Victors Alderley Edge — Restaurant in Great Britain

The decor is superb, beautifully designed and executed such as wall fabric rather than wallpaper. Much of the food is excellent (although small portions). But the service is appalling from kitchen to barman to waitresses. A 20-minute wait to take our drinks order. 20 more minutes for them to arrive, including tap water. How long does it take to fill a jug of tap water? 50 minutes from entering the restaurant to being served starters. Another 35 minutes for the main course to arrive. We didn't bother with dessert because we weren't sure that it would arrive in our lifetimes. There was only one other group of diners in the restaurant at the time of waiting for our mains so I have no idea how the place would cope if it was busy. The time it took the kitchen staff to cook when there were just two groups of diners was ridiculous. The barman was preoccupied with spinning bottles, like Tom Cruise in Cocktail, instead of completing drink orders efficiently. The waitress could do the mechanics of moving plates from one part of the room to another but was clueless on the art of waitressing. There is a culture of amateur indifference - I don’t think any of the staff have had any customer training nor have any concept of customer service. There is no Maitre d’ watching proceedings and fixing things before they go wrong, e.g., by making sure water is regularly replenished, diners are regularly asked if they are OK for drinks, paying diners get service! Hence, everything gravitates to what is inevitable from people who have no concept of customer service. Where is Fred from First Dates when you need him? Even when we light-heartedly commented “At last!” when the drinks arrived after 40 minutes it didn’t prompt an apology nor any improvement, just gormless continuation of awful service. Victors could be The Ivy of Alderley Edge. A place that is difficult to get a table at as everything is so superb and demand is so high. But while the décor, prices and some of the food are premium, the level of “service” would embarrass McDonald’s. And judging by the age of the comments here that equally complain of the service, the establishment has no ability nor desire to sort themselves out. UPDATE: I returned 9 months later for my daughter's birthday, giving them a second chance, hoping things have improved. Nothing has improved. The service is still as abysmal as I and many others have reported here. We were there almost 2 hours for one course and drinks such was the "service". Aleksandra who assured me 9 months ago that he would fix it has just made light and lied in response to my daughter's review elsewhere so he's evidently channelling his energies into denial rather than fixing dismal "service" that is easy to fix. Never again. A TV programme of this place with Gordon Ramsay would...

Extremely disappointing. My boyfriend took me yesterday for my 18th birthday which he had mentioned in the booking. The table they had put us on sat us really far away from each other and with the DJ being so so loud and tipsy people around we could not hear each other and ended up having to shout or even text each other at times. My boyfriend ordered a burger and requested it without pickles, it arrived with them anyway. We're not usually people to complain so he just took them off and ate it anyway. For a £20 burger it was extremely disappointing, same quality as a McDonald's. I got the chicken skewers which, yes it did say small plate, but I was not expecting so little. I ate them out of pure hunger but would not recommend to anyone as they were not very nice. We held out high hopes for dessert as the list looked nice and got the waiters recommendation of Raspberry Alaska as well as the cookie dough peanut option. The cookie dough was okay at best and, although presented beautifully, the raspberry Alaska base was frozen solid at the bottom and I was unable to eat it. I signed up to the rewards in advance as I was told when booking I would get a birthday voucher but this never arrived and I wish it did because it was the biggest waste of money. Luckily my boyfriend and I managed to make the most out of the bad experience but it was still that, a bad experience. Really disappointed as this was where I had chosen to spend my 18th birthday. The service was not brilliant, a waiter managed to splash water on my boyfriends face when pouring it into his glass and did not apologise. (Only a minor thing but just added to the bad experience) It took ages to get the bill, felt very ignored by staff. After this awful experience they even put a service charge on. This was my first time going and I will not be coming back nor recommending it to anyone unless there are to be significant improvements. Other people had birthday sparklers arriving which I didn't receive but am not to fussed about, just thought it was odd as it was on the booking and acknowledged on arrival. All these things combined just lead to such a bad experience and not how anyone would want to spend their 18th. The venue itself was very pretty and although the bar was extremely crowded on arrival it did look very nice. I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt and maybe just say this was a one off as it was fairly busy and I did not see too many staff but it's not like I can have my 18th again to...

My step daughter hired the private open function room above the restaurant for 20 covers for a special birthday celebration on the 16th April 2022.

The servers were presentable and polite but unfortunately the service in relation to the meal and overall experience with the general manager and his assistant was totally unprofessional. The hors d'oeuvres didnt arrive until after the starters. Three of us (which included the host) sat for 25 minutes without a meal. No explanation or apology given. The organiser had to approach the staff and then the manager to ascertain where the meals were. Although at this point an apology was given and the steaks finally arrived they were not the pre-ordered fillet steak but a slab of meat which was trying to be passed off as rib eye which was totally not the case. The steak was also served blue. I appreciate chefs do like steaks to be cooked on the rare side but this was not for me and therefore was left uneaten. I also understand that on occasion when the restaurant is busy you can run out of certain menu choices but you cannot be forgiven when this is a pre-order and given 2 weeks prior. It did spoil the evening of the host as she was concerned for her guests.

There were also several further comedic errors which I will not bore you with but for one who has only attended this restaurant for the first time one will not be returning in the foreseeable future. I understand the host was in contact with the booking manager on her return a few days post but do not know the outcome. My only advice would be that you ensure when booking you insist they provide full orders and good service otherwise you should receive a full refund. Not only was it embarrassing for this chain of restaurants it was totally unnecessary and unavoidable and no excuses can be given under these circumstances. The 1 star is given for the servers who were embarrassed and we were informed used to this level of communication from the...