The Restaurant by One Devonshire Gardens — Restaurant in Scotland

Went to Bistro du Vin with my Husband and granddaughter. We were looking forward to going as we hadn't been before. We had a gift card for £250 from my Daughter from Christmas 2022. We booked lunch and the food and service was great! When we got to the part of paying, the waitress informed us there was a problem. This was after we had put on our coats and was ready to go! The gift card we gave her was showing £0 ie: no money on the gift card. We couldn't understand this! They said they would look into it but obviously didn't, as the supervisor informed me they were looking for me to pay our bill. We were mortified and felt very awkward, embarassed and humiliated! But I had no hesitation in paying the bill (but what if I hadn't any money) I dread to think what would have happened! She said she would ring the complaints dept when she had time but I said I would do that when I got home⁷. She gave me the number and we left. I called the number as soon as I got home, but it was an automated response asking for a meeting number, therefore I wasn't able to get any further with the call. I called Hotel du Vin explaining the situation and was informed one of the managers would call me back, which he did. I was informed my Daughter had not received the 1st gift card sent by them and another was sent in it's place, but, was not validated with a code for the £250. The manager said he would call me back once he looked further into it. I have had time to think all this over and I am very angry with how this was initially dealt with. My problem with this was, why was this not dealt with while we were there! It could have been resolved especially as the manager I spoke to was on sight! The Manager called me back and explained every detail of what had happened and apologised profusely. Our bill was nearly £190. He asked what I wanted to do with the money that was left on the card and I said give it to the waiting staff as we had no intention of ever going back. The money left on the card was over £60, but what I didn't realise there had already been a charge of £13.50 added to our bill for the waiting staff. I now believe the manager at Hotel du Vin should have compensated us with the £250 gift card and given us our lunch for free. When you are faced with a problem you have never come across before, especially when you are made to feel awkward, mortified, embarassed and humiliated, you just want to get away as quickly as possible, Needless to say, I or my family will ever step foot in Hotel...

We went for lunch on a Saturday and unfortunatley the experience was fairly poor. Service - service was reasonable, the same as you would get in a typical restaurant, nice people. Food - I had the vegetable options and my partner the meat options, vegetable options were entirely reasonable, nothing amazing but appreciated that a vegetable option was available. The meat option wasnt quite as good, the food was generally not great quality, several dishes were half eaten at most and the others were adequate flavours, again reasonable but not what you expect from a luxury venue. Atmosphere - we arrived as we'd booked and the building was dead, only the 2 of us in the restaurant until about 1 hour later when another 2 people arrived. the building is nice and is probably nice when its full but sitting in a large empty, quite quiet room while staff busied back and forth felt like we'd arrived way too early and we felt pretty conspicuous. In summary the restaurant is a reasonable experience but at the pricepoint of £110 to £130 for 2 for lunches and a drink the cost to quality is not there. If you do go I'd recommend booking later in the day to avoid having your conversation being the only noise, carrying through the whole place...

Have to say I have been staying here on and of for the last few years and the Manager David and his team work well together, the hotel is in a great location at the West end in a quiet street the food is also amazing and they have a great wee bar for that Nightcap before bed ,rooms always clean and fresh on arrival ,as I travel a lot I like to stay at a nice and clean hotel and this one is always a pleasure to return to and deserves 10 stars thanks again to the Manager David and his team for always making me feel welcome *PS Also the best place for Christmas dinner with...