Hillhead Bookclub — Restaurant in Scotland

I’m not sure where to begin with this review, as our experience wasnt great from the start. While I understand that staff members may be new and still learning, the way management handled our situation only made things worse.

We had reserved a table that included two bottles of prosecco and orange juice. Upon arrival, we had to request the prosecco, and the orange juice was missing. Despite reminding the staff three times, the orange juice was still not brought to the table right away. They also did not bring the fruit platter which was included in our package and when we asked about this, they told us "we don't do the fruit platter anymore", despite this being advertised on the website. This set a disappointing tone for the rest of our visit.

When it came time to order food, we were not informed about items that were unavailable that day. As a result, three of us ordered dishes that were no longer on the menu. Additionally, when one guest ordered the classic mac muffin with an extra hash brown, it arrived without the hash brown but with an extra potato scone instead. After sending it back to be corrected, it was returned with the hash brown but the potato scone removed. This issue persisted after multiple attempts to explain our order.

For the Highlander mac muffins, we ordered three with extra hash browns, but only two arrived, and neither had the extra hash brown. We politely reminded the staff, only to have one of our meals arrive 30 minutes later, after everyone else had finished eating. This delay was particularly disappointing as it was a birthday celebration. To add to the confusion, an additional mac muffin with an extra hash brown was brought out much later, despite us only requesting the missing hash browns. By then, we had already finished our meal and no longer wanted them.

When it came time to settle the bill, the staff informed us that we wouldn’t be charged for the hash browns or the extra meal that no one ate, which was hardly a consolation. They also attempted to add a 10% service charge, despite the subpar service we received. While they did offer us a round of drinks for our next visit, it’s unlikely we’ll be returning after such a disappointing experience.

Overall, the service we received was lacking, and the management's response did little to address the numerous issues we encountered...

My first ever one-star review is for a meal and drinks here on 19th July 2021. Although we were offered a sincere apology by the duty manager, were given 50% off the bill and were offered a round of free drinks for which we're grateful, the standard and quality of service in the two hours leading up to this apology is the focus of my review. Main dish took 46 mins to arrive, side dish (for which we were charged half price) never even made it to the table. Two drinks were sent back: first a G&T - with no Gin! and then a G&T which had soda instead of gin. We were told that this happened because the mixers are dispensed by a pump which defaults to soda when tonic has run out. I then ordered a glass of wine. I was told that you'd "run out" of wine by one person and just as they left to attend to another table another member of staff arrived with a white wine served in a mini carafe which still had pepper seeds from an earlier Bloody Mary floating in it and which, (and I say this based on our experience with a modest cellar at hone) was either adultererated - yes watered down - or frankly, the worst wine ever made. I note from your menu that your wine is kegged - I wonder if there was a problem with the equipment? (cf the tonic/soda incident) A waiter at another Glasgow restaurant overheard us talking with friends about our negative experiences at HHBC and they claimed that they'd been served wine which, in their opinion tasted watered down here too a few weeks ago. I appreciate that this is a serious allegation and I don't make it lightly but given that two sets of customers have independently made this observation it only seems right that the proprietors get a right of reply, rather than this going straight to Trading Standards, say. So, a very disappointing visit. Probably the worst dining experience of my life and a real let down as I'd enjoyed visiting HHBC pre-lockdown. I'll be giving it a wide berth henceforth. I sincerely hope that our experiences were an outlier and that staff can improve as it would be nice to go back...

Would not recommend. I’ve been to the bookclub before and although it was always quite mid and overrated it was never too bad. However, i was recently there for a society event as they advertise themselves as a student venue and mainly target the student sector and you can even find lots of different deals on food and drink for students (20% off for both is mentioned on their Offers section). I ordered a drink for which at first i wasn’t even noticed although there were 3 people behind the bar. Then i asked about food as I’d been eyeing the menu online which is expensive but with the student discount goes down to a decent amount and seems alright. It seemed like they weren’t serving food anywhere else other than the ground floor but my event was upstairs so i asked if i could eat and in the end they gave me some menus which was nice. They took the order quickly but before they did i double-checked when the student discount would be applied. They said once they bring over the check they’d apply it but that we were with a society event so we would get one anyway. The food was alright but nothing crazy. Then i had to leave in a rush and asked one of my friends to pay for it and remind them of the student discount. When she went to the bar to pay (nobody worried about getting the payment so basically we could’ve left and save everyone the hassle) the guy didn’t know about it so he asked someone else and they said they didn’t do student discounts on food although it’s on the website. In the end she paid the full price for me and when she told me i was so confused so although I’ve never left a bad review i felt like i had to. Every time I’ve been here I’m so blown away by how pretty it is and overall enjoy the vibe but the drinks, food and service disappoint every time so...