VIADUCT • PUB & KITCHEN — Restaurant in Calderdale

Bad steak, worse customer service

Having previously eaten Sunday lunch here a couple of years ago and enjoyed the experience, I decided to eat here to celebrate my birthday with my family and partner.

We ordered drinks first. I'm a diabetic and ordered diet Pepsi, my partner ordered the full sugar Pepsi. When the waitress came with the drinks she described them both as being "Pepsi". I asked if the drink she placed in front of me was the diet Pepsi, she said yes. She was wrong, she'd given me my partner's drink. Luckily we noticed and swapped drinks.

Next, we ordered food and myself and my partner both ordered the Ribeye as a treat. I should point out up front that we both love steak, eat a lot of it and my partner is a chef (though we kept this to ourselves) so we know what we're talking about! We asked for one steak to be cooked rare and the other medium-rare. I was very specific that I wanted the medium rare to be closer to rare than medium because I can't abide an overcooked steak. At £26 with sauce, I think it's fair to expect a good job.

When the steaks arrived, they were a sorry sight indeed. They were brown all the way through but also looked rare/medium in texture. The only explanation for this is that the meat is old and has gone brown so even when cooked for the correct time, the meat is discoloured. My steak was also swimming in juice suggesting it hadn't been adequately rested.

We sent the steaks back. After a long wait, the waitress returned and said that she and the chef had looked at our steaks and decided there was nothing wrong with them, that they were "pink" and that the chef was refusing to cook us more. We could pick a different dish from the menu. I was totally taken aback by the sheer arrogance and gaslighting to suggest that those steaks were fit for sale in a restaurant. I asked why they wouldn't cook another steak? Was it because they couldn't because all the meat was old? The waitress then huffed, rolled her eyes and walked off without another word.

Myself and my partner sat and watched the other three guests eat their food. After another long wait we got the waitresses' attention and she said the manager would speak to us. The manager never came and when my brother had finished eating, he went to speak to the manager himself. All the manager offered was to take the steaks off the bill! I should think so! We hadn't even had a chance to eat them! They still charged us for our drinks though. The manager offered to bring the chef out to speak to us but by then we were hungry and not in the mood for another long wait. I ended up having my birthday meal in McDonalds instead....the meat was probably fresher!

I'll never go back to this restaurant. I don't appreciate being lied to, gaslit and ignored. If they had simply apologised and said they didn't have any fresh ribeye in, we'd have accepted this and chosen a different dish. Instead, they tried to serve old meat at full price and refused to back down. A horrible experience.

Edit: As to your reply, I will contact you today myself. My partner is female so I think it's actually my brother you're...

Different Chef.....still exceptionally good

Went for a post lockdown 'super-sunday' dinner.

Had the panko Korean bbq belly pork

Crispy, flavourful and delicious. The pickled salad was delicate, naturally sweet and tart, the sauce smoky and tangy.

Roast Beef Dinner, side of mash

Exceptionally tasty beef. Easy to carve. Roasts were crispy and delicious, veggies perfectly cooked..crisp and kept their colour. Mash was creamy and dressed with finely cut chives.

White chocolate and raspberry creme bruise with shortbread

Arguably the best dessert ever hade Everything was perfectly cooked. Service was attentive, polite and informative.

Really really glad the lockdown hasn't dented the experience here.

23/08/20

Came again for Sunday lunch.....

Tender pink topside (pink on request), rosemary infused carrot and swede mash, creamy smooth mashed potato, a delicious crisp roast, bright, crisp perfectly cooked vegetables (rather than a veg based after thought) a Yorkshire that had been put together with all the love and care of the best French or Italian pastry, hellishly hot horseradish sauce and gravy that was heaven sent.

There was not a thing on the plate that I could fault - the only problem was the immense jealousy from not being able to cook at this standard myself for my family, let alone consistently in a busy gastro pub.

They really know what they are doing here whether it's food, drinks or excellent table service.

We are finding it difficult to want to eat anywhere...

Lovely looking pub, however the food and service wasn’t great.

On arrival for bottomless brunch we were presented with the wrong menus. We were then told these would be swapped for us, these didn’t arrive. 10 minutes into the bottomless brunch and we still hadn’t ordered our first drink.

Food was eventually ordered and came, chicken was dry and tasteless.

We asked three times to order a round of drinks and no one came back to take the order.

Service was really bad and the drinks definitely did not flow.

We were still expected to leave our table 90 minutes after our booking, even though we waited 15 minutes for our first drink. As this was their issue and bad service we should have got that 15 minutes back and another drink.

When we mentioned at the end regarding the service and experience being bad on our first visit, we were told it’s not normally this hectic and it would be better next time… (we defo won’t be back a second time)

Wasn’t worth the...