Tilleys Bistro

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Tilleys Bistro - Possibly the Worst Restaurant Eve 26th October 2009

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After struggling to find any restaurants in Bath on a Sunday night at 7pm that looked busy, we came across Tilleys Bistro and had a look at the menu. Poking our head inside the restaurant, there appeared to be a few people so we though we would give the restaurant a try. Walking into the small and drab upstairs restaurant we almost decided to leave but decided to stay - how I wished we had left and gone to McDonalds, KFC, a greasy spoon - anywhere but Tilleys Bistro.

After being led downstairs it became apparent that this place was stuck in the past and would fit nicely into the genre of 'rubbish restaurant circa 1979'. Why there is a random scattering of Chelsea paraphernalia, I have no idea, and the framed old Chelsea tickets are beyond naff. As for the dust covered frogs everywhere, your guess is as good as mine. We were seated by a relatively pleasant, but slightly fearful looking girl. The source of her apparent fear soon became clear when a stompy, matronly Battleaxe (who I can only assume was one of the owners) regularly criticised her loudly in front of customers. We could certainly hear every admonishment. We ordered a starter to share which on the menu was an assortment of smoked salmon, smoked eel and poached salmon with coriander and lemon mayonnaise. We were informed by the Battleaxe that there was no smoked eel so this would be replaced by smoked mackerel. When the dish arrived it was tiny. Recognising that it was a starter for one person that was being shared, we had barely a small mouthful of each fish. At £8.50 this was extremely overpriced. We also ordered some 'French bread' which was a few pieces of baguette which was fine, and a dry end of a brown sandwich loaf. We were dreading our main courses and it turned out, rightly so. I ordered Cassoulet and a side-salad. The Cassoulet was tiny, under seasoned and had horrid chunks of fried bread on top. The side-salad was bland, limp and un-dressed. We also shared spaghetti with chicken livers and pesto. No spoon was forthcoming and the dish was summed up as 'uninspiring'.

The bill was £54 which was beyond expensive for horrible food and small portions. We regularly eat out in a variety of restaurants all over the country and Tilleys Bistro is by far the worse. I think our experience was summed up when we paid the bill and Battleaxe asked us whether we enjoyed our meal. When telling, very politely, a fraction of dissatisfaction especially about the portion size of our starter she snapped back, 'well, fish is expensive you know, what do you expect?' or something equally unacceptable. Why ask for feedback if you don't want to receive it? I am stunned that this place is in business. Hopefully it won't be for much longer, my only concern is that people will visit this hell-hole from abroad and believe that this is the standard of restaurant food in the UK.