House of chai (bolton) — Restaurant in Bolton

Terrible experience, really hyped up on social media, no way does it come anywhere near the hype

Went here today with my family for the first time after hearing about it on social media.

This place has the same entrance as Eat Meat, the man at the door told us to take a seat in the foyer, not explaining why. After 10 minutes I asked why we had to wait and how long as the place looked empty. He then said ‘of you want chai cabin’ go right in???

Inside staff stood around talking and after a while shown to our seats, the table was so small even the borrowers would struggle to sit and eat there. They didn’t explain the online menu system and we had to work it out.

The area was disgusting, food all over the floor under tables (see attached photo). Then they came to take our order

How hard is it to take an order? She got it wrong twice, added things we didn’t ask for and failed to add things we had asked for. I asked to speak to the manager and she wasn’t happy and reluctant to call him. I said we would walk out if he didn’t come, he then came and took our order.

Finally all sorted…. WRONG…. The food arrived, the worst food I’ve eaten anywhere ever, then got the order wrong bought the wrong thing, then took it away then came and told me that they’d run out of items to make what I had ordered, so I had to ask for something else….. ordered something that didn’t even arrive? So I later told them to make sure they took it off the bill.

Ordered dessert that they seemed to have forgotten so asked for that to be taken off.

The waitress who we told to get the manager was clearly in a bad mood the rest of the time and seemed to just do circuits of the restaurant the whole time.

The burger was raw, the steak had more grisel than steak, it was like eating chewing gum, and the whole thing was bad that we all left over half our food (see photo).

Where’s the instagram style set up the smoke the flash the bling….

It’s a shame that people put loads into such places then fail to maintain it… they forget there are 101 other places we can go to… which I’m sure many now do.

Reading the reviews on here, the last positive review was 2 months ago… yet more negative reviews of recent.

And please Mr manager don’t reply with ‘we will address this’ …. Or whatever… as there are a number of reviews like this going back some time, not addressed and the whole thing is poor

Staff attitude terrible Food terrible Cleanliness...

I went to the Bolton branch for lunch with my Husband and my son who turned 3 years old that day. The waitress was friendly and gave us a table. We ordered the kids chicken goujons for my son. At first glance it looked quite decent. After a piece of chicken from him, I could tell it was frozen and not fresh. The flavour was very bland, the chips were piping hot. Not the kind of heat you get from freshly fried chips, but clearly microwaved. I didn’t think too much of it as it’s only a kids meal. We then ordered, chicken bao buns, dynamite prawns, Philly cheese stake, and chicken and waffles along with a mocktail and matcha. The drinks were really nice and the Philly cheese steak was juicy and tender. However when I saw the chicken and waffles, it was the same exactly chicken they used for the kids meal, the bao buns had the exact same chicken in side them, just coated in a sauce. The dynamite prawns… I have had dynamite prawns many times before. Never have I paid £7 for frozen Iceland prawns, which were covered in a sauce, that wasn’t too pleasant. The waitress was really nice and offered to order a meal for us to take out with us but as i wasn’t happy with the food I didn’t want anything. She then gave us 2 desserts which was nice of her. However, that didn’t make up for how bad the food was. We then got the bill and I paid £73 for all that and didn’t even have the option to see a printed bill, I would have opted out of paying any service charge. And I still had to pay for the chicken and waffles that I didn’t even eat. That is the problem with restaurants nowadays, they spend so much money and effort making everything look nice and decorative. But the subsidise the quality of the food. I would not recommend this place to anyone. I can’t believe I paid £73. The manager didn’t even bother coming up to me and asking me if I was happy. Instead of got a QR code to leave an “honest review”. I am really unhappy with the flavour and...

I am not one for writing reviews when I am unhappy as I know running a food establishment is a difficult thing but..I’m afraid i must today. I brought my mum for her birthday on New Year’s Day with 2 of our friends - greeting was friendly, nice comfortable booth all seemed good. Then there was a series of errors which could and should have been avoided. Staff were polite but unfortunately further training is required. It was quite a long painful process just ordering, too many items missing or running out on a bank hol - oat milk, Chelsea breakfast tea bags. Staff were also not informed of full menu & not aware of what dishes were or consisted of e.g, whether sausages were lamb / chicken / beef. I also asked for tap water and was told there’s only bottled water and then charged £3. We ordered an almond milk latte & another with ordinary milk - the staff had no idea which was which when brought to the table. Very disappointing.

I ordered the full English breakfast - mum ordered the full desi, food wise everything looked and tasted great but I found a hair in my meal :( although this was replaced I was still charged the full price. Then when we added sugar into the latte it ended up being salt!! I mean I couldn’t even make this up. It was at this point I asked to speak to the manager - not available until 4pm, and no one else able to deal with customers or complaints. The pleasant surprise was then the birthday French toast, although I was still charged my full bill of £82 - no gesture of goodwill at all. Overall, I really do recommend the company take a holistic look at their service, the little things really do make a lasting impact.

The staff tried their best but I am unfortunately leaving extremely disappointed. Not the way I wanted to start...