Oliver Hare & Co in Central Bedfordshire

Was a lovely friendly comfortable place to eat with a small family. Shame it was closing that same week.

So sad it's closing. A brilliant place to eat

About the only place we found who welcomed dogs that we could find near the market. What an excellent choice, great food, lovely staff, and my Dachshund were as good as gold. Next time we go to Leighton Buzzard, we'll be back.

Enjoyed our food service was good shame the landlord wants to sell the building visit before this happens

Quality food but unfortunately won't be back... I have tinnitus and the echo in the room hurt... Sorry.

We went here with family and some friends. The Sunday roast wasn’t good , it had one extremely small piece of gammon on it. We waited ages for the food to come and then it wasn’t worth the wait. I’ve sent message of complaint but, they haven’t responded We would have got a better deal at Wetherspoon’s!

Very nice environment and breakfast is very delicious

Wholesome freshly cooked food and very good portions. Atmosphere is good in a classic building.

THE FOOD IS REHEATED AND NOT FRESH! I ordered the hare of the dog (the full English breakfast), both the SAUSAGE, which was burnt black, and BACON, turned orange and dried out, had been reheated and were at least a COUPLE OF DAYS OLD. I explained to the waitress when she collected the plates how to tell the food had been reheated on both these items. When we paid, the waitress had checked with the kitchen AND CONFIRMED YES THE FOOD IS NOT FRESH and they REHEAT FOOD they'd cooked days before. We were then told it wouldn't make sense for a business to cook these fresh otherwise it would take 45mins for the breakfasts (???). Come on - it' doesn't take that long to cook these items, especially not bacon. I was surprised to hear a justification on what's best for their business rather than customer focus or not misleading customers. Maybe change the menu to say 'days-old reheated sausage and reheated dried out bacon' just to be clear. We still paid in full but they should have at the very least offered a discount or to cook fresh.

Nice and clean lovely food and allow dogs very happy

First time here, on a recommendation. My ham and cheese sandwich was on chunky brown bread with what looked like a full packet of crisps on the side and a nice amount of side salad. Pleasantly surprised. I would say to book a table, it seemed popular around 1pm. 😁 (There are steps to get in from the front door - not sure if you had mobility issues if there is any way to help.)

Lovely place, staff attentive. I Had a sausage sandwich served on thick bread. No issue with that per say, but sadly half of the bread lacked any sausage, so I was chowing down on thick dry bread. Fillings need improving. Also the steps to get in & out are quite steep with no hand rails. Anyone unsteady on their feet could fall very easily.

Visit for breakfast. Coffee tasteless. Food ok. Service low

Tasty well cooked food but what a fiasco. From the moment we walked in no greeting and a long wait to be seated. No highchair as ordered and table opposite the bar leaving a narrow gap for people to get by. While eventually eating tables were passed over by husband’s head and prams coming through asking for some of us to move. The atmosphere was stressful as while we were still eating on the first sitting customers were standing in the doorway waiting to be seated for the second sitting. Please please do not ask 45/50 customers to come at the same time if you can’t accommodate and serve them adequately. Several queries about bills from other customers. As stated the food was delicious pity about the nearly an hour wait to take our order and then after requesting someone to do so. Arrived at 12 and starters arrived at 1.15. Fiasco.

Massive Shame because really highly related when I searched for a place. Booked a table for 2oclock. It was so busy which i thought was good. Waited at the door for 10 mins before being acknowledged and seated. The menus were dirty covered in gravy or something. Took another 20 minutes before I asked to order. Was told it was at this point too late to have a starter. Took another 15 mins to get drinks. Food options were basic and very average. I asked for some sauce and was given the tiniest of pots...all for the cost of around £75 for two mains and 2 soft drinks each...never again.

Massive Shame because really highly related when I searched for a place. Booked a table for 2oclock. It was so busy which i thought was good. Waited at the door for 10 mins before being acknowledged and seated. The menus were dirty covered in gravy or something. Took another 20 minutes before I asked to order. Was told it was at this point too late to have a starter. Took another 15 mins to get drinks. Food options were basic and very average. I asked for some sauce and was given the tiniest of pots...all for the cost of around £75 for two mains and 2 soft drinks each...never again.

Not child-friendly. I ordered a babychino for £1.20. came in a tall, narrow china cup, perched on a small saucer. looked nice but totally unsuitable for young children. My 3-year-old then, unfortunately, knocked it all over himself. When I went to pay, I said I wasn't going to pay for it and that they should get some cups that were more suitable for children and more stable with a wider bottom. There was no apology or acknowledgement of the fact that I now had a 3-year-old covered in hot milk. The manager was petulant and indignant. He just said he'd never had this problem before. I said it wasn't suitable for children and that my boy was only 3. His response was, Well, my nephew is 2 and he doesn't have a problem. Totally unreceptive to what was reasonable feedback. What kind of place argues with a customer over £1.20 and doesn't even ask if the child is okay? terrible customer service.

