Hopetoun Bar & Bistro — Restaurant in Scotland

Been here quite a few times but really disappointed with the service provided this evening. Came to celebrate a big achievement, graduating university and decided on a local place to go for a nice meal and drink. The food was okay, but the service provided was abysmal and completely ruined what was a special day. I had ordered a few drinks which were fine, however the drink that I ordered was completely undrinkable, after trying a small amount, grabbed the attention of the waitress, without trying to make it into a big deal. The waitress returned and said, which I quote “ it’s not really our problem you don’t like the drink, if you want another one you’ll need to pay”. I was actually taken a back by the way in which this was said. I am not one to complain, and the fact is that If the drink was not to my taste, I simply would have drank it anyway to save embarrassment, however this was not the case and the drink was disgusting, I could not drink it. Firstly, I am embarrassed in which the way I was spoken to regarding this, and secondly shocked that such an establishment does not take paying customer feedback on board, and as a goodwill gesture, replaced the drink free of charge, I.e making it again, offering a replacement or taking it off the bill. None of these options were provided and the waitress was quite blunt. Not wanting to cause a scene and trying to enjoy the rest of my evening, I left it at that. However felt like I needed to post this review to let other people know how disappointing the service is. This is actually quite a small issue that could have been resolved there and then with decent customer service, however it was not and I’ve been left feeling upset over such a small situation. I recommend that you train your staff and management in better customer service, and recognise where a customer is not happy and try to resolve the issue. I was nothing but polite and felt like I had been treated rudely and unfairly. It was a special occasion and I won’t be able to re celebrate on that night. This is something which I suggest you look into.

Unfortunately, I will not be returning and will be letting friends and family know the same. It’s really disappointing when a local business has bad customer service and does not...

Arrived group of 4 last night for a girl Xmas meet up and served by a lovely young man with Xmas hat on, lots of smiles and a lovely service from him only.

Food, I ordered the scallops and black pudding starter which was mediocre, lacked seasoning and flavour, main course sea bass was a very very small fillet of Seabass, which was also greatly lacking in flavour, very bland, even a wedge of lemon on side which is a very common addition with fish would have been appreciated and also wasn’t very warm, definitely some direction required with some dishes.

Lastly and it’s a very important one for me, food being the most important and this last one is dependent on everything that happens throughout service beforehand.

Tipping!! When in the heck did automatically adding gratuity to a bill without pre authorisation from your guests become the norm? I actually would have been telling you to take it off had I not been in company and the bill was being split. At no point we’re we advised of automatic addition of tip. Given the food quality and general taste and service on a whole I would have liked to make my own mind up about tipping, it’s like being entitled regardless of your experience.

I always tip and very generous, but I have a huge dislike for this entitlement of adding without giving customer the decision of how much. In America it’s common and expected but they do work their asses off to ensure food and service is top. I believe this is came over from America and it’s not going to work. At least there in the US you are given the option to add out of 3 percentages of want you think is deserving of your total experience and close your bill off. I for one will not be back for the reason of whole experience but mainly Food and adding of gratuity.

Twice I’ve been once for lunch with work and last night but definitely...

My wife and I arrived with our two dogs to have food. Having done this previously we knew that we would be asked to sit at the bar side of the establishment. The waiter brought us water for the dogs and one of them lay down on my wife's jacket on a plastic bench seat. The waiter suggested this was OK. The waitress on shift then spoke to both dogs and we were told that the dog on her jacket was OK. Shortly after our food arrived I approached the man behind the bar to ask for salt and when he brought it he aggressively stated the dog wasn't allowed on the seat then he walked off. We sat for one minute then decided we were leaving but not before we went up to the bar to engage this man. He couldn't wait to tell us he was the restaurant manager and that he was implementing the policy on dogs. There was no hint of an apology for the way he spoke and he just kept repeating the same reply. We told him that we were leaving and he seemed non-plussed. He needs to go to customer service training and maybe even anger management. The bar where we had been seated had no other customers so there wouldn't be any complaint. We have just returned from The Lake District and found everywhere dog friendly but you can't find this at home. It seems to us that this place will close and the customer service may partly be to blame. We most definitely...