Chez Mal Aberdeen — Restaurant in Aberdeen City

My partner and I dined at your restaurant on the 10th of January to sample your new 2019 menu.

Our excitement was quickly wiped away after the worst service we have ever been a part of. We arrived promptly and were left waiting to be seated as nobody was at the desk. Once shown to our table, we were told our waiter would be taking care of us for the evening, whom which we never saw once.

After looking at the menu, 30 minutes went by, during which your staff just looked at us as they walked past, before I had to get up and request somebody come and take our order.

A further 30 minutes went by before we received our chicken terrine and poached egg starters. On top of the poor service, these dishes were bland, with the eggs overcooked.

Once the starters were finished, I had to request someone to clear the plates, at which time we ordered more drinks. The male who served these lacked any charisma and came across bored; someone you shouldn't have dealing with customers.

An additional 45 minutes have gone by since our starters were taken away, and we've reached 10:30pm. My partner is starving and we now have to apologise to your staff because we are leaving a dinner service before tasting our main course for the very first time.

There could be several reasons for a poor service, but the cherry on top was that we saw the staff go around every table and apologise to customers, but when it came to me and my partner, they again walked straight past us as if we weren't even there.

We've dined at a number of excellent establishments, including Malmaison multiple times, but if this is what service is going to be like for 2019, we won't be...

Booked for an important family event and was hugely disappointed by the service provided. On arrival, we found the room booked had been set up quickly following another booking and that one of my guests had been left out. Drink service was slow with each waiter carrying through one or two drinks at a time from the bar. All guests who had pre ordered steak were served it "pink" and not asked how they'd like their food. When I questioned this, I was told it was my fault for not specifying how the steaks should be prepared when I submitted the order the week before! Then there's the bill. I was told there was a £55 minimum charge per person. I had 25 guests and had paid a deposit. I knew how much of the minimum spend was left so repeatedly asked staff how much of that was left so that I could keep track of what was being spent. When the bill arrived, I found it vastly exceeded expectations as staff had given me incorrect totals throughout the night and forgotten to tell me about the £140 service charge. The night manager refunded me £390 which was most appreciated as the mistakes were theirs but these issues spoiled an important family event and is not what would be expected...

Sadly, we were a bit disappointed by our time here. Spent a fair amount of time picking a place for our few hours on a Sunday in Aberdeen, and decided to come here for their Sunday Roast offering.

First off, service wasn't the greatest. It didn't seem to be short staffed (though it's impossible for me to know), but maybe moreso disorganized operations?

Ordered a couple of cocktails, and those came out quick and we're very good.

The buffet had a nice selection, but definitely did not get much attention, and the quality of the different items varied quite a bit (the tomato basil soup just tasted like pasta sauce?)

We both ordered the beef main, and this was the most disappointing part. Two super thin slices of beef, veggies and potatoes that seemed like they were cooked hours prior and just kept warm (think hard-sticky on glazed root veggies), and the Yorkshire pudding dense and tough. Gravy was good, at least!

Maybe it was just a one-off experience, but sadly we'll probably avoid other Malmaison...