Le Petit Chef - Birmingham — Hotel in Birmingham

I honestly haven’t felt strongly enough to post a bad review about anywhere before…..

But my advice is if you want animation, substandard food, a pairing wine option that does not even get served with courses, not just poor service…..but actually rude……..I would save your £270 and go to the cinema and grab a McDonalds for about £25 instead ……and you get service with a smile at least!

It should have been an incredible experience, it had the potential to have been an incredibly memorable experience……and it was but for all the wrong reasons!

The food……try as I have there are no details of who the chef is, the food is reheated mass volume…..my main was substituted for fish as I’m pescatarian……..pictured above…..it was served skin on, but left soggy and not edible……..when asked if there was a problem as I left the meal, I said yes and explained……only to be told they would try harder next time.

The wine…….it’s sold as a pairing addition but not only does it not pair it doesn’t even accompany the courses.

The staff are inadequately trained, but worse still….they are rude!

Despite having no senior management on hand on the evening, I did contact them to raise my concerns as I was sure that this could not be the experience they would wish valuable customers to be receiving……but even there response was slow and as inadequate as the experience on the night.

My advice is look at reviews before you go……this one aside it has only 3 reviews with an...

The staff were friendly and did a great job at presenting the food. The food is supposed to represent 4 dishes, with 4 miniature chefs who each have a culinary background and compete for the best dish as part of the experience. Unfortunately as we both had gluten free options, the main steak dish was completely absent of a side dish of sauce that was supposed to be served with the dish. There's a dozen alternatives I can make that don't have gluten. Even some basic beef dripping? At £115 a head this is really disappointing.

The final dessert played a video presentation of a Japanese miniature chef. Only we were served a crem brulé which is french. We then had to vote on which cuisine was the best. As mentioned, for £230 for us both, at the very least another Japanese alternative dessert should have been presented as the entire experience is supposed to be based on a culinary competition. At this price point, you could visit virtually any other restaurant and taste menu and receive a hand crafted meal.

Great staff and fun experience spoiled a little by thoughtless options for people with allergens. Ironically one of the mini chefs and food course was based on Spain(Barcelona) which happens to have some of the most accessible gluten free dining...

The service was delayed by an hour which was not communicated by the staff.

Once we were finally seated, it still felt rushed with the servers not sure who should be sitting where (only a group of 20 people).

Once we started the majority of the food was just okay but not nearly the quality you’d expect at this price point. One of our party ordered the veggie option was was substituted from a beyond meat steak to a veggie wellington with no explanation, warning, or apology. The rest of the food was overcooked.

The servers generally seemed to lack experience, often mixing up in the group who was veggie and who had the classic. Also, general service was pretty poor either not timed with the ‘show’ or lacking basics such as keeping water topped up (wouldn’t normally complain about this but for a fine dining experience of only 20 people it shouldn’t be too hard to keep on top of this).

We raised our concerns - along with at least half the other people - which the manager did seem to take on board, just a shame we were essentially the Guinea pigs for them working all this out. Would recommend instead going to one of the many Michelin starred restaurants Birmingham has to offer which are either at the same price point or cheap but...