Adriatic Hotel, Leeds

...to my meeting place. Adriatic Hotel appeared on Google Maps as the closest one and so I chose to stay here.

BOOKING

My colleague booked the room for me. The person was very helpful and the booking process was very simple and my colleague was also directed to their website in case she needed extra information.

LOCATION

The hotel is based in Chapeltown which is not in central Leeds but in ...
.../> The website does provide a map for drivers but does not offer any information on public transport links, mainly because there are none. I took a taxi from the train station to the hotel which cost me £6.50 for approximately 5 - 10 mins.

ARRIVAL/RECEPTION

When the taxi pulled up to the hotel driveway, a member of staff was waiting outside, which I thought was very nice and professional, but then seeing his facial ... more

I visited Leeds on a business trip and needed to stay somewhere that would be close to my meeting place. Adriatic Hotel appeared on Google Maps as the closest one and so I chose to stay here.

BOOKING

My colleague booked the room for me. The person was very helpful and the booking process was very simple and my colleague was also directed to their website in case she needed extra information.

LOCATION

The hotel is based in Chapeltown which is not in central Leeds but in one of its more suburb-like areas.

The website does provide a map for drivers but does not offer any information on public transport links, mainly because there are none. I took a taxi from the train station to the hotel which cost me £6.50 for approximately 5 - 10 mins.

ARRIVAL/RECEPTION

When the taxi pulled up to the hotel driveway, a member of staff was waiting outside, which I thought was very nice and professional, but then seeing his facial expression, it appeared to me that he was quite surprised to see me (although he did try to contain it a bit!). Nonetheless, he courteously opened the door for me and showed me the way to the reception.

The reception area was a modest desk at the side of the hotel restaurant like one of those podium's you'd find at a normal restaurant. The receptionist who turned out to be a person of multiple roles was very friendly and welcoming although he seemed to forget that I had a room reservation and it wasn't until I explained for a couple of minutes of my company etc that it finally dawned on him. In reflection, I now understand why, as it appeared later on in the night and the duration of my stay that I was the only hotel guest and probably the first one they had in a very long while!

The receptionist kindly showed me to my room while politely making chitchat which was nice. He also briefed me on the breakfast times; how to open and lock the door as well as where the facilities such as the public telephone were.

RESTAURANT

Once I had dumped my things in my room, I made my way down the stairs to the restaurant and was shown to a table in relatively good time as the staff was catering for three different parties that evening.

The dinner menu had a wide selection of typical English pub-like offerings. Starters had dishes such as garlic bread; soup of the day; garlic mushrooms and prawn cocktail. Main courses had grilled chicked; lamb cutlets; steaks and breaded pork escalope. These were accompanied with mixed vegetables. There were also chilli con carne; beef or chicken curry with rice and pasta bolognese but did not come with extra sides of vegetables.

I think I waited around 10 minutes to order and chose the roast beef with yorkshire pudding and a glass of house red wine. I waited around another 10 - 15 minutes for my meal to arrive which was pretty good as the staff looked pretty stressed out trying to keep up with their three parties.

For my meal, I was presented a plate of two larges pieces of beef (like those you'd get for a beef sandwich), a yorkshire pudding - nice and crispy! - and the vegetables were peas, carrots (cut into flower shapes which was rather cute albeit a bit retro) and salad potatos. I was also given a gravy boat to pour my sauce myself which was good as I was able to make sure that I could make a well of gravy in my yorkshire pudding before covering everything else in the good ol' brown sauce.

The portion was a good size as I was definitely full after just that one dish even though I was hungry and I'm quite a big eater too. It made me glad that I didn't order dessert though I did see that the couple a few tables down had a fruit cheesecake. The house wine was typical cheap plonk which isn't really worth commenting on.

My meal came to £10.80 which was pretty cheap I think for a hotel.

ROOM

I had a single room with ensuite shower., which included a TV and tea making facilities. The facilities were very basic, where the TV - showing terrestrial only - was a throwback to the 80s in design and this is further complimented by its very retro decor in the over decadent floral bedspread cover, matching curtains and worn floral carpet. I'm sure the hotel was nice in its hey day but looks like it's time for a makeover. The only people I can imagine would possibly gasp in delight at the decor would be an eighty year old granny who loves floral patterns in everything in a room - including the odd floral bathroom tile.

LIke these cheap hotels, the walls are thin and due to the several parties happening downstairs, I was able to have free live music playing through my bedroom walls while I tried to have an early night. Still due to the lovely curtains, at least I was enveloped in complete darkness so I was able to sleep more soundly than usual and the bed was comfortable enough and did not have those awkward squeaky noises that a worn out bedspring would usually emit.

The shower was very spacious for a small ensuite which was very good. Although the shower head looks exactly like a typical one that you would find in the public swimming pool, the strength was good so I was pleased not to have a drippy shower. The only downside was that I had to wait half an hour before I was able to get any hot water. I even had to get Mr Multi-task to come and be my handyman and sort out the hot water problem for me. The reason was that it takes ages for the hot water to reach the other rooms from the main boiler as I had noticed; I was only on the second floor so I would feel sorry for anyone staying on the third floor furthest away from the boiler! Also when hot water is used in another part of the hotel, notably the kitchen, I would get flashes of cold, trickly water during my shower.

BREAKFAST

LIke any hotel guest, I usually look forward to the breakfast. Breakfast times are 7am - 9am Mondays to Fridays and 8am - 9am on Sundays.

A glass of orange juice is already poured out at the table for the guest and a jug of milk. Breakfast included cereal, orange juice, tea/coffee, toast with condiments and an English breakfast. The latter included two slices of bacon, one sausage (which I never got), mushrooms, one tomato and two fried eggs. If you wanted extra, you would be charged extra accordingly. There was a choice of four cereals: Weetabix, bran flakes, corn flakes and muesli. I would've liked to have seen beans or ketchup to go alongside my English breakfast but I was full nonetheless.

Unfortunately service was not as good as the previous evening which was a shame but everything was still served promptly. There was also a TV in the lounge as to avoid awkward or deathly silence while I dined alongside one other fellow person who was a local.

STAFF

i cannot really fault the service as everyone was helpful, polite and most were very friendly. As I was the only guest that also because they were not busy, Mr Multi-task was very flexible in when I wanted to check out so instead of checking out at 10:30am, I stayed till around noon because I had a meeting around that time.

CONCLUSION

Although this is not a hotel that one would usually think of for an overnight stay, it does its job and certain staff definitely made up for the shabby decor through their excellent customer service. I think this hotel is mainly used for restaurant bookings more than anything else now and I can see why. It does pack a nice atmosphere in the evenings but again, I think only the locals would go there. For me, if you can book somewhere else, then do so but if you are for some odd reason happen to be in this area of Leeds, by all means pop in and don't expect too much from this hotel and in turn it'll surprise you with its little gems. 

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