilet also (which was not secured properly to the floor and moved about) . In addition the bedside lamps (all 3) would not work - seeing as the room had no window it was either all spot lights on or nothing (pitch black in the night). We were then awoken 10.10 in the morning by someone entering our room to clean it. They apologised and said thought that room was empty. This just ruined it totally. Went to complain at reception (which is the bar downstairs) to be looked at blankly and shrugged - oh sorry. Wasnt offered a complimentary drink or food as an apology. Emailed a week ago asking for some kind of answers - NO REPLY as to date. So therefore I am forced to submit this review I cannot comment on the food but latest reviews have not been great.

Stopped in for a meal after a walking tour of York. Very clean, good service, and tasty food. Would recommend.

Avoid this place…. Very poor quality of food and quite dirty we would never go back….. Staff were nice but when we informed them of the stale bread Half cooked meat They didnt seem alarmed Only give us 25 percent off Never again!!! Be warned

Avoid! Avoid! Avoid! Terrible place. We called up and booked a table, informed on phone we had a taste card. Made booking. Arrived, told the girl we had a taste card, seated, given a menu and told we could only order from certain pages as it was a Sunday. Anyway the food was good, but upon getting our bill we were told we couldn’t use the taste card with that menu, the one we were told to order from. Asked to speak to a supervisor who was very argumentative, asked for a manager, told none on duty, she sent a young girl in to take payment who had no idea what was going on, and instead of giving our offer, they had taken two bottles of coke off the bill, we refused and informed them that we had mentioned the taste card several times and we should have been told it didn’t apply to the Sunday menu. Eventually a manager turned up, again argumentative, (was told earlier there was no manager). She argued with us in front of other customers and had no service skills what so ever. Again she left and sent the supervisor back in to take payment who slammed the machine on the table, the picked it up and stormed out without saying a word. Also….. there was a private part going on downstairs playing very loud music which didn’t really create a good atmosphere, especially when the songs were dance music filled with swear words and yes there was kids in the restaurant. Avoid this place at all costs, they don’t know what customer service is

Avoid! Avoid! Avoid! Terrible place. We called up and booked a table, informed on phone we had a taste card. Made booking. Arrived, told the girl we had a taste card, seated, given a menu and told we could only order from certain pages as it was a Sunday. Anyway the food was good, but upon getting our bill we were told we couldn’t use the taste card with that menu, the one we were told to order from. Asked to speak to a supervisor who was very argumentative, asked for a manager, told none on duty, she sent a young girl in to take payment who had no idea what was going on, and instead of giving our offer, they had taken two bottles of coke off the bill, we refused and informed them that we had mentioned the taste card several times and we should have been told it didn’t apply to the Sunday menu. Eventually a manager turned up, again argumentative, (was told earlier there was no manager). She argued with us in front of other customers and had no service skills what so ever. Again she left and sent the supervisor back in to take payment who slammed the machine on the table, the picked it up and stormed out without saying a word. Also….. there was a private part going on downstairs playing very loud music which didn’t really create a good atmosphere, especially when the songs were dance music filled with swear words and yes there was kids in the restaurant. Avoid this place at all costs, they don’t know what customer service is

Nice terrace on the river for a drink. Friendly service and a tasty gin cocktail. Please note: the promotion of 2 cocktails for €12 does not apply on the terrace.

Early lunch time visit on a lovely sunny day. Sat outside. Fairly poor service from staff who seemed unable to accommodate the most simple requests without having to go and ask for permission from "managers". We were asked to pay on ordering, which seemed a bit unusual, but did mean that the staff then miss out on earning tips. A mix up with the drinks order become a lesson in poorly managed customer expectations. Our food arrived within half an hour, and was pretty standard quality. We found human hairs in two of our meals, and told one of our servers - who was apologetic and offered to raise the matter with the chef.... All In all pretty poor and we cannot recommend the place at all. The 1 out of 5 is for the pleasant river side location.

Staff friendly but that was it , our food order took an hour to come out after having to ask were our order was.( 2 sandwiches) filling cold , salad looked sad and chips just warm. Not a great experience.

love it here! had breakfast here and tea we love it that much🤣 food is so lovely and is presented well. Got to sit by the water for breakfast and then sat inside for tea, both were equally lovely. would 100% recommend.

