Victors Hale — Restaurant in Trafford

Absolutely appalling experience on New Years Eve. We feel shocked, disgusted and let down as loyal customers to Victors. As we live local in Bowdon, we have been here before and had great experiences. Due to this, i booked a table for the set dinner for myself and my mum at 9.15pm for New Years Eve and paid the deposit. I notified staff via email of our order days in advance (bear in mind £95 per person not including the drinks or deposit paid, for the New Years set menu). Excited to enjoy the night and nice food, we spent hours getting ready for the night, wearing our nicest dresses and outfits. Arriving to the restaurant, it seemed busy as you would expect for New Years, with most tables consisting of groups of people with drinks. It seemed very rushed and chaotic, we had an umbrella as it was raining heavily upon arrival and I had a Balmain blazer on, which was soaked. We were not even offered for our things to be taken, and kept hung up, like you’d expect for a restaurant of this status. This is usually a typical considerate gesture done at other establishments I often attend, such as the Ivy and Gaucho as being standard. This had already set a bad tone for the night immediately and demonstrated poor customer service. We were then told that there were not yet any tables free and we had to wait at the bar. Unfortunately the bar was completely full and over packed. There was absolutely no where for us to sit and we were left having to stand and hold a soaking wet jacket and umbrella, not an experience you’d expect to be paying hundreds for. There was a chair free, which was rudely taken by a man who appeared very scruffy in appearance and wore sports clothes to a seemingly high end restaurant. He rudely grabbed my waist and moved me out the way to sit down himself next to his girlfriend, who was also rude, but may have also been frustrated waiting for a free table. This left us feeling humiliated despite looking stunning in gorgeous outfits, and classy in appearance to fit the high end class of restaurant this is. There appeared to be no class or manners from anyone, something I have never experienced before in any establishment like this. Becoming more frustrated as we were still waiting for a table and standing with wet clothes at the bar with no seats it became very embarrassing . We had booked a table for 9.15 and was now around 9.45, and we were not offered any kind of apology whatsoever or complimentary drink whilst waiting as bare minimum, we requested to speak to the manager. The manager Indicated that there was no sign of tables clearing anytime soon and the kitchen was “chaos”, definitely not something you want to hear whilst waiting for a meal you’re going to spend hundreds on. It seemed as though they had made a huge error in over booking the restaurant for the night so tables couldn’t be cleared when they needed to be for more customers that had bookings later and people seemed sat at their tables having drinks and not moving to accommodate the later bookings . As we did not want to stand at the bar, for however many hours we’d have to wait for a table, ( if we even ever got one), we had no option but to leave with the refunded deposit, which was little to compensate for wasted time, wasted money and a completely wasted and ruined New Year’s Eve, leaving us feel upset and hugely let down as it was Victors error for overbooking the restaurant for the night, not ours. They have now lost loyal customers. As a business management student, I’d recommend taking a serious review into management for the conduct of the night, basic customer service standards and the over booking of table slots. We feel absolutely appalled and sadly wouldn’t be able to recommend this restaurant to anyone when it is a busy evening time, as you may not even...

