Heavens Kitchen — Restaurant in Waverley

Me and my partner dined there tonight after reading some great reviews, although some reviews complained of poor service we decided to overlook this as i know people are only human and sometimes things dont go as planned! But sadly tonight we experienced the same! Table was booked for 8.30 in which we arrived bang on time. The table wasnt ready for us and we were asked to sit at the bar for a minute or two..... no dramas there. We ordered drinks and then got immediately brought to our table. 15mins later the drinks still hadnt arrived. This got resolved shortly after as the manager came to take our drinks order, unaware we had already ordered. We then began to look through the menu and 10mins later the waiter came and took our order...... for us only to find out that they have a specials menu that was shown to a table next to us but we were not shown or even told about! Starters arrived in a timely fashion, the calamari very nice and the brushetta an impressive portion size! The manager came and ask if we were ok for drinks in which i ordered a JD and diet coke, the waitress returned with JD and full fat coke but was corrected for me. Once we finished starters a waiter came and collected our plates and asked if i wanted anymore drinks in which i proceeded to look through the wine list and asked if he could pop back. Sadly he never and it took 45mins before anyone came back. Mains arrived. My fillet steak was perfect! My partner ordered slow cooked ribs..... defo not slow cooked. Burnt on the outside and not exactly falling of the bone, quite tough in places. Mains finished and we asked for the bill, paid and left. Service charge was added to the bill already in which i would of contested but simply could not be bothered! Summing up my experience i would say the food is good not great. The service is shocking. The prices are on the high side with regards to the food quality and service. It seemed under staffed mainly due to the fact the 3 waiting staff were rushed off there feet whilst the manager stood talking to what seemed to be friends at the bar for a very long while. To the extend that even the bar man had to start delivering drinks to tables. Im interested to see if this review gets a reply as whilst looking through the reviews ive noticed the owner only replies to the 5 star...

Edit: To respond to the owners reply.

Absolutely appalling experience. Changed booking from 4 to 6 people the day before to be told to arrive earlier to accommodate a larger table. Given a 4 seater table with children's seats either side and told we needed to vacate an hour later. No room or time at all for a proper meal. The manager was rude and intimidating. Tried to fob me off with a 2 seater table being classed as 4 seater and that we were given a larger table. This was proved total rubbish with 5 couples sat at the '4 seater' tables throughout his restaurant. Didn't get to try the food as we left and out of principle we won't be returning nor will we be recommending. The restaurant is a joke and I feel for the employees working under such an awful owner. Shameful. For anyone who is interested in covid measures (which to clarify I wasn't on booking) the tables are squashed together, there's no significant space anywhere and the manager allocates 90 mins for a meal which when you're spending in excess of £20 a head this doesn't allow for much time to enjoy an evening out. This restaurant doesn't deserve to do well and I will be spreading the word to avoid.

Just to clarify we booked a table for 5pm, were told that to accommodate 2 extra people we would need to arrive at 4.30 (expecting a larger table I agreed to this.) At 4.15 there was no way we were going to arrive on time because there was so much traffic due to the A31 closure which we were sitting in on our way to the restaurant. I called the restaurant out of courtesy and was told, "Not a problem." We arrived at 5pm, which unless my maths is wrong is 30 mins late, not 45. The fact remains that 90 mins is not enough time to enjoy a meal. 2 hours is industry standard. We weren't given a larger table so if in fact we were 'on time' based on original booking. Had you made changes to accommodate more guests I would have understood but you didn't, simply put you were being greedy, ramming in as many guests as quickly as possible to line your own pocket. We won't be returning because of how you dealt with the situation. We couldn't care less what your food...

I had a really disappointing experience with this restaurant last night. I booked a table for 6 people for 7.30pm two weeks or so ago and upon arrival there was a fairly large queue to get in. 15-20 minutes passed our booking time and still stood outside (it's also starting to rain). Someone who I believe to have been the owner came out an apologised and said the tables are running 45 minutes over schedule and apologised with a glass of prosecco each. Fair enough, this happens and didn't mind waiting a little bit loner. We stood outside in the rain for another 10 minutes and then asked if they have any idea when we are going to get a table to which they said no! So as we couldn't just stand outside in the rain we agreed with the man that he would call me when our table was ready and we took shelter in a near by pub. It's now an hour later, no phone call, no answer so we walked back there and was treated as if I wasn't going to be a paying customer. By this time, the queue of people that were outside who had been waiting with us (approx 25 people) had been given tables and all I got was dismissed when I asked how much longer do we have to wait which by now its 1 hour 10 minutes later. Then we were given a table, I wish I had taken a photo but you could tell the table was just placed there to fill extra bookings, odd just "find what you can" chairs, no room what so ever, it was so uncomfortable and also placed right next to some steps so if I even slightly went back or pushed my chair back i'd have gone backwards down them. Our waiter was lovely but a table that had arrived after us (which were a large party of about 10 people) were served their food before us. We didn't even get one complimentary dish or one single apology (i know we were given a prosecco whilst waiting outside however we were driving and wanted a wine with our meal, not whilst stood outside in the rain) .The whole night was just a big wait and treated as if it were our faults. Not covid conscious, seemed they put as many tables as they possibly could and hoped for the best....