Alston Bar & Beef — Restaurant in Scotland

I hate writing bad reviews because it always makes me feel guilty, but Alston should really feel guilty for passing themselves off as a quality restaurant. They are charging between £30 to £40 for steaks and the quality of the steak I received was actually laughable. At least half the steak was rancid uncooked pink fat and or stringy sinew.

So that was the steak. The chips were rustic skin on types that were made of chalky ununiformly cooked potato (some were crispy while others were limp or chalky undercooked disasters). The blue cheese sauce tasted more like feta than good quality stilton. The bread we ordered turned up cold and was 6 thinly sliced pieces of sad looking dry loaf, rather than a nice lump of warm bread to rip and melt butter over.

The final thing was the service. I must stress that the waiters were lovely and attentive so it wasn't their fault, rather I presume a stingy owner trying to maximise their profits. It was a Friday night with a fully booked restaurant and a bar that was packed with people who had just finished work and were enjoying a drink in their bar. The restaurant bizarrely didn't seem to have anyone dedicated to getting drinks out to the restaurant tables. We ordered a cocktail and were told (apologetically - again the staff were nice) "you'll have quite a wait for a cocktail, the bar is full". Later we ordered a glass of wine which never arrived.

Even the most bog standard restaurant will have a member of the bar staff prioritising drinks for the restaurant to make sure the tables, which are booked for 90 minutes slots, get their drinks on time during their meal.

So to summarise that was bad steak, bad chips, bad sauce, bad bread and poor staff being overworked by what I can only describe as a bad restaurateur.

I hate Alston Bar and Beef and every other dreadful steak restaurant that passes themselves off as an upmarket place, when actually it appears to be a badly run restaurant selling poor produce. If you are going to open a steak restaurant, you have nowhere to hide. The steak, chips, bread, services, etc. all need to be spot on. Without asking and without me complaining about anything because I hate complaining, our waiter did knock £20 off the bill which again highlights the staff being nice. The staff were probably a bit embarrassed by the lack of support they had to do their job.

To be balanced my partner's steak was delicious as was the peppercorn sauce, but they were served with with house "disaster chips" so not a perfect meal and it was her that never got her wine.

If you want a nice steak or a nice meal, go anywhere...

In summary, this place is hyped but not great - which honestly for steak in Glasgow is par for the course.

We had the cote de boeuf and the filet, bernaise and peppercorn sauces, fries, onions and mash as sides, bottle of red.

The restaurant is super nice, good atmosphere and vibe was great. The wait staff are excellent, the sides with our meal were superb. But it’s in the kitchen this falls apart.

A 15oz ribeye should be oozing with juices after cooking, mine was dry. The filet was also dry, like grass fed beef cooked on a lower heat than required, poor crust, no basting. For the price, it was fine-ish… maybe a little better than the chain places like M&C… which isn’t a compliment.

We went through 4 knives before they eventually sharpened our knives so we could cut the beef, this is embarrassing as a steak should not be this hard to cut (cooked medium and med rare) and …it’s literally a steak restaurant?

The peppercorn sauce was more like a reduced beef stock gravy, more pepper needed. The bernaise was tasty but almost ice cold. I know you want to avoid scrambling it, but at least ensure the container is kept hot prior to serving to help this. Plates were cold which yielded food going cold much faster than would be expected.

In all I wouldn’t recommend this place, the waiter quietly removed our wine from the bill, but if this place was good, we would have spent a lot more on cocktails and wine before leaving.

Mandatory 10% service charge which I’m happy to pay, service was good. But sort out your kitchen guys, you’re touting a premium experience, beef is in your name, but maybe it should be Alston bar and potatoes.

It was edible, so I didn’t report the food issues, I also hate sitting whilst my partner is eating, it ruins the flow of the meal. Here’s what I’d suggest to improve the experience:

you’re grilling on a flat top grill, you’re losing the juices of the meat when you cook like this and it’s nowhere near hot enough for a good crust, no basting either, please change this - equip your chefs with the right tools.

ensure suppliers are providing grain fed beef, not grass fed.

heat your plates

sharpen your knives or replace them, butter knives, no matter how nice looking, do not cut meat.

You guys could be great, I want to come back some time and have a really...

We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and time spent at The Alston we booked the Chateau Thursday for 2 which consisted of 500g Chateaubriand to share, 2 sides, 2 sauces and a bottle of wine for £78 we opted out of having wine and this was reduced to £73. We arrived for 2:30pm and other than staff we were the only ones in at the time so it was very quite but this is to be expected for a weekday. For sides we had the truffle chips and Isle of Mull Mac & Cheese. I wasn't as keen on the truffle chips but that's a personal preference husband enjoyed them though the Mac & cheese was cooked perfectly our steak was served medium rare which was chefs recommendation due to the tenderness of the meat it was cooked and seasoned perfectly. We also opted for a side of garlic prawns again loved them out whole meal was faultless. I was pleased to see Isle of Harris Gin on the drinks menu a Gin I have wanted to try for quite some time I went with our waiters recommendation to have it served with a slice of grapefruit and Mediterranean Fever Tree Tonic bonus that this is my favourite tonic safe to say they were paired beautifully. My husband is fairly new to trying Gin but out waiter recommended the Crossbill served with the light Mediterranean Fever Tree my husband wasn't keen but again it's personal however the waiter removed this from our bill along with the prawns due to them not being out on with the meal. Alston you will be seeing us again be it for the Chateau Thursdays or to try the lunch time deals out waiter was a credit to your team and we hope to see him again on...