Bo'Vine Meats & Wines — Restaurant in Scotland

Awful experience with us having to dine at separate times with a complete lack of any customer service standards by the evenings restaurant manager, although the rest of the staff seemed to be fairly competent. Bo'vines came well recommended and we booked a table on a Wednesday during a long weeks work with many visits across the Central Belt. The meal started ok, although being asked for our order when we had been given the menu seconds before was a bit surprising. We started with bread selection and olives, along with a decent Sauvignon. We had lots to talk about so didnt mind the long wait for our mains.....although the bread and olives along with most of the wine had long gone by the time it finally arrived, delivered by the evenings manager. My wife had the BoVine burger which was very tasty, well presented and acceptable. I had ordered Seared Sea Bream with Gnocchi, Samphire and a Saffron cream sauce. I also ordered a side of french style onion rings. Unfortunately, the fish resembled a fried Irish potato farl, extremely crispy and orange burnt on the surface which continued through the fillet with virtually no white fish visible. I immediately attempted to attract the attention of our waitress, with no joy, but spotted the manager who was dealing with a complaint on the other side of the restaurant. He came over and I showed him the fish, he tried to tell me that it was ok, which really was not a good idea. He then offered to replace it and took it away....for a long time, with no apology. I started on the onion rings, which were coated in a very light batter, although some of the rings still had the outer tough onion coat on. I then started to discover large lumps of what seemed to be miji chicken nugget kind of things amongst the rings, and picked them out, lots of them. I called our waitress over and showed her the clumps, so she took them to the kitchen to investigate. Time went on, my wife finished her meal. The manager was nowhere to be seen. I'd had enough, went to the bar to offer to pay for the wine and starters, and wife's meal and we were going. At that point, the manager came back with my freshly cooked dinner, explaining to me that the clumps in the onion rings were the central core of the onions with batter on.....surely no chef of a quality restaurant would produce that, or a manager accept that?? The fish was cooked correctly, the meal acceptable, but not enjoyable as the evening had already been ruined. The second set of onion rings were no better than the first, with tough outer skin again, although no clumps this time. Most were left. The manager(or waitress) did not come back to ask if the second attempt at the fish was good. Once finished, the bill was presented by the waitress promptly(without my meal being charged), but no apology although she was very pleasant. The manager was noticeably absent. We paid and left. Note for restaurant manager. You should not argue when a customers dinner is so obviously bad. You should insist the kitchen prioritise the poorly cooked meal replacement, which they obviously stuck to the back of the queue, and you should attempt to communicate with the customer(s), perhaps offering a drink, or apology, rather than disappearing and abdicating responsibility to your...

Itison voucher used on 26/11/23, £54 for sharing Chateaubriand with sides, sauces and glass of Prosecco each. Had arrived on time at 6pm. Queue to enter but not a problem. Shown to table with menus, no water offered. Decor was dark and tired looking, only splashes of colour were the multicolored Steven Brown Highland cow pictures. The tables were also too close together, felt that they were packing us in for the voucher deals. The ladies facilties were also run down. One cubicle had no toilet seat (I would have closed this off). 5 cubicles and only 1 hand dryer working. Dark carpet on floor with people dripping water over the place this is so outdated. No offer of Prosecco yet but order taken at 6.20pm of food. I also ordered a bottle of Picpoul white wine at this time as we had nothing to drink yet, this was reasonable at £32 outwith the offer. Husband asked 3 times for the Prosecco. Young lady server came and spoke to young couple on my right, turned around and said "same goes for you", I had to explain that I had not heard what she had said... She explained that the kitchen was grossly understaffed and that meals would take some time to reach us. As we had wine now there was no point in leaving.. The x2 glasses of Prosecco finally arrived (got 2 each because they forgot all about it). We began to hear that several people had been waiting for some time, another couple who had arrived after us left before getting their meal. We were finally served at 7.15pm at night. The small print says that you only have the table for 2 hours, so how is this possible when people are waiting for over an hour (some 1 and a half hours), we were 1 hour 15 mins? As we were sharing a steak my husband doesn't like blood on his plate so ordered it "medium" as a compromise. Now I know that Chateaubriand should be medium rare to rare but after a long wait for everything then I took what I got which was cooked to perfection for me and was served to my liking and was well seasoned, lovely. The presentation of meal felt like at this point thrown together with no roasted vine tomatoes but half of a baby plum tomato and garlic butter straight out of fridge served in an oversized frying pan straight to table. At the point of serving our meal we now had a table with unused starter cutlery, 4 empty Prosecco glasses (not removed) and a wine cooler and 2 wine glasses as well as a candle in holder and salt and pepper dishes so to put a large serving pan on table as well as 2 plates seems a little crowded for me. For a place of this calibre the only highlight for me was the steak itself (divine) but you have lots of problems to sort out before I ever return. Cons; Not enough staff, floor or kitchen. Staff training, basically inform all customers of kitchen problem, not just turn around and say "Ditto". Make room on table for presentation. Decor, too dark and tables too close together. Toilets need an overhaul. Pro's; steak was done to perfection in my eyes but presentation (due to kitchen staff constraints) could be better. Bottom line: you sold too many Itison...

Terrible Experience

My team and I visited for our Christmas night out and I can say without hesitation that we had the worst dining experience we have ever had. I cannot with good conscience allow anyone else to spend their hard earned cash in a restaurant that is trading on a reputation that it clearly can no longer live up to. A rundown of the evening:

50 minutes for a first drink (the restaurant was empty) and while I appreciate that some of us ordered cocktails, to have only one semi-trained bartender seems ludicrous. Subsequent drinks orders had to be placed by searching for a staff member and waiting an inordinately long time.

When I went to the bar to ask for a red wine glass (I had already asked a waiter but none was forthcoming) I was handed a gin glass and told just use this, it's pretty much the same shape as our red wine glasses!

Staff who were clearly untrained on the bar, waiting tables and also serving food and who very rarely came to tables to check if we needed anything

The first starters (4 bowls of lukewarm soup) arrived after over an hour. After 10 minutes another 4 bowls arrived. After a further 10 minutes, the cold salmon starters arrived. Those who had received their starter first were long finished by the time the salmon arrived.

We had selected our order weeks prior to our visit but had to reselect when we arrived as the menu had changed.

Those who chose sirloin steak diane, dauphinoise potatoes and buttered carrots, received a small fillet steak, fries, a mushroom, tomato and some had a soggy pile of rocket (except the person opposite me who only received a single rocket leaf!) The sauce had clearly been watered down to feed enough people and for some reason there were insufficient sauce boats.

Disjointed service and inconsistency in the contents of the main courses

There was zero atmosphere in the restaurant.

The table behind us eventually left as they had received no food. The family next to us. who were seated at 8pm, were finally served their food when we left at 10.30pm

The whole experience took so long that we had limited time at the place we had booked and paid to go to after dinner

In all honesty the whole situation became farcical. It reminded me of Fawlty Towers sketch. In all my years of dining out, I have never had an experience quite like it. To take my entire staff out for a Christmas meal to thank them for their work over the year and for them to be treated like this was frankly embarrassing as an employer. As a company to fall so far of the mark, they ought to be ashamed.

The restaurant manager was clearly mortified and the duty manager refused to come and speak to us. When I spoke to the next day's duty manager, he agreed that we should be refunded so we can take our team out somewhere else. I am still waiting to be contacted about this...