The Leopold Hotel, Sheffield, UK – review written 16 April 2016

The Leopold Hotel is roughly 10 minutes on foot from Sheffield railway station and it’s pretty easy to reach without seeking directions from passers-by. There are street maps all over town stating ‘you are here’ and Leopold Street is clearly marked.

I made an educated guess that the hotel would be on Leopold Street; it seemed like common sense – and I was right.

I liked the Leopold. It was clean, well presented and bang in the centre of town, so no complaints on that score. For me, however, it’s the little things that let a place down. Little things like nobody on the front desk when I arrived. I don’t need that kind of anxiety. The receptionist wasn’t gone for long, but there was no bell to ring to attract attention and I needed to get in my room and then head out immediately to a nearby dinner appointment.

For me the best thing about the Leopold was the receptionist. Lisa was wonderful, very helpful and friendly and that’s what you need in a hotel. The check-in was straightforward and I was given room 150 on the third floor. The room was fine too, but the view was poor. I drew back the curtains and was greeted by a brick wall, but it didn’t affect my stay.

My phone had run out of power. I didn’t have a charger – nor did the hotel – so I was relying upon the room phone to make an outside call. But it didn’t work. I kept getting an engaged tone. The problem wasn’t rectifiable so I had to provide Lisa, the receptionist with the number and she dialled it for me. Not a major problem, but little things count and it annoyed me.

Let’s talk about the room. There was a ‘minibar’, but it was really just a mini fridge with a couple of bottles of mineral water inside, nothing more, so I ticked the ‘doesn’t trust it’s guests’ box in my head and moved on. The wardrobe contained an ironing board, an iron and a few hangers and the bathroom was absolutely fine.

In so many ways the Leopold was fine. The room was comfortable, there was a desk on which to plonk the lap top, the WiFi worked fine and the bed was comfortable too. The minor wait in reception annoyed me, but only slightly, and the room phone issue didn’t really bother me.

I was looking forward to breakfast, which was served in the basement. The room was pleasant and the spread was ‘okay’ – I’d opted for the continental breakfast, which cost me just over £7. I hate having to pay extra for breakfast. I think it should always be included in the room price. Paying extra is a con as the price you’re quoted on-line doesn’t tally with the check-out price. I paid £85 on line, but ended up paying over £90! Not good.

For breakfast I ordered tea and toast and then helped myself to Alpen and a yoghurt. What annoyed me here was, again, a minor detail. The toast arrived, but no butter. I had to ask for it and then the waitress forgot.

Hotel tea always leaves a lot to be desired for some reason. However long the teabag remains in the pot, the tea is always weak. The stainless steel teapot was hot to touch so I had to use my napkin to open it and jiggle round the tea bag.

When all was said and done, however, the Leopold was a good hotel with a decent room and was ideally located in the centre of town. Top marks to Lisa for being a decent receptionist.

Best Western Cutlers Hotel, Sheffield, UK – review written 17 December 2015

A short cab journey brought me to the Best Western Cutlers Hotel on George Street in Sheffield. The receptionist was friendly and soon I was checked in to my room (room 203 on the second floor). The elevator was slow and I wished I’d taken to the stairs instead, but soon it arrived with a dull thud and I quickly found my room.

Room 203 was fine: a huge bed (two singles pushed together) a decent bathroom with proper taps – none of that designer rubbish offered by so many hotels, but proper taps with 'hot' and 'cold' written on them AND a plug on the end of a chain. Perfect! I wouldn't have to spend hours working out which was hot and which was cold and I wouldn't need a degree in mechanical engineering to figure out how to depress the plug and stop the water from leaving the sink.

WiFi was free, there was a flatscreen television on the wall – after dinner with a colleague in Bill's near Millennium Square I watched the BBC news – and then, after a broken night (I rarely sleep well in hotels) I began to look forward to the breakfast room, which was located in the basement. I'm so glad I didn't have dinner in the hotel's restaurant because it completely lacked atmosphere and, because of this, there was nobody else dining there. Bill's provided much-needed hubbub, and by that I mean other diners, people, music, laughter, everything that my hotel restaurant lacked.

I was hoping that the hotel breakfast would deliver something special, but it didn't. For a start the room was horribly bright and white and there were supposedly 'trendy' distressed park benches and tables and a meagre self-service option at the far end of the room. Brightness of this magnitude simply doesn't work in a hotel breakfast room, in my opinion. It was like being in the garden furniture section of a large garden centre – not an ideal place to enjoy the first meal of the day.

Boxed cereal, tinned fruit and a banana-flavoured yoghurt: that was the offering in front of me, but a waitress eventually appeared and took my order from a small menu on the table: scrambled egg, toast and fried mushrooms. I realised that fried mushrooms were no longer my thing. I don't mind them raw in a salad or as part of, say, a cheese salad sandwich, but fried: ugh! Greasy and slippery mushrooms are simply not pleasant.

The most irksome thing about the breakfast was a dirty cereal bowl. Without my glasses on I mistook the dried food stuck on the inside of the bowl for some kind of logo – how foolish and stupid am I? It turned out to be dried food. Unfortunately I had already tipped my bran flakes into the bowl and added the milk, so I persevered, but vowed to check everything else that came my way. Fortunately it was a one-off mistake, but it made me feel doubly relieved that I had opted for Bill's last night and not the hotel restaurant. In fact, I should have gone to Bill’s for breakfast.

Right now, rather than use my own lap top in the room, I am sitting at a wooden table just off the main staircase using the hotel's computer (a PC). Other than the aforementioned dirty bowl, the Cutlers Hotel was pleasant. I get the feeling that it was once an office building, and not a purpose-built hotel, as the main staircase screamed 'office block'. There's a large stained glass window that runs from the top to the bottom of the main stairwell and a carpet matching the window's design.

This isn't a 'grand hotel' but it's fairly pleasant, and bang in the centre of Sheffield. Despite its central location, it's quiet and peaceful and 'off the beaten track' but only minutes on foot from the Crucible Theatre and Millennium Square where all the decent restaurants are to be found: Cosmo, Smoke Barbecue, Piccolino's, Cafe Rouge, Brown's, Pizza Express and, of course, Bill's.

A brief word about Bill's. I remember visiting the first ever outlet in Lewes, East Sussex, back in the days when Bill's was simply an independent restaurant – circa 2010. I went there with Miles Jenner, head brewer and managing director of Harveys of Lewes, a fantastic, traditional brewer of fine English cask ales (my description, not theirs). Harveys of Lewes brews a beer specifically for Bill's – or it did back in 2010. The outlet in Lewes, East Sussex, was everything one might expect from an independent restaurant: pine tables and a traditional but quirky menu catering for all needs and meal occasions. I was surprised to hear that expansion was on the cards for Bill's, but a few months, possibly a couple of years later, I visited Bill's in Leamington Spa and then yesterday here in Sheffield, and all was well. Last night I ordered roast chicken with sweet potato fries and a couple of glasses of Merlot, rounded off with a light pecan pie and a cup of tea. My colleague enjoyed a rack of ribs. Why they thought I would be capable (alone) of drinking a huge pot of tea just before bedtime I don't know, but I do know that it contributed in some small way to my broken night's sleep. That comment about 'catering for all needs and meal occasions' rung true of the Sheffield Bill's as, in addition to dinner there were lunch and, indeed, breakfast offerings on the menu.