We went for breakfast hubby had full English I had toast scrambled egg and bacon ,wasn't very hot but ok ,latte was lovely we got 15% off with stay at hotel next door I will review that after my stay

Service very slow told couldn't smoke outside the front in seating area ??? So ended up having a takeaway coffee wanted food but wasn't paying for food and being told can't smoke outside in the open air we were the only 2 there explains why

Great location, lovely staff. Food was okay. Bad management: We ordered and paid for a cider, it had just ran out so she ordered a wine spritzer instead. They brought the wine and then (without any warning) came back with the card machine for the 50p DIFFERENCE!! Been to many bars and never seen anything like that. Not going to matter to them but it was for my mother in law who's an OAP and this was their fault. The waitress was lovely and explained it came from the manager and that the till wouldn't balance at the end of the night?? Manager should have came out and told us that utter stingy nonsense themselves. Such a shame - would say avoid this place.

Thought we would give it a go, if we start with the positives, the location and look is fab, we chose to sit outside by the river. The waiter/handy man and two waitresses were extremely pleasant, although appeared to have zero knowledge of what to do or listen to orders. Would describe the menu, drinks and quality of food as extremely average. Asked for a Flat White and got told by the waitress holding the tablet…’its not on the till so we cant do it’, chose something else and placed the rest of the order, she read it back and had got 70% of it wrong…this was mid week and very quiet. Order arrived in dribs and drabs, two parts of it wrong, no cutlery or condiments out so our food was cooling whilst we had to ask and wait. Part of the order was forgotten, table wobbled like hell so the drinks spilt if you moved or tried to eat with a knife and fork. Went inside to use the facilities that look like they are next to the kitchen, was blocked on the stairs by someone who looked like the chef, he just grunted and barged past. Came out of the facilities to see the same individual smoking out of what looked like a fire exit at the back of the kitchen.

Food lovely big portions staff on point everutjing about it is spot on and good seats along the river

Staff were very friendly but that's the only positive besides the location. Unfortunately there was a very long wait for food. People who arrived ages after us were getting served before us when we only ordered basic meals. Food was very average. I wouldn't return. A shame seeing as the manager was a nice lady and it has good potential.

Small menu but all nice food. Staff were really helpful and sorted my particular order. Reasonable prices.

Poor customer service. Asked for a chicken Goujon and chips because that’s the only thing on the menu I fancied but I was refused this because it was on the children’s menu. Also we sat outside for drinks and the table was ridiculously wobbly. In the slight movement of me crossing my legs the table really wobbled and spilt a full glass of wine. The staff members were very rude and I spoke to the manager (supposedly) and she was plain rude and told me it was all my fault, even though her colleague admitted the table herself itself was just wobbly. Poor. Unimpressed. I will not be returning.

We have just ate a late lunch as a party of 10 at this little jewel of a Bistro. The food and was fantastic and bearing in mind as a group of 10 all wanting different meals at the same time the food was of...

Good spot on a sunny day where you can sit next to the river. Menu is on the expensive side but it is fair enough for paying a bit more premium for the location.

Nice staff. Nice food, slight delay on the food but was made right by the manager. Can't really complain.

We Had A lovely Soup Warm Bread Roll service was excellent beautiful place over looking River Ouhse

Stopped here for a couple of drinks before having a relaxing ride on the river. Drinks were reasonably priced and service was swift. We will stop here again very soon to try the food. We highly recommended.

Nothing but a nice view!!! Atrocious cocktails?! We were told we couldn’t go in as there was a private function so didn’t qualify for 2 cocktails price of 1? So had to pay full price sit in the cold and were served v sweet and barely alcoholic drinks. We ALL left them !!! I felt for the waitress as she was friendly and doesn’t make the rules …but avoid this place simply cashing in on their river view. We had just had street food and amazing spritzers at SPARKS so I would advise anyone to go there and avoid this rip off bar at all costs!! Very disappointing !!! We could have sat on the riverside for free with the same view!??

A:sign outside saying 2 cocktails £12.00 which only applies if you drink inside… however we were told we couldn’t sit inside (it was empty by the way!!) so has to sit out in the cold and wait for our cocktails and soft drinks. The porn...

My wife and I with her sister and granddaughter came for a late lunch. The service was excellent and the food was lovely, quality produce cooked really well with good attentive service. This was a very enjoyable experience and I would definitely recommend it and...

Scones a bit dry and tables wobbly. Upfront payment required. Felt as if you were held to ransom 😜

Waited for over an hour for food after paying to be told they had forgot to tell the chef, then apparently it was my fault

visited here last year for a meal and found it very good. good food and service. what a come down this time over an hour wait for food and if i had known what was coming i woud have left poor service food cold and...