Great venue. I highly recommend.

Great place and service, will definitely book again.

Popped in today for a coffee and perhaps a slice of cake. Was seated. A table of 4 come in after us and was seated. We were blanked for a good ten minutes and then the waitress went to take their order. We left. She didn’t even acknowledge us then. Unbelievable how poor her customer service was. Would not recommend!!

Really like it here. Have always had good food. Wasn’t keen on the lemon cake as the icing tasted very synthetic and wasn’t very lemony.

Could not understand why there isn’t a Sunday lunch menu, had to ask.

Love it here, have had lunch regularly with different family members. The staff are always friendly, welcoming and helpful. They cater for all dietary requirements and are easily accessible for prams and wheelchairs. Good value for money too. One of my favourites places!

I love this place. Food wise is a little inconsistent, some times the same order has different portion sizes and it would be nice to see the menu change a bit as its been the same for as far as I can remember. But the food quality is super (I usually eat brunch or lunch here). The service is spectacular. The coffee is amazing. Really clean. Allows dogs. Great spot :)

First time I had been in and had a lovely lunch.

The staff were a delight they made you feel so welcome and the food was delicious,

We had a party here for my wife's 40th birthday. The team were fantastic through the planning and absolutely brilliant on the night. Great food, drinks, and atmosphere with such friendly and helpful people working there. We'd definitely recommend.

Super welcoming and lovely place to eat

We visited Oliver & Hare on a Monday lunchtime, 2 adults and a 3 year old. We were seated straight away, our waiter was friendly and polite, engaging with both us and my daughter. Our food was fresh and served swiftly. All in all very good and we will be returning.

Been here twice in the last 2 weeks. Very enjoyable. Totally stuffed. Can't wait till next week!!!!!

Breakfast is excellent. The sausages are very good quality

Delicious breakfast this morning. Really good quality ingredients. Only slight let down was that it was quite a long wait, once we placed our orders. Although everything was served with a smile, and overall we were happy. Would gladly return again.

Food in here is incredible. I've lived in leighton for years and haven't been here until now but then came twice in a week as it is soooooo good. Highly recommended. One big Downside is that it is not wheelchair accessible. We had to lift my mum's wheelchair up a step to get it in.

Great lunch. Highly recommended. Great service.

Great lunch friendly service food good and good atmosphere well worth a visit

Had an amazing breakfast with my wife on our anniversary. The atmosphere is excellent and the food is served promptly and is delicious.

As usual service and food excellent nothing to much trouble. I had Hare of a dog as usual excellent, Veggie option of breakfast.

Mammoth wait for breakfast & it came out at different times

Unfortunately this visit was a little disappointing. We waited ages for our food which came out at different times & could have been warmer. It was tasty however. Tbh it's put me off returning. I've visited before & it was much better.

What a great little find in LB. Fantastic brunch, freshly cooked and lovely service. Interior is gorgeous. Highly recommend

Good stop for lunch. Nice atmosphere. Great food and friendly staff. Only negative is quite hot inside even with the door open.

The food is always very good and staff friendly!

Absolutely terrible customer experience today - Monday 1st May 2023. It took a while to get served and subsequently quite some time to get our meals. The restaurant had 2 people serving and clearly one of them was new or inexperienced (whilst that in itself was not a problem given we appreciate people have to start somewhere)…. But on a day when the town was packed due to a scooter rally and a fun fair on, a bit of thinking wouldn’t have gone amiss. What was worse was when my food did arrive, the table next to us had a dog who leapt up to my plate and continually sat staring whilst I ate, to the point I just didn’t finish my meal and my husband finished it instead. I don’t expect a dog in a fully fledged restaurant The same dog then knocked over a bowl of drinking water that was there for the dog (yes a 2nd dog) at the table next to it - and instead of cleaning it up, they left it to owners of the dog at the 2nd table. When the waitress was asked for more blue commercial towel, she said, “oh just leave it because I’ll have to go downstairs to get more” Not once did either waitress attempt to wipe the floor clean or dry. I was shocked at this as it was soaking wet, children and older people in the restaurant and it was a hazard. It’s been a long time to experience something so so poor and in a day when customer experience counts more towards repeat business than cost, sadly we won’t be returning or recommending. We would have stayed for further drinks but just wanted out…..

Food was very average tbh....presentation not good...

Best hot chocolate in the county. Food is pretty good as well. Lovely staff & value for the money.

Really nice location Food was good. The drinks packages are great Staff are friendly The place is decorated nicely and clean but lacked an atmosphere be nice if this place could be busier.

Friendly staff food good afternoon tea lovely .

