The Old Red Lion in Central Bedfordshire

Came for a late lunch on Tuesday. Lucky me they do #Pie Tuesday on the #carvery. Had a #lovely and #tasty #beefandalepie with a selection of #vegetables. Lovely decor, #familyfriendly , #dogfriendlypub , #freeparking . Had no space left for puddings this time but will definitely will visit again to try more dishes. Seen that they also do #afternoontea at very good prices.

We visited The Old Red Lion on a Saturday evening, we had visited a few times previously and had a great experience so decided to take a couple of visiting friends there. We were seated promptly, the pub was cosy, clean and not very busy. We ordered drinks and then food, 2 of us had the carvery, the other 2 ordered from the menu. Unfortunately the food really let the place down, I have had the carvery before but on this occasion it was awful. There was one Yorkshire pudding left and it looked completely overdone and very thin, like a pastry case! The chef serving asked it I wanted it and just thought why is it even out? I then got one of the last piggy's and stuffing ball.... Not great looking either, stuffing was cold and tough... I was asked which meats I would like, chose beef and gammon, he proceeded to serve one slice of beef and a couple of chunks of gammon and handed me the plate... OK, less than previous times, maybe he's new....? At this point expectations started to lower quite quickly. The vegetables were poor, good selection but the potatoes were stale, and the rest was overdone. I left a fair bit as it was not edible. We were told we could get more vegetables if we would like as I think one of the managers may have caught the look on my face when we were at the carvery but I don't see what the point would've been? Another person in our party had a lasagne, it was warm in the middle. Now I know we arrived in the evening but if the carvery was not up to a servable standard, why was it even out and offered? It was embarrassing. Silly thing is we ordered the carvery and half an hour later were told we could go up, surely in that time someone could have looked over it and made sure it was OK? We ate what we could, which was a bit as we were hungry, drank our drinks and paid the bill. The gentleman who seated us and the lady who waited on us were lovely and the only reason I've given them this rating otherwise it would be much lower. The potential is there to be better but the food really let them down this time.

We booked the old red lion for Christmas lunch at £75, while I understand everything costs more on Christmas day , I thought at least we would get our dinner served ,but no after waiting 40 mins just for a drink we recieved our starters.....then to be told we had to wait to be called to the CARVERY......just totally discussed....then a £55 gratuity added on at the end for serving ourselves.....never again.... the yorshire puddings were soggy, roast potatoes tasteless....Starters and dessert were OK but thats was it...absolutely never again

We had a wonderful evening with friends. The food was delicious with generous portions. I had the pie of the day with the carvery, it was so good. We had a really lovely waitress, who helped us through the menu. She was so friendly and very professional. Thank you Liz! I would highly recommend the restaurant

Lovely food,AMAZING service,very happy with the food and drinks,I had carvery and it is delicious lovely turkey. Definitely recommend!!!!

Great service from Jeremy the waiter friendly, courteous and very polite the food was amazing. Had a great time. I will see you again.

Terrible service. Staff need urgent training - the food was ok but ruined multiple visits because the wait staff really aren’t good.

Absolutely terrible. Waited along time to be served a drink and then when we went to get our carvery the meat and other food was of such poor we had to leave.

I’ve been in hotel and catering for 37 years. I had been invited there for my friends birthday which we had to pre book our meals weeks in advance. We arrived for 6.30 when our table was booked. We waited ages for any drink orders and 45 minutes for our starters. The staff were not rushed off their feet so they shouldn’t have taken so long to bring drinks or our starters out. The next mistake was no one had informed the party organisers the chef was not doing the hamhock for starters which is bad management not informing the party. And the chef in his wisdom thought it would be ok just to do a chicken dish instead. Which to me is not acceptable. The starters came out willy nilly and my friend had ordered white bait which looked like miniature fish fingers gone wrong from Iceland costing maybe 49p which were also burnt. Her dip with them looked like it had been used before which was disgusting. Which was sent back as it wasn’t edible. The order of service was dreadful. And the dinner rocked up at about ten past 8. In which two dinners were sent back due to being over cooked. One look cremated and the salmon was so over cooked it was white, dry and tasteless. I don’t think I would of even given it to my cat. So we sent it all back. They did re cook the chicken which was better on arrival 25 minutes later. But it did make me think if there was even a chef in the kitchen and it was a kitchen porter cooking instead. You need to know this because how can you improve your business if your not told. I will never ever eat there again. And would never recommend anyone to eat there as it was disgusting. I’m only sorry I never took pictures.

The roast was great. Well worth the money. Lovely attentive staff member who looked after us. We used to visit quite frequently before the pub was taken over and not disappointed with the roast now.

Having heard really good things about the red lion since it’s reopened, my friend and I decided to try it today for a meal at lunchtime. I was a little disappointed that they didn’t have the mussels on as after reading the menu online I was going to have that however I decided to have the pork belly which was excellent, a very slight criticism is the cracking wasn’t crispy but that’s only slight and I still really enjoyed my meal which was excellent! My friend enjoyed her hunters chicken. We decided to have a dessert but when the menu came there was so much not available, even the coffees! I understand they’d had a problem with a delivery and beyond their control, these things happen and we really enjoyed our selection of brownies with a pot of tea, the one thing we said is the staff were all so lovely and couldn’t do enough for you which makes for a very enjoyable experience. Will definitely be back very soon and can’t wait to try the carvery!