Val's Restaurant — Restaurant in Holden

On Sunday November 3 my family and I took our dad out for lunch, we were celebrating his 76 birthday. Val's Restaurant came to mind because I had celebrated with family there years prior for my sweet 16, I had happy memories and eagerly looked forward to their house dressing. But not long after being seated we came to realize that it's gone down in quality, the employees, while our waiter was attentive, they looked unhappy.

We had ordered 2 appetizers, my brother in law ordered the chili dish as a side to his main course. Not long after something fell onto our table and his chili bowl. I looked up and saw that the ceiling tile was soaked in water. It had landed on the table between us, on my brother in law's arm and the floor. My sister got up to let someone know and we were quickly moved to another table.

An older gentleman apologized, asked if we wanted to replace the chili, and assured us Val, the owner would be over shortly to speak with us. Our meals arrived promptly which was nice but Val never showed up. We saw her walking around us, not even looking in our direction. We sat for a little while, watching the ceiling bulge, water pouring onto the floor, eventually it collapsed completely.

Meanwhile my elderly father who was supposed to be enjoying a family lunch, was upset. My husband and I live up north and made the 4 hour drive as a surprise since it's very rare we are all together.

And then the bill came.

Total came to $142 and change. Nothing was taken off the bill, no discount, not even the chili that was ruined from the wet ceiling. Our water, Gabriel, was so helpful and we could tell he wanted to help and he did in any way he could. We over heard him ask the older gentleman if he should take anything off the bill but did not hear his reply.

We sat in astonishment, personally I felt bad because I had picked Val's based on the memory I had. I'm not saying we should of had the whole meal for free, but by the time we left Val never came over to us. We never recieved an apology to our faces except the one from the older gentleman who looked very overwhelmed. To say the least we were heartbroken.

And the best part was this, on our way out the door, in passing, the same older gentleman said"sorry about the leak!"

Needless to say we will not be back and if you are consering this establishment, my recommendation is to...

We have a friend who has recently been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and has been given a year to live. The one thing he has been asking for is a baked stuffed Lobster and we have been searching area restaurants for weeks looking for someone who has one. Enter Vals. We find a baked stuffed lobster on Val's menu. Now I did mention that our friend has cancer so he is getting chemo so it's not like we can plan in advance. He decides he wants to go Wednesday. Vals is not open Monday or Tuesday so I couldn't call in advance. I did try to call Wednesday but after being transferred twice no answer. Long story short Vals only has Fresh Lobster on the weekend. It did not say anything about this on their menu. OF course we were disappointed and because we were disappointed we were treated like unhappy customers from the get go. I have never in my life been in and out of a nice restaurant in LESS than a hour. We ordered our meals and our soup/salad came right out. We hadn't even finished that and our entrees came out. We were in and out of this restaurant in an hour! The food was okay. The frozen lobster casserole that our friend had he did enjoy. We are still searching for a baked stuffed. Word of advice. Your online menu no longer looks anything like the menu you get at the restaurant. What is the point of having one online? It was a big disappointment for us tonight and not one person in management came by to see how we were doing. Just a bad...

We went back on another visit. Had an intresting situation here this time. My wife got the appetizer ravioli where as last time she got the dinner ravioli. She noticed she was having an allergy to something that night so she took the rest of her food home. The next day she ate the leftovers and the allergy was back. She called on a Wednesday to ask what may have been different between the dinner and appetizer as she did not feel that way on the last visit. The original person who answered the phone was trying to be helpful and figure out what may have been the item that mayhave been the cause. BUT then the owner got on the phone and was not very polite and we have no idea what the cause may have been. Take this as you will but we know my wife has reactions to peanuts and we know that wasn't in the food as Val was animate on this but not being willing to offer any possible items that maybe a cause makes it so we have no idea what to now say is a item of food allergy. Not likely we will be back anytime soon which is to bad as we had a nice spot by the fire, the staff was great, along with the food the rest of us had. I dropped the review from a full 5 to a 3 because of the concern if you have any possible allergies. I will still give 5's for everything else.

Music in the background, dinner with family for an anniversary. Had the scallops, salmon and I think it was cod for the 3rd. I am not a scallop person but I did enjoy the chargrill...