Blue Bicycle, York

I've never written a review before but the terrible service we received at the Blue Bicycle has compelled me to do so. The service was awful and when it came to making a complaint the manager ignored us. After writing a letter of complaint to the owner, we have been ignored again! Utterly terrible service. I would not recommend the Blue Bicycle to anyone!

25% of dinner menu not available at 8.00pm. One starter on special menu not available at 8.00pm. If you are going to charge these prices all of menu's should be available, I dont particularly like any fish dishes but was forced into having one and it was my 60th birthday! Service charge of 10% does not go the staff only if paid in cash. Diabolicle!

A crashing disappointment. I honestly hate writing bad reviews about places... I'm a devout foodie and can normally find something to love. But the Blue Bicycle was almost completely unloveable. They don't exactly treasure their guests... you're barely acknowledged (although our waitress was lovely).

A bad evening began with my friend and I being told we'd need to vacate the table in two hours (we'd got a bit lost and were 20 mins late for our reservation). This left us feeling a bit rattled and unwelcome - surely they could have turned the table without making it so obvious?

Still, we sat down fully prepared to enjoy our food. The restaurant had come highly recommended. The free bread and roasted garlic appetiser was the high point... delicious. If only it had stopped there.

My friend ordered two "specials" off the blackboard - French onion soup and a trio of fish. The first, she said, was ordinary and she could have made it better herself. The second she had to spit into her napkin. She complained to the staff the fish tasted of chemicals... they informed her it was the sage. Either way, it wasn't pleasant!

My starter was a Bloody Mary prawn cocktail. The prawn cocktail had been set in a chef's ring and the mayo had set in a cold, solidified rim - as if it had just been lifted out of the fridge. My main was horrible - the vegetarian option: an asparagus and red pepper "cake" with goat's cheese profiteroles. The "cake" was fried in breadcrumbs and had a cous-cous filling mixed with the chopped veg. The breadcrumbs were overdone and the cous-cous had not been cooked properly so grains of it crunched between your teeth like sandy sarnies on a beach picnic. I was left with a meal of goat's cheese and pastry! In fairness, when I complained they apologised and offered us free puds. By then we wanted out of there, though. They knocked my meal off the bill but the experience still cost us £60.

Other minus points - we were sat in a draught and each course took just four and a half mins (I timed it) to arrive in front of us. Even McDonalds looks like slow food compared to that! You felt everything had been sitting around in fridges or shoved in frying pans to singe, rather than carefully prepared for your delectation. Interesting to read how many others have the Blue Bicyle blues!

The Blue Bicycle has a lovely atmosphere and the best steak my boyfriend has ever tasted. The service was prompt, helpful and informed.

It seems expensive for what it is, especially the starters. They do that annoying "a 10% service charge will be added to the bill" so you have to actually ask them to not charge it. We refused and left cash for our very good waitress.

A great choice for dining with friends or a romantic meal. Really relaxed and great food, if a bit overpriced (especially the starters)

The food and the atmosphere at Blue Bicycle were fantastic, going on Valentine's evening we expected to be waiting a while for our food (it was very busy) however this was not the case. The food was excellent and the service very good. The garlic and bread very lovely, the Monk fish was beautiful and the Halibut mouth watering. I have also read the previous reviews and can not beleive they are for the same place. The meals are a little pricey but for the food you get I would say well worth it. I would say the evening overall was the best I've had, I didn't want to leave. I would recommend the blue bicycle and will return the next time I visit York

Lovely atmosphere with unique surroundings. Service good and prompt.

Garlic starters... brilliant and free!

Maybe after reading the last 5 reviews the Blue Bicycle has been totally overhauled as they didn't reflect our experience. The food was excellent and the staff were interested in delivering our meals to ensure the experience was nothing but pleasurable.

At the Blue Bicycle we ordered 3 main fish courses - all the fish was very overcooked as if it had been 'waiting'; the risotto was disappointing - overcooked rice which had been seemingly cooked in very strong stock-cube liquor; the tomatoes and basil oil had apparently been missed from the risotto; I think the salt and pepper pots must have fallen into the risotto, it was so seasoned; we couldn't eat it. After trying to get the staff's attention we gave up and sent the dishes back to the kitchen. We asked for the manager (because we felt as though the staff did not seem to care, other than our nominated waiter) and was told they only work 'office hours' so we wrote the next morning by e-mail. 5 days later I wrote again by post as I hadn't received even an acknowledgement. I then received a response saying they had viewed the CCTV of the restaurant that night and was quite happy that all was OK!

Review of Blue Bicycle, York - Starters were good - I had the chick pea dhal (which was really a channa) but there was a long wait of about 15-20 mins while the waitress went off to find out if I could have this as a starter, (and this was at 18.35), as it was originally a main course dish - my husband had the salmon fishcakes which were good. I felt the quality of food and service descended rapidly after that. I had sea bass with confit potatoes and cherry tomatoes with millefuille. The sea bass was bland, although nicely cooked. The potatoes had no flavour. Cherry tomatoes tasted nice, but the 'thousand leaves' was more like 2 semi-puff pastry dishes.

My husband had a salmon steak which he said was ok. He had ice-cream for pudding, the tastes of which (there were three different scoops) were indecipherable and I had the 'lemon and ginger cheesecake' which just tasted sour and the ginger was distinctly absent. They did have the grace to remove it from our final bill after it was obvious that 'everything was not alright' when I was asked. We will not be going back.

Of the starters ordered 1 was 10 mins late. Of the main courses ordered 1 was 15mins behind the others, needless to say this left 1 person eating alone! One starter of scallops was delivered semi-raw!! One fillet asked for as Medium/well was delivered rare. The service from start to finish was poor, needless to say no tip was left and I was a little taken aback that the management did not enquire as to why....This experience is far removed from our only other visit there, which was a couple of years ago, I understand the chef has changed, and my can you tell!!

The food was reasonable, we steered clear of the foie gras which was the apparent reason for the protest outside.The veal was an interesting dish, and the baby rabbit had an interesting garnish that added flavor to a rather dry meat. The wine selection was not quite as broad as we had hoped and we settled for a French red that was adequate.There are so many other restaurants in York to try i think we'll try somewhere else next.