We had excellent service from Riley. He is very friendly, helpful and efficient

Best breakfast I’ve had in ages. Lovely staff too. We’ll done 👍

Excellent service and scrumptious food for a great price, with a warm and welcoming atmosphere

I celebrated my 50th birthday at Oliver and share with 12 of my friends and family. It was a really lovely evening. The staff were so helpful and friendly and the food was delicious. Great atmosphere. Will definitely be rebooking soon.

We visited Leighton Buzzard for the day and popped in for coffee and a cake. Waited ages to be seated then a waitress said ‘oh I an seat you if I clear a table’ (isn’t that one of the key roles of waiting staff?). A table was eventuality cleared and we were left standing there … in the end we had to ask if it was now ok to sit down 🙄 Sat down ….. waited and waited ….. had enough time to Google another place to go instead ….. as we left 2 staff were standing chatting behind the counter and didn’t even look up to acknowledge us leaving 🤷‍♀️

Popped in yesterday for breakfast with our little puppy. The staff were really friendly and the poached egg muffins were excellent. Would highly recommend for breakfast In leighton buzzard

we ordered a takeaway lunch.. the service from phone to pick up was Fantastic

Fab place. Delicious food. Great service.

The most tasty food ever. Well and truly worth a visit. However you must book as it is a small place and can get very busy.

Good food, excellent service, atmosphere only spoiled by a large group of drunken women who only seemed capable of screeching at the top of their lungs!!

Lovely lunch with friends. Lovely food and atmosphere.

I think we might have expected too much from the reviews, but it wasn't great. The food was OK. The drinks came after the hot food, after some prompting. The lady serving us just seemed a bit annoyed and short with us, and others. Perhaps a staffing issue that day. It feels like it could have been lovely, but just felt a bit off.

Awful! Went for a work meal. Starters came out which were lovely from a chosen menu. Then the mains. Myself and a few others ordered fish cakes. What a disappointment. They were deep fried, I feel about 4 times. Either that or they had been sitting on the side for hours. Or kicked around the floor. Didn’t taste like “fresh homemade” fish cakes. More like old oil dripping batter. Didn’t taste any fish just over mashed potato! Asked for tomato sauce to go with the chips. Got in on what looks like a bottle lid. They brought out a rump steak for someone else. They had asked for it medium rare. This I feel would have been brought back to life if someone started cpr on it. The blood coming out of it was like a murder scene on the plate. They had forgotten another ladies order and brought out her fish cakes she ordered eventually and they looked completely different to everyone else’s. Couls actually see some parsley in it and looked fresh! Drinks totally over priced. On the plus side. The staff were lovely. Very attentive which is a shame. I’ve been here during lunch and was lovely. But this has put me off. My friend asked me if I was leaving a tip. The only tip I will leave is a message telling them not to serve fish cakes anymore that are dripping with oil. Scrap them altogether. Made me feel sick

Been a customer for a long time but I'm unlikely to return. I feel it's gone downhill. The service is fine, friendly and quite quick. I had the chicken in bacon with chips and side salad and the chicken was quick dry and hard to chew and quite a few of the chips were hard and greasy as if they had been at the bottom of the fryer for a while. My friend had scampi and chips and had a similar problem with the chips and realised near the end of the meal that she was meant to have peas which weren't there! All that said it was hot and edible was but not as enjoyable as it should have been and definitely a lower standard than previously. Shame, used to really enjoy going there.

Lovely coffe there and nice meals .Always a good breakfast 😋

Fabulous. Met a friend over Christmas and the place was busy with a wonderful atmosphere and friendly staff

Had a fantastic breakfast staff and food was excellent highly recommend

First time we have been in there. Nice people, good service, pleasant food and drink. Concerned re hygiene as the cracks in the table had old food in them. Not very nice.

We had a party of 8 people booked for the Xmas menu. We had to pay a £5 deposit per person and give our orders two weeks in advance. This was completely fine. So we arrived, at our booking time of 7pm. Then we waited....for a full 50 minutes. We watched as other tables came in and ordered and received their food before us. I get that we were a big table, but we had ordered TWO WEEKS in advance - surely you'd have the meals at least almost ready by the agreed time? The food came in big portions (which was good because we were starving by then), and was okay. The roast dinner had a ball of something we think was meant to be stuffing but absolutely was not, and Yorkshire puddings that were all burnt. It was a bit disappointing, especially after the wait, but completely edible. The brisket was apparently lovely and basically fell apart (maybe they started slow cooking it when we arrived?😉) Dessert took another half an hour, and the profiteroles were fantastic - absolutely recommend - but the Biscoff cheesecake apparently had no hint of Biscoff at all? Very weird. The staff was friendly and helpful, and the place itself was warm and cozy. We were given Christmas crackers on the table which was a nice touch. Also be aware that there is no parking and you have use one of the big car parks down the road - this isn't their fault at all but was a surprise. In general, it was okay and very affordable but I don't think I would go back, especially with a big party.

