Wyken Vineyards

I feel that I must now write a review as this is the second time recently that my partner and I have had a terrible experience at The Leaping Hare. As a Birthday treat my partner arranged a special meal. We both chose the 10oz steak as our main course and at £40.00 per plate, we were hopeful of something special. Both plates arrived extremely quickly, this consisted of the steak, a very small pile of rocket, one single slice of mushroom and a few hand cut, large chips - and sadly as before, on stone cold plates, something we had flagged up on a previous visit. It was clear that my steak in particular had a enormous wedge of fat, this was literally half the width of the steak. The Manageress was extremely apologetic, very professional and quickly arranged for another steak to be cooked, which was a great improvement but it did cause the rest of our main course to be out of sync. I usually choose to have a main course and a desert as I struggle to eat three courses but I ended up skipping desert as well as the menu was very un-inspiring and limited, with mainly ice-creams or sorbets. Our experience of the staff has been very positive, but we cannot overlook the dismal meals and basic mistakes. It appears that the Chef has let the team down enormously, I'm not sure how or why that steak left the kitchen on a plate destined for a customer. We were not on our own, as other diners had exactly the same experience in the same sitting. This experience certainly tarnished our evening and whilst we were happy to give The Leaping Hare a second chance after our previous terrible meal in February, we do not feel that they deserve a third chance.

Excellent food in a beautiful setting. The menu is full of great options. We had the trout and mackerel starters, both were delicious. The mains were just as good and the blood orange pavlova was perfection. We loved the ethos behind the whole estate too. A great place

Fantastic service, they were very attentive and had very good recommendations on which wines worked the best with our meals. My beef melted on my pallet and the mash was buttery and smooth. I highly recommend experiencing Wyken Vineyards.

Lovely grounds, the shop is really nice for a mooch. We had a lunch, outdoors from the cafe. The service was excellent. We had a cheese scone which wasn't good. Overpowered by chives and it was definitely microwaved. Everything else was OK. It was busy. We left unimpressed. We've been before hoping the fresh pizza kiosk was open, as it was excellent, sadly it wasn't.

We booked lunch at the restaurant before a vineyard tour. Knowing it’s a busy place we allowed 1.5 hours for lunch. Sadly we waited half an hour before our starters or drinks arrived. My aperitif came after starters were served. My husband ordered a beer which was served in a wine glass with the excuse that there were no beer glasses available. The starter portions were very small for the price but tasty. The main course and wine were lovely. Unfortunately due to the very slow service we did not have time for dessert and left for the tour. I’m afraid this is not the first time we have experienced poor service here and it really puts a damper on the visit. We were charged £18.24 service charge even though I complained about it at the time. The waitress said “yes I know, sorry about that” and walked away! We won’t be back.

A quiet and friendly place to eat. No dogs allowed in the restaurant. There's a shop which is quite expensive... all the usual nick-nacks, books, blankets, and other usual stuff that befits a destination shop. Nice quality items though. And there's a market every Saturday, but this ends mid afternoon so get there early. All the food, plants and other goods are of real quality. I love this place to while away a couple of hours. We always take our pooch Louie, he particularly likes the cheese stall with it's taster board 😋 There's also a small coffee shop which does excellent coffee, pastries and the like. Well worth a visit.

We went to the Wyken Vineyards for the wine tasting tour at the weekend, which we found to be very informative and good value (the history of the vineyard etc was explained well). Seeing the vineyard itself was great and then tasting two white wines, sparking wine and their new Gin was fun - we did purchase a bottle or two on leaving! We then ate as a Four in the Laughing Hare restaurant - amazing food and highly recommended! An unfortunate accidental spillage of red wine by the waiter was very calming and efficiently dealt with by the Restaurant Manager who could not have been more apologetic and helpful. Highly recommended.

Absolutely wonderful meal at The Leaping Hare last night. First but definitely not our last visit. The food was exceptional, the service spot on. Each course brought new flavours & new twists on tried & true flavours. Quality food & beautifully presented but definitely quality over fanciful whims or over the top presentation. The flavours were rich & offered depth & interest. Highly recommend the hare (the confit was out of this world & the Sea Buckthorn Pavlova exquisite) Service was very personable & professional. Could not fault a thing. Fabulous meal, wonderful evening.

Very civilised place to visit. Farmers market, restaurant with Michelin bib. Shop with obligatory craft, cutlery and china. Garden to wander around cooing at the turkeys, guinea fowl, llamas and peacocks. And a maze (don't cheat). Yes, it is all a bit picture perfect and contrived, but none the worse for that. You have to pay to visit the garden which catches in the caw, but otherwise all good.