The Blacksmith Arms - Huddersfield

This looks like a lovely place but unfortunately we arrived as it was getting dark on a misty day. Would love to have arrived on a warm sunny with time for a drink outside before dinner. I’m trying to eat better these days and choose this place because they seemed to have a couple of starter and main vegan dishes. On arriving we were greeted nicely. And given a decent table although on my side I was somewhat in the way of a busy thoroughfare. As much as I liked the place and the staff there were a couple of issues: of the two vegan options I was told that they could not provide one of them because it took a little extra work (for proper mash if I heard correctly) and they were too busy. Apparently, I should have ordered that in advance although it says nothing on the menu on Facebook (could n’t find a website). Their second “vegan” option was a risotto with asparagus and pea and, hang on, parmesan. Clearly a substitute had not been considered. As it stood, the meal was very bland but I was too hungry not to eat it. Mum’s chicken and ham pasta dish was nice she said but nothing special. If I was not restricting my diet I would definitely try this place again though, the stuff arriving at other tables looked great, but if you are vegan I would probably ring the chef and ask about the dishes available. One other thing, no WiFi. When I asked at the bar one girl was just about to say something positive I think from the look on her face but a slightly older girl spoke over her to tell her there was no public WiFi. Funny, I thought I was a paying customer. It was a shame as there was no phone signal being so remote and there was a big game on!!! So summarising what is meant as constructive feedback it is clear that the vegan options need improving and that as a business this place needs to come into the modern day by getting a web site with more customer info and very importantly customer Wi-Fi (who does n’t have that these days? I thought the prices were very reasonable, but then again I live down south now so might not have the best local context. Hope that helps and I’ll see you another time.

Beautiful food and surroundings. Shared a camenbert cheese and garlic bread starter had a ribeye steak veg and chips and a goats cheese tomato and caramelised onion tart with new potatoes and veg all beautifully cooked and presented. Would highly recommend

The food was lovely l the service was efficient.. however we were not impressed vy the front of house staff behind the bar.. they were busily debating what they should wear as a uniform, more importantly one of them swore and twice we heard who was going for a wee not appropriate to share with customers . Black chinos and a black shirt for front of house staff . Not overly sure we will come again .

We visited today as a family of 12 for a birthday celebration. We have visited several times before and always rated the food and service but on this occasion we were extremely disappointed. We felt we were greeted with rudeness on arrival from the woman behind the bar. When she came to take our order, we weren’t quite ready at which point she seemed annoyed and told us that we only had 2 hours for the table because it was a Sunday. When the food arrived, they placed the very hot side dishes in front of very young children and even passed the food directly over my 3 year old’s head. At this point he started crying and we realised they had dripped scalding hot gravy onto his head. We understand mistakes can happen, but food shouldn’t really be passed over people’s heads. The staff seemed oblivious to what had happened and sadly due to the level of service we were receiving, we did not feel we could raise the issue with them. The food itself was fine, not as nice as we’ve had before. The veg was undercooked and we noticed several tables around us also commenting on this. The basic standard of service just wasn’t there. No one to ask if everything was okay with our meal etc. At the end when we asked for the bill no one came back and we had to ask again. Eventually we then had to go and pay at the bar. Unfortunately, we haven’t had a great experience and felt like we couldn’t have raised the issue due to the poor attitude of the young staff working there.

A family Sunday lunch booked for 6 plus child made nearly 3 weeks prior to the booking, with a request for a table next to or in the same room as the panoramic views from the restaurant area. Explained to us on the telephone there were no guarantees but a note would be made of our request. On arrival we were entirely opposite our request, facing a wall and next to the busy footfall of the kitchen/ front of house servery door. The service was good. The food…. is not consistent, we’ve had better before. It’s difficult in the catering industry to make a profit corners have had to be cut ways to conserve energy costs etc. all part of the profit margin. Cooked vegetables the degree of ‘crunch’ os down to personal taste. These weren’t to our taste they seemed undercooked tasteless. The mashed potatoes could have done with the addition of butter they were bland/ tasteless. The gravy, very average in my opinion had far too much starch to thicken it. Basically a very average somewhat pretentious Sunday lunch, it looked good but in my opinion failed on the tastebuds. The fact is that we weren’t seated as requested and then being served food we had over 3 courses made it a disappointing £174 lunch for 6. No accompaniments were offered throughout the meal. On leaving the restaurant we decided to look at the adjoining duck pond to the car park, only to be startled by a rat that shot out from under one of the seats disappeared down the side of the pond. Obviously it must have been out to forage in the middle of the day. I don’t think we’ll return in the near future there are other hostelries/Inns offering far better value better cooked to what’s currently being offered. It’s not bad, not outstanding/ of note or exceptional. Just average.