The Rivington — Restaurant in Bolton

AWFUL is too good a word for the meal and experience tonight. Booked online easy enough. Arrived early put in a room with loads of families and screaming kids as other couples ate in quiet side rooms ! Not a good start table wobbly ordered simple bottle of sparkling water two starters garlic mushrooms and the ribs as per pics looked ok and mushrooms tasty but ribs tasted old and very bland in fact tasteless. Gluten free pizza was enquired about young waiter stated yes we have gf flour for the bases and I ordered monkfish …. I asked for another bottle of water it never came service slow and just terrible . Mains came frozen gf base with bbq sauce squirted over the base chopped chicken breast and mozzarella on top. It was awash with bottled bbq sauce inedible one lice picked at , my main dry obviously frozen fish with empty shells of seafood one larger prawn that had a strange not fresh odour covered in a bitter tomatoe sauce yes looked good but was awful. Saw tables sat waiting for bill so went to bar area foreign male possibly Bulgarian said you want the bill ? A female with him also Eastern European I said can I just say that was awful the starters terrible and the mains inedible , they didn’t respond I said you are clearly not bothered he produced the card machine I foolishly paid and left. To those who rave about this place you are obviously local and don’t eat out much but trust me this food is beyond bad and I visited after a recommendation!! Never ever will I return just pray and hope I am ok in the morning as that was old food smothered in bottle shop bought sauce absolutely in my top 5 worst ever places I have eaten YUK ! Interesting reply from the so called “Manager” we choose to eat gluten free pizza bases when offered as freshly made as they are easier to digest in your case as you saw it was all left uneaten as it was a frozen ready made base . Regards my partner paying yes she commented “ he always does this” as I asked for the bill as I always pay ! She wasn’t referring to my complaining ! When I complained to your face saying your food is awful everything was bad you made no comment only produced the card machine so obviously brave behind a key board but not very brave face to face I slated the food told you everything I have written on here .I also note other positive comments made by “Eastern European “ named persons with only one review which is a bit suss and so obviously someone linked to the workers/ owners…. So Albanian then ? Same part of the world I’m guessing 🤷🏽‍♂️ As for you are a busy restaurant nah you ain’t it was 630pm and we was placed in a room full of families eating early bird menus . Your comment about the frozen fish dish not being yours is laughable it was on your so called “ specials menu” which is anything but special ! I eat good food and praise the ones who supply good food but also if it deserves a bad review which your place does I give one. My observation concerning nationality is not racist but an opinion of the person I saw who if you are the manager spoke quite poor English so I guessed you may be Eastern European if you are Bolton born and bred then your English is very poor . Next time maybe answer when a customer complains instead of simply putting the card machine in front of the lady paying ?? Mate your food was awful and stand by that fact . You won’t be seeing us again and if locals happy with this standard then good for them . I certainly am not ! Your food was...

If i could give it a zero, I would.

I have never in my life been so insulted when out for a "nice" meal.

The Rivington Bar & Grill in Horwich was an absolute disgrace.

All seemed fine on arrival. The table wasn't ready but we happily waited a few minutes till it was. We sat at the table. I was handed a dirty menu to which I politely handed it back to the waiter. I placed my napkin on my lap and initially was fine, until it had been on my lap a few minutes until my dress felt damp. The napkins were still damp after being washed. I asked for fresh ones which were replaced quickly. The new ones were still a little damp but hey ho.

Starters... All was fine.... Although no one asked us how the food was.

Main meals. My son's spaghetti bolognese (which he ordered himself as a childs meal directly to the waitress), came with peices of chilli in. Since when does spaghetti bolognese have chilli in it? We sent it back and my son didn't fancy anything else so we cancelled his main. They still sent another one, but when we explained that we cancelled it, we received a disgruntled look.

My main.... Halibut. It was so dry it was like cardboard. So I asked for a replacement. Again it was overcooked and dry. All the way through the main, no one asked us how the food was. My mother asked for black pepper on her linguine and was never delivered so we borrow pepper from another diner in the room.

I asked to speak to a manager who we didn't know at the time was dealing with another complaint in the room very similar to ours.

A waitress came over and asked what the problem was.... So i physically showed her my over cooked fish (dry and fibrous) and she told me I was "complaining for no reason"!

The chef came out and argued with me how he he has been a chef all his life and all his food is perfect, looked with disgust and said something in another language which I would understand it to be highly insulting. I picked the fish up and showed him the dry fibrous fish. Then a young waiter came over and insulted us.

The manager tried to step in and apologise, however it's clear she has no authority over her staff as she never corrected her staff about their attitude.

The chef tried to imply we were trying it on because we didn't want to pay for our food.

My 11 year old son can cook better. The places I have eaten in my life (Fischers, the peacock, Haddon hall, lovage, Biggin Hall, there is a VERY long list of presigous places I have eaten...... I ain't down to a £10 bit of fish!!!!!!!!

We paid for the food we actually ate, however I feel that we should have just left.

Considering the chef aggressively argued his food is perfect all the time... It appears the Google reviews tell a different story. There is a list of complaints for dry overcooked food with rude staff.

Avoid like the plague. Plenty of other amazing restaurants in Bolton and Horwich such as Cafe Italia...

Horrible food.

We’d been looking to try this place for a while as it looks like a quality upmarket restaurant. When we arrived the waitress was very nice and friendly, showing the two of us to a table for four.

We had King Prawns and Chicken Livers to start. When they arrived the young waiter who was standing on the other side of the table simply shoved it at my face instead of putting it down on the table. It wasn’t too much of a problem - I thought maybe he was simply inexperienced. It was a very stingy portion, with only 5 ‘King’ prawns (they weren’t very big) and two unbuttered pieces of dry toast. The sauce was nice, although there was a slice of orange in it that looked like it had already been chewed. The chicken livers were plentiful, but overcooked. The sauce was tasty. It was served with an undressed salad which I found odd - maybe try serving with some toast instead?

For mains I had the ‘Mediterranean Vegetable Pancake’. Joke was on me because there was no Mediterranean Veg in it, except maybe the carrots? It was filled with what you get in a big frozen bag of veg at the supermarket - peas, sweetcorn, carrot, green beans (and a couple of broad beans, weirdly) plus a very stingy amount of spinach and ricotta. It was really just a big soggy vegetable pasty in molten cheese, burned in places on top.

My partner had the Steak. It looked disgusting. He said it tasted sour! There was a lot of silverskin left on it too, which made half of it inedible.

I quite fancied a dessert but we just paid and left instead. The sweets I had at home seemed more appealing.

The vibe of the place was very odd. The staff seemed tense and slightly frantic. Who I imagined was the head waiter seemed almost aggressive in his manner, snatching things from the table. It also wasn’t very relaxing as the wait staff had to keep nudging past me because two gentlemen at neighbouring tables had pushed their chairs out so the only route was past our table. It was a bit uncomfortable but what can you do - maybe rearrange the dining tables?

Throughout the meal the wait staff constantly asked us if everything was ok in an almost confrontational manner - it was almost as though they knew how bad it was but none of us were willing to admit it!!

I spilled some water on the table and tried to mop it up with the napkin - it was a cheap polyester thing that didn’t absorb anything. It also reeked of laundry powder which isn’t something you want to smell when you’re trying to eat.

To sum up; we would have had a better time (and better food) in Wetherspoons.

Suggestions: Rearrange dining tables to make more space between tables Train your staff Get a better chef Don’t overcook the food Cotton napkins Don’t use frozen veg (it’s very obvious that you do, so don’t deny it; fresh veg wouldn’t disintegrate the way it did in the...