The reservation was made to celebrate my partners birthday. He had been looking forward to an evening of good food & wine in a friendly atmosphere. The reality was completely different.
I arrived first, I noticed the table was located not too far from the disabled toilet. You could smell a chemical smell in the air. On this evening it had been raining heavily- I don’t know if it caused an effect to the drainage outside but I knew I did not want to be seated there so asked to be moved to another table.
Once my partner arrived and was seated. Before asking for his drink order or engaging with us. The waiter proceeded to alert us of when the table would be needed for the next reservation at 20:30 and we should order our mains as quickly as possible. Bearing in mind we were not late, we were 30 mins early. I have never experienced that kind of bluntness from any restaurant before. “How do you think you can get away with applying pressure to eat and go?” I chose to overlook this behaviour as I knew my partner was looking forward to eating there so this was not addressed.
His main was a Ribeye Steak for £46 with no sides. You would get a better cut out of a supermarket. The steak was very fatty and partly inedible. The garlic butter which was supposed to melt over the steak was almost frozen and would not melt. The chips resembled McCain’s triple cut chips. My main which was the Beef mixed grill wasn’t great either, this tasted reheated instead of freshly prepared. Shortly after the main course the waiter proceeded to spill my partners glass of red wine on him. Instead of clearing the table and did not apologise for his clumsy error.
When making the reservation I had informed the staff member that it was my partners birthday. I enquired if a ‘birthday plate’ could be arranged. I was assured that this could happen. When the dessert arrived like other establishments I’ve taken him to, you will see a decorated plate with ‘Happy Birthday’ wording, a candle or the birthday song being sung. This was not the case at the Guinea Grill. He received the dessert he had ordered then handed a postcard with the waiter stating “it’s your birthday right?” It felt like it was an after thought to the waiter, completely meaningless. Very disappointing.
The bill was presented with the service charge added on of nearly £35. I have no issues paying for this at other establishments but after all I had witnessed and experienced - I asked for the service charge to be removed. The waiter could not grasp the concept that how he had acted from when my partner arrived had contributed to the outcome at the end of the evening.
The bill was paid followed by a prompt exit - with both of us vowing never to go back again.
Disengaged staff will cost this place customers.