The Vine — Restaurant in Sandwell

I’m absolutely disgusted by the treatment we received at The Vine during what was supposed to be a special birthday meal. We came as a group, intending to purchase five adult meals, and were completely shocked and appalled by the way we were treated—especially regarding my 6-year-old autistic son.

Due to his autism, my son has a very limited and specific diet. There is nothing on the menu he can eat, so as we’ve done on many previous visits to this restaurant over the years, we brought food for him. This has never been a problem before, and we've always appreciated that understanding. But this time, the owner of the vine who was sat watching, sent a staff member named Ruth to tell us he could not eat his own food inside the restaurant, despite the fact that we were paying customers.

When we tried to explain the situation and my son’s needs, Ruth shockingly responded by saying she has an autistic child herself and would never think it’s okay to bring food somewhere for them. That comment was not only insensitive—it was outrageous. Should disabled children just starve when there’s nothing suitable for them on a menu? Her attitude was dismissive, judgmental, and completely lacking in empathy or understanding. It’s beyond belief that someone who claims to have personal experience with autism could behave in such an exclusionary way.

We had no choice but to leave. We were not about to sit down and enjoy a meal while my son sat there hungry. This wasn’t a choice—it’s part of his disability. What happened was discriminatory, distressing, and completely unacceptable.

We are deeply angered and disappointed by the lack of inclusion for disabled people at this restaurant and will absolutely be taking this matter further. The Vine has lost our custom for good, and I urge others—especially families with disabled children—to think carefully before visiting. This kind of exclusion should not be...

This is a massive place with copious seating indoors, in a large conservatory area and a few tables outside - though this is more of a smoking area so not great if you want to enjoy a meal in the sun without cigarette smoke.

Everything is clean and well maintained and the service is extremely efficient.

The food is really tasty and you can watch the chefs at work through an acrylic screen.

A pet hate of mine is plates being cleared from the table before all parties have finished eating. It puts pressure on the diners who haven't finished, to finish. We only ordered one course - ok, 3 dishes, but they all came together. There were only 2 of us eating. We were asked 4 times if we'd finished with any plates and each time, articles were removed from the table.

I understand that the place gets really busy on football match days (I've never encountered this myself, but have been told so) and so they need to speed covers through to increase the throughput of the restaurant, but they must have been running at about 10-15% capacity when we visited so this was not necessary and made me feel very pressured. For this reason, and the smoky outdoor area, I've docked them a star.

The food however is...

I have eaten at The Vine on and off over many years but this is the first time I found one particular staff member rude and the food I ordered to be spicy. Drink- I prefer to drink pepsi max and as I saw there were can in the fridge I thought I would have one instead of having pepsi or diet pepsi on draught. I was told that I was not allowed to have a can of pepsi max as they were for when the pump were broken, not allowed to sell them( let stock go to waste???). The person then walked away and spoke to some one around the corner them came back to me. I thought that she would give me the can of pepsi max but No- she opened it up and poured it into a pint glass and said £3.80 i given you a can and a half then said" I did explain". I was not going to spoil lunch out with work colleagues by replying back to this young lady- i paid, said thank you and sat down. I returned to the bar to order my food of chicken tikka and a portion of chips £8.25- unfortunately the chicken tikka was spicy which is not how I like it. It was nice to have lunch with work colleagues - the Black Country and the wider West Midlands is a wash with Indian...