The Chubby Cherub — Restaurant in Belfast

The most appalling customer service I have ever experienced. Squashed into a small table - being told we “planted hair” in the food - extremely rude and aggressive chef - dismissive manager.

Last night, 4 friends and I turned up to the restaurant for our Christmas night out that we booked back in October. We were given a small booth at the back of the restaurant that would clearly only fit 2 adults comfortably, 4 at a stretch! When I spoke to a member of staff and explained that the table was not adequate for 5 adults as there was clearly no room I was told that it was the only tables available and that they “squeezed us in” to accommodate the booking and that I would need to speak to the manager to see if there was a different table. The manager arrived at the table with a horrible attitude and proceeded to tell us that there was nothing wrong with the table and they they regularly have 5 people at each of these tables for multiple sitting each night. His attitude was extremely dismissive, condescending and rude.

Unfortunately, as it was a Saturday night on the run up to Christmas and we had nowhere else to go, we reluctantly decided to stay. Whilst waiting for the food, we had drink spilt on us twice by staff. When the food arrived, as expected, there was no room. Plates were hanging off the edge of the table and one friend had to hold her plate. No space for additional drinks nor multi sides.

My friend noticed there was a hair in her pizza. I called the manager back and showed him the hair. He apologised and said he would speak to the chef, who was no more than a few metres from where we were sitting. A few moments later the manager returned and asked me for the hair! I explained that I disposed of it on the ground and he told me the chefs needs to see it and I need to find it. The manager literally let me get on my hands and knees to pick up the hair from a dirty! An absolute disgrace, a fully packed restaurant watching as I got on my hands and knees to look for a hair on a white tiled floor!

Once the manager showed the chef the hair, the chef said we were lying and no one in his kitchen had blonde hair! Everyone could hear it and I asked him if he was suggesting that we planted the hair in the pizza to which he replied yes. I can categorically tell you that we did no such thing as the hair was spotted as soon as the pizza was placed on the table! The chef had a very defensive attitude and you could clearly tell that he was ready for an argument. At this point, I decided not to mention the fact that the waitress had blonde hair, the floor had multiple hairs on it and that the hair was found under the pizza!

This truly was the most appalling experience I have ever had in a restaurant. I have worked in hospitality/retail for more than 15 years and never once would have I came across such unprofessionalism. I can fully appreciate that Christmas is an extremely busy time in the hospitality industry and staff are under a lot of pressure however, telling customers that they are lying, taking bookings that you cannot actually accommodate for and having such horrendous attitudes is unacceptable. I would urge the owners to seriously review their staff customer service training as well as only accept bookings that they can actually accommodate or at the very least, inform customers that the table will be tight and space will be limited!

Unfortunately we weren’t the only ones that were complaining that night. When I arrived, there was a lady at the front who was very irate. I overheard the Chef telling the younger members of waiting staff that he wasn’t coming out and if they wanted to, they could call the police. As a manager myself, I would never have hid in the kitchen whilst my junior/younger staff members had to deal with an aggressive customer.

I will never be back in this restaurant and I will be actively encouraging friends and family to avoid....

Visited the CC yesterday and it was disappointing to say the least. Arrived 10 minutes early and the manager seemed flustered, but she was pleasant.

We were seated at a table and waited over ten minutes before asking a waitress for a menu and to order drinks. Not a big deal as staff were busy but a waitress did walk past us empty handed about 4 times and we were unable to catch her eye.

We ordered bread basket and hummus to start. The starters came quickly and hummus was nice. Bread 'tear and share' was just 4 very thin, quite stale slices of bread for £7. Now I had visited a few weeks before for outdoor dining and then we had a selection of different breads. We asked the waitress why it was different today and she explained that the other bread was in the oven and wouldn't be ready for another 10 mins. If you don't have the item then it should be taken off the menu or we would have been happy to wait if this was explained to us when ordering. The manager did ask would we like some brought out when it was ready, but we declined as we thought our main meals would be arriving soon.

We then waited nearly an hour for our main meals while other tables who arrived us were being served before us. Again, not really a big deal as the wine was lovely and we were in no rush.

