Slains — Restaurant in Aberdeen City

Sad state of affairs. Has no heart or character anymore. It was always overpriced (a handful of chicken tenders cost a fortune.), and the serving was painfully slow much of the time, but it was worth going to for the atmosphere. For the gothic environment, the seven deadly sins! Being boozed up as a teen and trying to find out where the toilet was as I rubbed fake books is a strong fond memory. As all the goth/rock/alternative clubs have dwindled, at least we've always had Slains Castle to fall back on. It was one of the last more unique bars standing in this city..

Now it looks awful. Disappointingly bland. I would have hoped it was at least vibrant and inviting if they were doing away with the classic goth style, but no. It looks like any other boring "appeal to the masses" bar.

I know the people who own the place don't care about the negative reviews, I've been told as much directly. Profits are up so nothing else matters. Surprise surprise. Never the less, if it stops one person wasting their time and money, I'll say it.

It looks like a generic faux Italian restaurant at the beach. I only feel bad for the floor staff who must be hearing the likes of this all the time. My friend moved away but came for a visit in December and was just devastated by the change. Was the only pub she liked going to here and, in her words, it now looks like a toilet in a restaurant. Sad for my Canadian friends as well, who were excited to go here later this year. I've been telling them about it for years.

I'll never set foot in "Slains Pub" again, not even as a point of protest...

Terrible experience. Came here on Saturday whilst up in Aberdeen, ordered food and drinks to our table using the QR code on the table. Our order never appeared so I went to the bar to query this and was told that my order had never came through, the money had already been debited from my account and I showed this to the very curt manager who clearly did not have the patience or will to help, she only kept repeating that my order hadn’t came through and that the money wouldn’t be taken from my account (even though it already had) so I could not receive a refund. Then her colleague appeared and said they’d received our food order so the order had clearly gone through and it came down to poor service and a lack of desire to help and spend the time investigating where the order had gone. She then said I must’ve ordered it to the wrong table, even though the table number on the table we were sat at matched the one on the order!! Very poor service and rude staff, 3 days later and still waiting on my refund to come into my account, despite the venue being fast enough to take my money without exchanging any...

Slains refurb...oh dear. Must be trying to contend with Jaguar for the worst rebranding of 2024.

This refurb is a prime example of a corporation completely missing the mark of what makes a venue unique and is overly focused on squeezing every little extra profit out of it. Instead of liaising with staff about what may be beneficial with the budget, it just fires in with a complete butchering of what it once was.

"Let's focus on through traffic from students who come and go and forget about loyal regulars who live in the city and have been frequenting the venue for years"...Fantastic idea.

Not disagreeing that it needed some TLC. A bit of paint and a clean would have sufficed.

Reviews since the refurb speak for themselves. I'll no doubt also get a generic and dismissive "thank you for your honest feedback" reply.

Slains has lost all soul, character, and charm; luckily, the staff are still great.

The only charm left in the place is the Wednesday...