The best thing about the The Midland Hotel is probably the location. Right in the city centre, across the road from the new looking shopping mall and adjacent to Forster Square Station which is handy for trains to Leeds & Saltaire. There is another newish shopping complex, the Forster Square Retail Park, just beyond the station. Another bonus is that the hotel has its own free parking lot for guests, enter off Lower Kirkgate.
It’s a Victorian era grand railway hotel and it’s been well preserved over the years. It’s also quite large and of a vintage where the hotel rooms differ in size and shape and so you can go from one extreme to the other, in the same price band. After a mix up with communication on arrival day, I was given a small stuffy shoe box of a room on the main road. But the hotel front desk was eventually able to move me and to a room that was over twice the size, far lighter, brighter and much quieter.
My new room had a large, renovated bathroom. But the bedroom was showing its age, especially the furniture. That said it was clean and fairly comfortable. Sadly, the ancient windows seemed to be fixed closed. There was no mini-bar fridge, but there was a kettle for tea & coffee and an iron and board.
The restaurant was only open for breakfast, perhaps a combination of low occupancy and staff shortages. The breakfast buffet was OK, but just OK, rather old world to be honest and a bit on the spartan side. You could order eggs cooked as you like them, but sadly only poor filter coffee and toast, to order only, was a sad choice of just white or brown.
By contrast lunch and dinner was served in the lobby bar and the food I ate over several nights was great. I can highly recommend the steak pie dish and the cheeseburger. The staff in the bar were always friendly too and this little bar was the highlight of the property. Though it did get busy at times so it seemed you could reserve a table for dinner. The hotel has two large ballrooms and was actively promoting live shows for the coming months. How that and weddings affect weekends here, I’m not sure, but hopefully they will reopen the restaurant in the evenings before too long.
But would I go back, personally, as a solo traveller, probably not. At present it seems expensive for the standard presented. At the moment I think one might get better value for money and possibly better accommodation at one of the nearby chain hotels, but it's a personal thing. I should also say that these are difficult times for hotels post pandemic. At the end of the day The Midland is an historic building, it's far from being a bad property and the staff do try hard to please. Be sure to check out the Laurel & Hardy aspect if you do stay, who knew. less