I have been to Victor's in Newcastle twice, including my undergrad graduation meal, before my visit to Victor's Hale, so I was really excited to visit the one in Hale as it was a different location but the Newcastle one had impressed me so much food and service wise, however, I can't say the same for the Hale location. I booked the Hale location for mine and my boyfriend's anniversary, therefore, we were both looking forward to it. We're both students still so we knew to save a decent amount aside as Victor's is more on the higher price point but from my past experience it was definitely worth it, however, this time it was not. Completely understand that this was no one's fault in terms of FOH staff, as I work in a restaurant and hospitality for a few years I know things like this can happen, but their beef tataki had ran out but we weren't made aware of this until the server came over and took our order so had to rethink, would have been nice to know so we could have chosen something else instead of deciding last minute. We were also asked twice in the space of 10 minutes after we sat down if we were ready to order yet which felt a bit rushed. We ordered our food and then ordered some more drinks, I'd asked to get a glass of ice to come with my wine at the time of order but maybe the server didn't hear me which is completely fine it happens but I then asked another member of staff for a glass of ice when he brought the drinks over (think he was a manager or supervisor as he wasn't in the Victor's uniform) but it never came after waiting for 10/15 mins. I asked for a third time from another server who put it through and it eventually came. Our food wasn't that great to be honest, I was quite disappointed, as I have eaten twice before at Victor's e.g. the chips (for nearly £6) were quite inconsistent, the top ones were cooked nicely at the top but as you got to the bottom they became quite greasy and a bit harder and the burger was just a bit mediocre the patty was a bit overdone and lacked flavour and no salad. I think the most important part and why I am even writing this review is because of the way the server was with us at the end when paying the bill. Like I have mentioned I work in a restaurant alongside studying, so I know how much tips do make a difference but at the end of the day you get paid an hourly wage. Where I work also puts a 10% service charge on automatically so a lot of people do just pay it which is nice, however, I'm not going to pay a 10% service charge when I waited about 20-30 minutes for a glass of ice and like I said the whole experience was just not what I was hoping for, so I asked for it off (I have paid it both times before). The reaction we got from the server was really rude, he looked at me like I'd said something horrible to him and said yes very bitter, honestly I was shocked, I would never be like that with a customer if they didn't want to leave a tip. After we paid he just walked off didn't say thank you or have a nice evening nothing. Also I put that it was a special occasion (Anniversary) and it felt like that was completely overlooked, a big part of Victor's vibe is the experience you get from walking in and out the door and just felt left down to be honest, something got brought out for me at my graduation meal but not this time so a it confused why they ask on the booking? I was so buzzing after my visits in newcastle, but this has put me off visiting again soon and put a little dampener on our anniversary. Just can't believe the difference in the way things were this...

I advise not to book through open table. We were told upon arrival that our booking was not valid, and that they were fully booked. We were also told, this had happened before and they had no access to the system to turn bookings off? So you’re happy for people to make wasted journeys for special occasions and turn up to be told that their reservation isn’t valid? Very strange.

It was Father’s Day and we travelled one hour with a 10 month old baby. The manager was happy to politely apologise and have us on our way, no offer of a voucher or much effort to ‘fit us in’. We politely pushed for any alternative table at all as we were desperate. We were then offered to sit outside (not really the special meal we came for nor particularly appropriate with a baby) but after sitting at the bar and scouring the internet to find a table anywhere else we accepted sitting outside as a last resort. We were then given our diet cokes free as courtesy. We like to think we are very polite, so we accepted the mix up and didn’t say anything despite there being 8 tables free inside the restaurant. We kept quiet thinking perhaps they were expecting an influx of bookings soon.

We were however quite shocked that 1 hour went by and still there were 8 empty tables available inside whilst we remained outside? We could have sat inside for however long was available and then moved outside which would have been better than nothing? Again. It just seemed a very odd decision on our part, maybe an explanation would help if this were to happen again. From a customers point of view it was baffling.

Further to the point above, not at any point during our stay was there ever full covers on the tables. There was always empty tables available inside. We would have even been happy with a maximum table time if that would have been offered to us.

Moving on to the food, Our bread starter was nice, no complaints Our roast dinner again was nice. Everything came pretty quickly. However, it went downhill from here. We got forgotten about for a very long time after our mains, we waited an exceptionally long time to be asked if we wanted dessert.

We actually finished our main and starter within 1 hour. However we spent approximately 2.5 hours at the restaurant, waiting for a waiter to come over to take our plates away and ask us if we wanted dessert.

Dessert finally came, which was quite possibly the worst desserts we’ve ever experienced. I ordered a cookie and ice cream which ended up being goo and ice cream, the ‘cookie’ was non existent and was infact just goo that would drip in a soup consistency from my spoon. My husband ordered a sticky toffee pudding which wasn’t cooked.

We had been polite the entire time, despite our frustrations. We were quite honestly just baffled, and although staff were very polite. We just couldn’t understand our experience.

We politely asked a member of staff if the desserts were supposed to be like this and we were told, absolutely not and that they would be taken off our bill.

We received 20% off, and our desserts and initial drinks were taken off which was appreciated. It’s difficult to get out with a baby, so it was disappointing that this was our experience on my husbands first Father’s Day, which was supposed to be a...