The Balloch House — Restaurant in Scotland

Group of seven celebrating a birthday surprised and let down by slow service, poorly prepared dishes and no explanation when we asked though did receive an apology.

Arriving at six and giving our order roughly around 6.20 we did not receive our mains till a minute to 8 and only three of us had a starter which took a long time to come and even longer to be cleared.

One of our party asked a member of staff who said they were just bar staff regarding the wait after the table of about 8 next to us who arrived at the same time got up and paid for their drinks and starters and left without accepting their mains. They said this had not happened here before so local or regular diners but obviously felt aggrieved enough to leave.

I wished we hadn't asked about the waiting time as the food then shortly arrived and several of our group were not overly happy about the quality of our dishes with two of us having the same thing could see both prepared visibly differently and I think the amount of tomatoes still on the stem with my steak and chips gave a lazy student feel as the least offensive way of describing it. We all felt the game was lost to be trying to send anything back and were resigned to finishing and going.

The bill was wrong and we felt pressured after the new one was presented as the lady from earlier who presented herself as bar staff was now seeking payment and ordering a young waiter to clear things from tables was hovering over my sister who was just trying to look over the corrected bill.

They had two menus running with a set menu with 3 courses for a set price but we didn't get to take advantage of this as we asked for the bill around 8.30 with our dishes still on the table were not wanting to stay for a possibly another hour. Whilst my sister queried the bill I went to the toilets but could only use the one working cubicle due to flooding along the floor of the urinals.

Our young waiter was very polite and left to apologise for our poor experience.

Would have been less likely to review if some ownership and explanation was taken on the night from management as they had every...

We had a really bad experience. I’m unsure if the place was understaffed or not but the atmosphere from them was very stressed and overwhelmed. I first went to get some drinks before dinner to sit outside. I was ignored and the female behind the bar went onto serve someone else. I was the only other person stood there. For dinner, we went along for our booking time. I had notified in my booking I was coming with an autistic child, who was wearing his sunflower lanyard to identify this also. The staff again gave the impression we were an inconvenience. We were sat in a slightly quieter area which was good for my son. Some other customers came in after us and one table seemed to know the staff member and received a completely different greeting and service than we did. I placed my order of fish and chips for myself and nuggets for my son at around 4.15pm. Almost 45 minutes passed and we still hadn’t had our food brought out to us, yet the tables that came in after us did. I asked politely where our food could be as we had been waiting a long time - to the point that my autistic son was becoming very distressed and unsettled and my stress levels were through the roof. The staff remember went to the kitchen and almost immediately came back with our food which was strange, like it had just been sitting there. My son received 5 chicken nuggets on a plate and I had an overcooked battered fish that was burned in areas. We were both so hungry that I wasn’t in a position to protest anymore I just needed him to eat something so I could move us on. After finishing I tried to make eye contact with one of the staff to get the bill but was ignored again so I approached the bar to pay. It was a really bad experience and to pay 30 odd quid for 2 soft drinks and a couple of bad plates was...

Very very disappointing - myself and my friends had tried to eat here 2 times prior during a trip up in Scotland and had been turned away for one reason or another - however they gave us a menu to take back and the atmosphere seemed good so we decided to book in and try again.

Went on a Friday , and there was a special 3 course set menu. Was very very busy and didn’t seem to have enough servers. As mentioned in many other low reviews, the wait for every single step of this meal was absolutely ridiculous . Seated at 8pm. Didn’t even get drinks ordered till 8:30 . After being informed only one thing on the menu was not available, we were told 3 of the items we had ordered were out. Then another hour wait for food to come out. All things we would’ve been fine with IF the food had been good. My friends sea bass was the smallest slither I’ve ever seen and her sauce was literally freeing cold. My pork belly was dry and the sauce it came with literally had no taste to it at all- all three of us tried it and confirmed this. My partners lasagne was so bland that when he dipped his chips in bbq sauce it took him another 3 bites of lasagne to even taste that he was eating lasagne.

We would’ve left within the first 20 minutes if we had been local or it hadn’t been already so late that we were worried we wouldn’t get in anywhere else. We had been looking forward to this meal all well after planning what we were going to have and just utterly disappointed.

The wait staff were lovely, despite not asking us once how our meal was (otherwise we may have said something but didn’t get checked up on because they were too busy) , and run ragged. Whole place seemed to have no real structure- even had the bill brought out 2 separate times.

Wouldn’t recommend and wouldn’t...