Shocking room supposed to be a delux room it smelt of drains the walls were all marked and chunks out of the plaster and the lamp was smashed and curtains ripped it wasn’t worth £80 and nobody was around to check out. 20 mins we waited and just had to leave the key on the bar. It spoilt our stay in york

We stopped here for coffee as it was a perfect location beside the river. There were several outside seating areas but chose this one as a few people were drinking coffee and there were more free tables than the others. Ordered 2 coffees which were...

Very good service, lovely food and changed parts of the meal to fit my liking. Chef is very friendly and greeted us at the door. Will come again.

We called in here after a river cruise and had the Sunday lunch, I have to say the service was excellent and the meal was to die for, one of the best roast I have had, would recommend and certainly visit lils again.

Hired the venue for a social event, ideal space for people to meet & chat, great feedback from attendees. Staff were friendly & attentive from the first enquiry to the end of the night, literally nothing can fault about the experience! (The cherry rum is...

Popped in after arriving from Manchester on a late Thursday afternoon without doing any research. It was very quiet which is good for us. Service was fantastic and the food was good. It is pretty small so could be a problem on busy days. A good place to stop off before any cruise trips.

Good selection of starters and mains for brunch and lunch in a friendly gastro bar on the riverside in York. Food was very well presented: we had the chorizo bon bons and red pepper arancini to share for starters and then pan fried chicken and...

What a lovely venue for a group social event! The drinks were amazing and the staff were friendly and accommodating. I will definitely be returning next time I am in York!

Me and my husband went to lils on Friday night. And just want to say a big thank you.Lovely atmosphere,food was amazing already planning next visit.Holly and Lily the two lovely girls that looked after us could not have been more attentive and friendly. ANOTHER...

I went to Lils on the river for Sunday dinner around Christmas time with family and the food and hospitality was amazing. My partners father still raves about place.

I was walking around York shopping with the wife (boring) and we happened to pop into here during the day for a bit of shopping relief, the staff couldn’t have been friendlier, as we hadn’t precooked anything for New Year’s Eve food they managed to...

Came to York at the weekend for the Christmas Market but decided to get food here and the staff was so lovely and the food was really good especially for the price, really enjoyed it and was nice being next to the river. Will definitely come here again

Great bar and restaurant with good food. Thanks to Holly and her team for an excellent evening. Would recommend.

Starter portion of 3 chicken goujons was a little small given the price. Lamb shank was very nice and fell off the bone. Overall pretty nice lunch and very friendly staff.

We had a really lovely meal, decent food, the service was great and really nice environment inside and great views of the river.

Visited when York was busy for Xmas markets, so a wait for food was expected. When arrived we were told 1 hour wait for food, we accepted thinking this was a worse case scenario but the wait was more like an hour and a half...

Had a very enjoyable meal at Lils Bistro. The girls are a credit to you and the food amazing. Highly recommend the bistro

Super little place, great food, nice drinks, friendly staff.

We called in here to gather up our friends before going to the theatre round the corner. They were very accommodating and we ordered a round of starters to share to keep us going. All very tasty- thanks for the warm welcome - we will be back again for a proper meal next time.

The location is nice, but the food was not. The “Homemade Beef Stew” is definitely not homemade. The dumplings were chewy.

Lovely staff, lovely setting, lovely food. Nachos for 1 was more of a nachos for 2 and attached to our receipt was a 15% off on your next visit voucher.

Not a great experience here. Food took an hour to come out and when it did we had to send it back as it wasn’t cooked. They apologised by way of a free round of drinks though. Was saved from a one star by the free round of drinks, beautiful setting and the fact we wasn’t in a rush!

The front of house staff were lovely and I have nothing but nice things to say about them. Everything else however was comically bad. Food took absolutely ages. The burgers were either flavourless or stupidly over seasoned. The fries were like leftover Maccies fries from the night before. Desserts were okay but obviously from a packet. Custard was half water half lumps. Music was like somebody's teenage breakup playlist. The highlight was being sat next to the kitchen where we could hear every word of the staff, primarily two people arguing so aggressively that it ended with someone saying they quit and are suing. As of writing, one of us has thrown up. Absolutely hysterical time, do not go.

Service was lovely. We had to wait an hour to get starters. Beef burger was greasy, dry and had no flavour. The lamb burger had very little meat and only tasted of pepper. The fries for all burgers were completely cold. The beef and ale pie had awful pastry on, the peas and carrots were cold and the filling was just bad. We could hear the kitchen loudly shouting at each other, music was solemn the whole time. It was lucky we went during restaurant as none of us would have paid the actual price for any of our meals. The meals have made everyone feel rather ill and one of us has physically been sick.