What happened next was really quite shocking. Food arrived and gnocchi and carbonara were lovely. One of us ordered 'ravioli' only to be told 'the chef didn't have any made up so he made risotto instead' I am sorry but I have never heard of a restaurant just substituting a meal for another without letting the customer know!! I have worked in restaurants and completely understand that mistakes can be made, but the waitress was so unbelievably rude when she barked at us 'Well it wasn't me that took your order!' The manager came and apologised and offered to make something else but as our other mains had already been sitting for a while we accepted the risotto. However, the waitress did have to take it back to kitchen to check it was vegan as she is allergic to dairy. The manager did take the bead and risotto off the bill which we were grateful for.

We then had to ask the rude waitress for water which she slammed on the table without saying a word!! If she can't take a valid criticism without taking it personally then she should rethink her career in hospitality!!

The only reason why I am giving it 3 stars is because I have had lovely meals in it before and understand that it is a difficult time for restaurants. But PLEASE TRAIN YOUR STAFF! It is the little things that make an ok meal turn to a great meal. Even after our terrible experience with the main, the waiter came to clear our plates and asked did we want a dessert. We said could we have a look at the cocktail menu, but we wanted 2 tiramisu cocktails. However we had to wait a further 10 mins for someone to come back and take the third drink order.

We then asked could we sit outside to enjoy them and the waitress brought out our 2 tiramisu cocktails for us which was nice. She the got mixed up with the third cocktail but this was rectified quickly.

We enjoyed our cocktails outside and wanted to order another round, however, no one came near us again despite there being people eating outside. We waited and waited and by this point were so irate we just got up to ask for the bill. Now what were the waiters doing that they were too busy to check on us? PLAY FIGHTING. Yes standing in a circle and pretending to push eachother!!

The manager came and took our payment and apologised again for our experience. £93 down for a ruined...

Good food good atmosphere but terrible for Gluten Free Friends took us to Chubby Cherub, Lisburn Road, it gets mentions for gluten free, and rated by Newsletter among top 12 gluten free Belfast, It’s socially awkward and a disincentive to going out to have to have extended conversations in company with serving staff over dietary requirements, one does not want to make a selection ask for a gluten free substitution and then be told, they’ve run out of both gluten free bread and gluten free pasta, back to another trawl through the menu while everyone watches and waits. But that is not the worst, having ordered, staff return to inform us that two of the small plates ordered to share at the table, also contain gluten, the Arancini and the dough balls. We know these can be made gluten free, and the menu indicates they are gluten free, there is no G symbol, indicating gluten. So all of us reordering starters again to find something we can all share. So my wife ended up with the predictable pizza as her main. Even when it came to desert these all claimed to be vegetarian suitable, but only one desert was gluten free, and we were informed that only one of the gelatos was gluten free. Add in personal tastes and this amounts to no real choice. This is a very negative experience for the person concerned The menu had a list of allergens etc at the bottom and symbols against each item. a ‘G’ indicates contains Gluten, there is no G against the small plates Arancini or Dough balls, which should never have happened not with current legislation or high profile incidents of people with food allergies. My wife could have easily kept a low profile, followed the allergen guide, gone aricini, risotto, gelato and had two exposures to gluten. Since they had run out of gluten free bread and gluten free pasta, had they also run out of small plates with no gluten and substituted them with alternate product with gluten. Why was the menu information inaccurate.

This does make you suspect the accuracy and reliability of the entire menu, we hadn’t ordered the small plate Picoloballs, meatballs, since my wife is vegetarian, but these can be made with or without gluten and had no G either, but what we did note was that the Picoloballs had a ‘V’ indicating vegetarian suitable against the meatballs, really? vegetarian gluten free meatballs. Maybe the chef is amazing but then why was his aricini and dough balls not amazingly gluten free as claimed on the menu. Then there is the gelato, on a slightly older online menu ( undated but lower prices) I note the gelato had a milk symbol warning as well as a vegetarian suitable symbol, but the menu we were presented with in the restaurant had lost its milk/dairy symbol against the gelato. Are they claiming their gelato is now dairy free, or is their menu and dietary...