De La Vies — Restaurant in Sandwell

So, i've been to De La Vies twice, and i'm just sharing my own experience.

1st time: Despite having a reservation, we were left upstairs, with no one working front of house. I had to ask a bartender if our table was ready. He said it would be ready soon. 30 mins elapsed. When we got to the table, the food came out promptly, and the staff were friendly. No more issues.

2nd time: again left upstairs, no one working front of house again, so I asked said bartender if our table was ready. He said yes, so we walked downstairs and stood there, just watching the staff walk by, ignoring us. The restaurant was quiet, and we stood there like fools, just watching people eat. I had to approach one of the staff, who then (with a face like thunder) showed us to our table. We then sat at the table for 15 mins with no menu, no one asking if we wanted drinks, until again i had to get up and ask for a menu. A much nicer and helpful member of staff took our order, and again the food came out promptly and was delicious.

It's a real shame that the service is way below the standard it should be, and I was told by another customer who eats there often, that when the owner/managers are in, the standard is way higher, but on both occassions i have been to this restaurant, I have been left so disappointed with the poor level of service, especially when the chef is sending out amazing food. I think it's clear where De La Vies needs to improve, because i'm torn on whether I will ever return. I don't want to chase staff down for the bare basics, such as a drink, finding my table or a menu, and i certainly don't want to seee the staff walking round looking angry and...

We organised a large dinner party for a post-wedding event with 20 guests and wanted to share my thoughts on the restaurant. Overall, the food was delicious, and the portions were quite generous. However, there were some negative aspects that need to be addressed.

Firstly, I had made a reservation for the party four weeks in advance, including a deposit, with the intention of dining exclusively on the second floor. Unfortunately, without any prior notice, we discovered that the second floor was no longer reserved for us. Consequently, we had to settle for a long table on the main floor. This lack of communication was disappointing and could have been handled much better.

The service we received was inconsistent. While the bar staff were friendly and pleasant, the waiting staff seemed disinterested and were not as accommodating to our requests. We had an incident where a bottle of wine we ordered was out of stock, but instead of informing us and offering an alternative, a different brand was provided and opened without our knowledge. Similarly, certain side dishes we had ordered in advance were also out of stock, and we were only made aware of this when we specifically asked about them.

To summarise our experience, the meal itself was delicious, but the poor communication regarding the changes left us feeling dissatisfied and disappointed. Based on this experience, I regret to say that we will not be booking this venue for any future large dinner parties. I feel it's important to warn others in advance about the potential issues they...

My trip to this restaurant was awful. When I received my food, the waitress never asked how I wanted the shishlik/ shishlig to be made, when i received it, it was cooked nicely on the outside but on the inside there was visibly blood in the middle and the shishlik was pink inside too. I have tried many dishes of shishlik and this is by far no where close to the approximation of what it is supposed to taste like and look like. Usually, the waitress comes half way through to ask how the food is and they didn’t do this at all, I don’t understand how you can train your staff to present food but not to ask how the food is. The salad which was underneath the shishlik was stale and mouldy, I can come to this conclusion because you could see a fungus growing around the salad. The rice felt very stale and it seemed like the rice was placed into the microwave, it honestly didn’t taste right. Due to this, I have ended up in A&E with severe food poisoning. I have seen a previous review of someone saying the same complaints as I have and your response to them is very arrogant. If you are a professional business owner, you should take criticism about the food and service and improve your restaurant as an whole instead of arguing with them. In conclusion, I do not recommend this restaurant at all and by the way I have been to many successful restaurants such as novikov. Also, next time if you want to give a service charge don’t just add it on the receipt as the customer first as some...