Ask to order food twice, 20 minutes later, still no service.

A quiet place that is dog friendly, both inside and outside. Right on the water front, so minimal traffic and a view of the river. Plastic glasses are used outside. Food wise, nothing spectacular. Had steak and caramelised onion sandwich. The steak was fine, although there weren't any caramelised onions to be seen. Instead were some softened onions in some sort of creamy sauce.

Beautiful place, nice drinks. Steak sandwich was chewy, and minted lamb was ok. Neither had the sauce listed on the menu in them Disappointing but alright for the view of the river

Outdoor service in the quay. Simple meals, snacks, tea & coffee. Hard to fault.

Picked this place for dinner mostly due to its great spot on the quayside. The food was pretty good, but the service was slow and disorganised. We had chicken in peppercorn sauce and salmon fillet in white wine sauce. Tasty and plenty. Waiting for ages...

We stopped here & ate outside whilst waiting for a boat trip. We ordered outside & the young girl serving us was very lovely & helpful when I asked about almond milk. The cake we had was amazing, so light & nice & the drinks...

Absolutely disgusting the young staff were awful waiteress service how they speak to elderly people is disgusting they need proper training people skills needed my steak ciabatta was dog food asked to warm it up they huffed a puffed like they cant be bothered awful...

Absolutely terrible food!!! Not recommend!!!!

If you want a cheese lamb burger ? Better go to Tesco ans buy a frozen burger and some cheese.. On top of that they don't care about customer. 3 times to ask the cheese they suggest me to order for 2 pounds more. And after I said I was not happy with the beautiful cheese they ask us to leave as soon as we finish the food .. Please never go there

Out of 4 drinks - they got 2 wrong, then the beer was of poor standard, owner said tuff either drink it or pay for something else. Never had such a bad experience. Never going again

Stopped here for a meal prior to a cruise. Food was delicious. I had a chicken curry and my husband had a lil burger. Staff were attentive and with a sudden thunderstorm let us dine inside. My only concern was cleanliness in the building. The...

Great location, lovely food. We got a table seat, indoors at the open window. It was lovely on such a beautiful day. The food was very nice and reasonably priced. We ate from the lunch menu (goat’s cheese ciabatta and sides). The children’s pizza was...

Breakfast before the racing with my fiancé. Excellent. So good, one of best breakfasts I’ve had. Staff so friendly and obliging. Breakfast so fresh and made with quality ingredients. Thank you for a great start to our day!

What can you get wrong with a sausage and a sausage and egg sandwich?...well the sausages were barely cooked and nearly cold and the egg was hard and overcooked...sent them back to recieve attempt 2....sausages slightly better cooked, but still very pale and only luke warm and egg was hard and overcooked again. Very poor. Young and seemingly inexperienced waiting staff too. Would not return for anything else if they cannot get 3 sausages and 2 pieces of bread to the table in some sort of enjoyable edible state.

Why a 3,2 in average score? It's worth a 5,2! ******

£3.00 for a soda water, absolutely shocking but thought the food may have been good, unfortunately it wasn’t.

We'd booked a table for 12.30 as we were travelling in to York to see The Osmonds Musical that afternoon. Unfortunately, we hit traffic and were running late, but a phone call later and it was all sorted. The lady was lovely and understanding, and held our table for us. Due to our delayed arrival, we just had a jacket potato and salad, each with a different topping, and it was lovely. The staff were all very nice and friendly, service was good and they even offered to fast track our desserts if we wanted any. Although they all sounded delicious, unfortunately we didn't have enough time, as we had a date with Jay Osmond(!) However, we'll definitely be back next time we're in York. It's a lovely place and right on the waterfront too!

This is a cheeseburger ! They forget it, and as I made one bite and see there is no cheese at all! They didn't apologize they bring it completely cold while I wait 5min for an answer! Worst experience of my life in a restaurant

Went there for food. Awful service ever. We paid for an extra cheese, and when we tried the burger discovered Of course we tried because we thought it was matching the order. So the waitress did not come for feedback. So we asked again what...

Absolutely fantastic service sat outside in the morning, very friendly and attentive staff. This convinced us to go back for dinner, and we were not disappointed. Again, excellent service with amazing food! We will definitely be coming back when next in York. Thanks!