We had our annual family Christmas meal here tonight. It was a fantastic night. Amazing food. Our waiter Riley was brilliant and really looked after us. Would highly recommend eating here.

The food was really nice and portions very big but it is so so so slow!! I would recommend this place but factor in the extra wait for food and don’t go here if you’re hangry or in a hurry!!

I recently came with couple of friends for a dinner. I ordered burger with sweet potato chips - a choice of food I thought I couldn't go wrong with... Well, I was wrong. I don't think I ever ate more disgusting burger in my life. The patty was dry and overcooked, the bun was dry with no sauce and tasted old, the sweet potato chips were oily... I didn't touch my food after the first bite. The only positive thing on this place was the staff. They were lovely and very friendly.

Lovely relaxed lunch for the two of us

Fabulous little find in Leighton Buzzard the food was amazing and top quality, same goes for the service! this will be a regular for me now

Lovely food and very well priced, I was surprised when the bill came! Staff were very attentive but without being overbearing. Hardly had to wait for drinks etc to be offered and the food came very quickly. Faultless.

Fabulous breakfast with quality ingredients

Lovely place for lunch. The staff are all polite and friendly, good menu and the £10 lunch is excellent. Had a lovely lunch 😋

Fabulous Sunday lunch but more vegetables please.

Only went in for a coffee with my sister the staff were friendly the coffee was good so we had 2 cups and it wasn't overpriced 😊

We pre ordered our Sunday Roast, I had the beef and my wife vegetarian had the Nut Roast. My food was really nice plentiful especially the beef, not sure if it was normal or we ordered before kitchen closed. Wife loved her Nut Roast best she’s had. As usual lovely ambiance nice and chilled.

Eggs Benedict for breakfast was to die for!!!

Very nice food and good portion. Staffs are friendly too. 5*****

Nice, cosy restaurant in centre of Leighton Buzzard. Good value meals with some vegetarian options. Massive helping of sweet fried potatoes with our Halloumi burger.

Nice atmosphere, after having waited for nearly an hour the food turned out ok - my burger did not have a drop of sauce and was so dry I had to ask for 3 portions of mayo…neither was there coleslaw as advertised on the menu. Good job I was so hungry I ate that but next time I won’t come back for sure :(

Lovely food and reasonably priced

Great food,friendly staff lovely atmosphere

We returned to this, one of our favorite local restaurants last Saturday evening. Once again we had an excellent meal - fabulous perfectly cooked juicy steaks, delicious fat chips and all the trimmings, all served with a big dollop of personalised service and for a good price. What' s not to like?

Amazing Sunday lunch - the best in LB by far.

The food portions and quality of food is really good. Tasty harebit and chef’s pie of the day. Tables can be bit more cleaned for sure. Nice offerings of drinks.

Just had great afternoon at The Oliver and Hare. The afternoon tea was lovely and great value for money. The staff were very accommodating, not even chucking us out when it was time to close. Would definitely recommend it.

Been here a few times in the past and enjoyed it because the food and coffee are so good, so when I was again in the area I was looking forward to going again but the service was poor. Staff looked bored and unwelcoming, inattentive, and very slow - all grouped together at the counter when you tried to get their attention and people were left standing at the entrance for ages (not busy). It's not cheap so it's not much to ask. Might leave it for a while next time.

Never been before. Neat and tidy. Staff very helpful and the food I had was beautifully cooked. Well done Oliver and Hare

Great food and good service. Would highly recommend.

Popped in for an early birthday lunch. Good choice of food and drinks, nice atmosphere, friendly helpful staff. Been there before and will go again, recommend it to anyone.

Have visited twice and both times the food was mediocre and service inattentive. Food tastes like it has been frozen or prepared off-site. On the second visit the server forgot my order and I had to remind them what it was - it came 15 minutes after the rest of the table had already started eating. Server also did not offer dessert or coffee. Location and decor are perfect and it's a shame that the food isn't up to par.

Outstanding...wish I could give 20 stars. The staff were very friendly and the food was amazing, great venue. Thanks for saving our evening , as we had a terrible experience at the picture house over the road. Will look forward to coming again

Great breakfast, as usual. Thank you!

Great and very tasty Food. I had a mushrooms and halloumi bagel and it taste great. Nice atmosphere, lovely decor and good service.

Really nice place for a quite drink, very friendly and welcoming staff!

Came here for a bottomless gin and meal. Food was very nice, steak was cooked perfectly. The staff were very helpful and friendly.

Had the £40 unlimited rum and 2 course meal, rum selection was amazing and the food was exceptional, staff were second to none

Lovely catch up with friends had vegan option and was delicious staff service was great

Welcoming atmosphere, staff friendly and helpful. Food amazing, good portions and well presented