Yaqub's — Restaurant in Birmingham

In today’s society, most businesses are hit with the line “we are going to write a bad review!” From many customers when standards do not meet their expectations. However, when they do, reviews aren’t the first thing that pop up in mind.

Hear me out....

Customers would immediately go to a reviewing website (such as this one) to attack a restaurant in a way to affect their business. If we are in a scenario where standards aren’t met due to whatever reason, we immediately think of writing a bad review. However, on a good day, a review isn’t the first thing that pops up in mind. You would go in, sit down, get served, and make your way out.

This review is to make those aware that most reviews are NEGATIVE due to the fact that they are used as a procedure to attack a business due to a poor experience which can be a one off. As an owner of a business in the same market, I wouldn’t let these stop me from trying something new.

Last night I visited Yaqub’s Steakhouse in Birmingham as part of a research process to improve my own business and boy did I learn !

The meat was cooked fresh (not marinated in advance for quick serving) and made me believe that good things do indeed take time. I went for the T-bone steak which was spot on ! I went for medium-cooked served with perfectly golden crisp steak chips and spicy rice. (It’s a shame they got rid of the wedges :/ ). Topped with their very own edition of hot sauce which was a phenomenal touch to my steak.

The portion sizes were decent - not too little and not too much. I was guided through the menu by one of the members of staff in a blue shirt who explained the different types of steaks on the menu and why one differentiates from the other. There wasn’t a huge range of desserts to choose from as you wouldn’t expect much from a business that specialises in steaks and burgers only.

On the other hand, everybody is not perfect ! Each have their own downside and with this particular business I have got to say the service could improve on a busier night. As the restaurant fills, service decreases due to a lack of staff. This can be overcomed by employing more staff perhaps on a part time schedule to fill in the gaps. I was told 1 member was ill and the other on holiday but they should have been replaced. Hence the 4/5 rating as their reaction to sudden absences of employees is quite slow but this isn’t a major issue as the main expectation from a customer going to a restaurant is to be served with quality food which was achieved during my time here.

Overall, the quality of food was met and therefore the main objective to focus on in the future is to employ more staff on a part time basis, especially for weekends in order to bring the service standard back to its expected level. I understand this frustrated some customers as on an empty stomach they would want their food as quickly as possible as well as to be given a heart warming experience. However, this would be difficult to achieve for a restaurant with lack of waiters and therefore we should understand that some tables and customers may not get their expected full attention as it is spread across all tables.

THANKYOU for reading and I hope this changes your perspective on not only this restaurant, but many others too! If this has helped you then be sure to like...

the most horrible/worst/disgusting experience I have ever had in my life! I went to this place with 12 memebers of my family thinking that we will have a great family time! Ordered food which came 2 hours later! 2 of the family member didn't receive their food so we thought their steaks might take long so them both kept on waiting! The rest of the family started to eat their steaks and wasn't surprise to see all the 10 steaks were cold not even luke warm! We did order some drinks which never arrived till we asked.. the waiter then went to start preparing drinks when our food was half finished.. I called one of the waiter to check on the 2 steaks missing and he was like it's coming! After a while the waiter came and said sorry they don't know what we have ordered so have to put in a fresh order for the 2 family members! Well the 2 family members were guest and we were so embarrassed and ofcourse couldn't leave with them not eaten so ordered for them. I can only say one thing that me, my family and none of my friends will ever visit this so called restaurant again! This place should be shut down or local council should take some serious actions against the quality of the food and the quality of the service they provide! Will ensure to stop anyone coming here ever again! Also I couldn't find a way to give 0 star ka to rate this restaurant otherwise would have rated zero! I honestly hope that they learn the hard way and improve...

I read the reviews thinking some times a restaurant maybe busy and they may have messed the orders up slightly. Well I visited today 13/05/15, three of us ate from there and ordered a mix grill platter the only good thing was the sheesh kebabs, the chicken tikka was cooked and re warmed for us, the lamb chops were again cooked before hand and re warmed, the onions in the mix grill were old and not grilled as requested, the mains we ordered were rib eye, lamb steak and t-bone, all were tasteless and chewy (really overcooked), yaqubs special sauce was more like a reduced blitzed up salsa and the onion gravy was watery, the coke we ordered in a jug was not original Coca Cola it tasted like cheap cola from lidl, when we ordered cans they were not GB labelled foreign imports. Would I go there again definitely not, was it worth the money definitely not, would I recommend it hell no. My advice stay well clear of this bogus grill house they buy cheap old meat and charge you premium prices, don't ruin your time and waste your money at this place, they should be ashamed of themselves we saw a young family who were really unhappy with what they had ordered. I pointed it out to the waiter and he said its not there fault as they rely on their suppliers for the meat, if your charging premium prices then you as a restaurant owner should be ensuring your products are premium, luckily we had saved 25% using the...