The Wellington — Restaurant in Aberdeen City

Arrogant disregard for customers. First impressions were great but then it went downhill at every opportunity. The bar area was decorated nicely for Christmas as we waited to be seated. Order for drinks was taken quickly. Cherry Bakewell Tart gin cocktail looked super glamorous on the drinks menu but when it turned up it was just pink stuff, slightly fizzy, tasting of not much more than cherry. Large glass of Soave was satisfying. We ordered food. Seafood mixed grill not available, I was told. Probably would have been better to advise what's off the menu before we looked at the menu. Just in case, before I choose an alternative, I ask what else is off. Our server is not sure. She goes to check and comes back with a list of stuff. Wow! OK. I choose a medium-rare sirloin steak. All steaks come with "CHAR-GRILLED HALF GARLIC, TOMATOES ON THE VINE, CHAR-GRILLED VEGETABLES, DRESSED WATERCRESS AND ONE GRILL SIDE". I order a salad as my "grill side". My wife repeats her order for lasagne, which comes with garlic bread and a dressed salad. The mains arrive. The lasagne is accompanied by a tiny pile of dressed green leaves. Not a great salad. But still. My steak is between medium and well done, certainly not medium rare. All I have accompanying my steak is a bigger pile of dressed salad leaves than my wife has. No char-grilled vegetables. No char-grilled half garlic. No char-grilled vine tomatoes. I mention this to our server. She explains that they're out of everything except tomatoes, so she'll go and get some for us. Still no char-grilled vegetables, or char-grilled half garlic. I eat the steak and salad. Near the end the tomatoes turn up. Yippee. My wife doesn't like the lasagne that much so I finish it for her. My main was pretty short, so I'm hungry. I don't usually bother with dessert, but I need to fill up. I order Bakewell tart, "Served warm with clotted cream ice cream and cherry compote", apparently. It arrives, cold. No ice cream, just whipped cream from a tin. Sigh I eat it and then explain it was cold and there was no ice cream involved. I ask if their chef is off tonight? Perhaps the servers are making the food themselves? Certainly not, she says. OK, so what's the problem? Everything has gone wrong. Ah, well, there was a fire at their suppliers just before Christmas and they haven't had a delivery. They won't get one until (can't remember). They've been super busy. They're certainly not busy tonight. Maybe 12 covers in, maximum, including us And that doesn’t explain why they omitted to tell us of menu shortages in advance. I suppose they were just hoping to get away with it. Betting on the gullibility or naivety of the stupid customers.. In a word (or two): shoddy, careless and lazy. With more than a soupcon of arrogance for...

I've been in and about this area of Aberdeen since I started working in the offshore industry in 1992, quite a while. I've seen this pub / grill / hotel change hands a few times. Latterly, I've used it on the odd occasion, mostly to get me out and about and go for a walk. The service, to be honest, has always been a tad sporadic, even when they are not really what one could call "proper busy", I'm talking 3 folk at the bar and it's a 5 - 10 minute affair getting served - but I thought, hey-ho, they're a young crowd, give them a chance and all that. Tonight, however, things went to a whole new bad-service-low level. Arrived in Chez Welly about 1850, contractor frenzy at the bar, so sat aside and waited until it was clear to be served, reading my book. Once the bar was clear, got a pint and sat back down, read the menu, decided on a burger. At 1911hrs, ordered the burger and a couple of drinks. Fast forward to 1942hrs when all around had been served and still no burger ?? Approached the bar staff and enquired as to why a burger was taking 30 plus minutes - and if it wasn't ready, please make it to go, as I wanted to get back to the digs and watch the Chelsea game on telly, which kicked off at 2000hrs. Bar person scooted off to the kitchen and came back informing me that "it's on it's way" - Aye right. Warm cider, warm wine, time to head off, leaving the burger behind. I then trooped off up the road to Burger King, where, guess what, yes correct - got a burger in 5 minutes, revelation, eh ?? All in all, a pretty poor experience at The wellington Hotel, Bar & Grill, 0/10 if I could give it - and for sure will never set foot in the place again. I've got photos of both receipts showing time & date stamps of my experience, but to be honest, I couldn't be arsed wasting any more time on this unsavoury, dreary and tiresome affair, thankfully I'm moving on to a new job, which takes me back into Aberdeen City Centre, not that the service will be any better in there to be honest. Make your own minds up folks, but for me, this one is...

Arrived at 5.15 for supper with a friend. Both chose fish dishes from the menu but the waiter returned after 5 minutes saying the fish delivery for the day still hadn't been unpacked...at almost 5.30???!!! He said we could wait until about 6pm but when asked if that meant we could eat at 6 or if they were to be unpacking the order at 6 he couldn't tell us. We chose alternative meals. The waiter said we could have our drinks on the house for the inconvenience. We had an appletize & a diet cola. I asked for the chicken breast from the grill menu which said it came with chargrilled veg & salad plus a choice of different fries. I asked if I could have a baked potato instead of fries & he said this would be fine. My friend asked for the balmoral chicken but with seasoned fries instead of mash & gravy. Our meals arrived. Mine had only chicken breast, no potato or chargrilled veg & a few lettuce leaves with tiny pieces of salad veg...and I mean tiny! My friend's plate had the unwanted gravy & mash & a side portion of fries. When we pointed this out I was told there were no potatoes & my friend's plate was removed only to return 5 minutes later with the mash & gravy scraped off but now cold & the plate not even wiped. We didn't see the point in requesting anything further to be done but did say we were unimpressed. The bill arrived & yes you guessed it...no free drinks. Safe to say we definately won't return & wouldn't recommend...