The Village — Restaurant in Birmingham

CHRISTMAS DINNER UPDATE:

We went for Christmas dinner - £70 pp (plus a service was added onto the bill) and a rip off!

After seeing a few foodie influencers recently posting about how good the roast is, we were looking forward to it. I’ve never rated The Village for food (had a terrible brunch and was meant to be contacted by management, but never was), but some of my family like it there, so we booked. Either the influencers are lying or their chefs can’t handle full service!

The food…

The bread served with the salmon starter was rock solid. There was no sign of the dill and mustard dressing.

Those who had soup had to ask for spoons and the soup wasn’t served with bread & butter as you’d expect.

The turkey turned my stomach when it was served. The bacon wrapped around it looked like it had barely left the fridge! As for the rest of the plate; diabolical. I’ve had nicer veg and potatoes from a cheap carvery. The potatoes were waxy and had no crispy whatsoever. They were so pale they too must have had the same treatment as the bacon. Not a sprout in sight and of the veg we were given, the portion was measly. The stuffing ball was unrecognisable for what it was and the size of a grape. The pig in blanket was about the same. There was also inconsistency with presentation with a few people having a bunch of red berries on their plate.

The beef was bone dry.

Everyone needed more gravy to make the food more palatable, but it was thin and lacked flavour so we didn’t even bother asking and most of us (11 of us) couldn’t enjoy the meal.

Desserts were very small and the Eaton Mess cheesecake was very disappointing - barely any meringue.

The menu states you’ll get hot drinks and mince pies at the end of the meal. We were brought some cheap dry mince pies, but no hot drinks.

This was honestly the worst Christmas meal I’ve ever had in my life. And I paid over the odds for the displeasure! We had a last minute addition to our table so her meal (main only) was on the bill for just £16.96…how does an additional 2 courses cost £53 more?!?

We had a few drinks in the bar afterwards and saw people who were eating later clearing their own plates! Unbelievable.

The only redeemable part of the day was the young lad who was taking our drinks orders. He was only a teen, but his customer service was better than everyone else who we dealt with that day. He’s golden!

Oh, forgot to add - their socials said they opened at 11, but we had to stand and wait outside until gone 11:30. I called from outside and was told they didn’t know they were supposed to be open at 11. You can’t make it up!

Previous comments:

It’s a big venue with plenty of seating and a nice ambience. The menu isn’t that exciting; there’s a distinct lack of salads and the dishes I’ve tried lacked flavour/seasoning. Better for drinks...

Christmas Dinner 2023. I appreciate it was a busy Christmas Day but one would expect much better.

When we arrived we were greeted and seated. Asked if we wanted drinks. Before our drinks arrived our first course was slammed in front of us. The soup was tasteless and was not even served with a bread roll and butter, which is standard! When I asked for bread, I was given what can only be described as stale bread that may be used for a very thin bruschetta. (The same bread that was used in the smoked salmon dish). It was awful. I also asked for salt and pepper, neither of which arrived.

For my drink, I'd asked for a pint of blackcurrant and lime cordials topped with soda water. What was served was blackcurrant and soda water in a standard pepsi glass. When I pointed this out to the server he abruptly and smugly informed me it was a pint glass, to which I replied, it wasn't, he insisted and I again told him it was a standard pepsi glass (as if I wouldn't know the difference!) to which he said "well that's all we have" whilst behind him a barman was pulling PINTS INTO PINT GLASSES!

The main course was such a disappointment and certainly not worth the money paid. There was hardly any meat on the meat dish and I think just 2 veg and potatoes plus one TINY stuffing ball is severely lacking. The plates were only standard plates and were half empty. What was on it was bland and watery. Again I asked for salt and pepper which again never arrived. I also advised the same server that when I booked, I'd asked for Yorkshire pudding and extra vegetables. His reply was that the kitchen had been over generous in the first sitting so there wasn't enough for the second sitting.

Dessert was also very disappointing, the portion size for the price paid was frankly abysmal and not a patch on those served at other pubs.

5.The meals had to be paid for in advance, so when the bill came, which I was expecting just for the drink I ordered, I was shocked to see it was over £15 When I asked the server why it was so expensive for one drink, he eventually pointed to a service charge which was automatically added. Then said, "that's ok, yeah?". It is appalling to put customers in the position where they have to feel obliged to pay a tip, for frankly not very good service. We weren't even provided with basics like salt & pepper or mayonnaise, another condiment we asked for!

This was my first time here, a gamble I took on Xmas Day. I can definitely say I have no intention to return, nor would I recommend it to anyone.

Also, as mentioned by a previous reviewer, I too received emails prior to the day, informing me payment needed to be made, but the emails didn't contain anything and it was only from the phone calls I received that I learned what dates to pay and...

I visited with a friend on Sunday for lunch and we’d made a reservation. We arrived and it turned out there was no reservation for us. The staff member just gestured me away, she didn’t seem to care and was not interested in the slightest.

I ordered a drink and asked for a menu, again with the same staff member who looked like I’d asked get to donate some blood rather than just get me a food menu. I also asked her for a bowl of water for my dog, she said she’d bring it over, she didn’t.

We then settled at a table and I came back to the bar to order, I then spoke to an equally non committal man this time who seemed to be distracted and not really paying attention. I ordered the food and asked for a bowl of water again. It arrived about 10 minutes later but the bowl was filthy and had rust on it so I didn’t let my dog drink out of it.

The food arrived and we’ve had Sunday lunch there before which had been great in the past.

They’ve changed the plates they serve the food on to ones that are much flatter and they seem to have piled loads of gravy all over the plate. The food itself was very nice, but not worth what we paid. We had no cutlery on the table and nothing had been brought over, so we asked the man to bring some cutlery over, again he looked like we told him he had got three months to live rather than “can we have some cutlery please”, he came back with the cutlery and then we asked him for some mustard and salt and pepper again, he displayed a poor attitude and acted like he was doing us a huge favour. We ate our food and left very quickly we were there just under an hour.

Very disappointed as I’ve visited in the week previously and the service has been absolutely excellent and the staff have been very hospitable. Clearly you had the staff working on Sunday who weren’t very good and weren’t very focused, very disappointed. I worked in a similar environment as weekend staff and me and my colleagues always put on a smile and were always helpful and attentive. The people you had on duty on Sunday clearly need some training on how to work with customers and look after them and show some hospitality.

Not once did they say thank you, how can I help,...