Kitten McTavish

Review of Northbank Restaurant & Bar

Probably the worst service I've experienced in yea...

Probably the worst service I've experienced in years!
Food was dropped on our table with out explanation - the two spoons of beetroot as an amouse bouche we dumped in front of me so my companion thought it was my starter until I asked the server what it was as she walked away!
We ordered a bottle of wine which was kept on ice some distance away, so we were reliant on the staff to keep it topped up, however they let the glasses run dry and it was impossible to get their attention to come serve more despite the restaurant being far from busy. When they came to collect our plates I was finally able to ask for more wine and I was asked if I wanted to buy another glass so I had to point out we had more than half a bottle in the chiller.
We ordered an extra carafe of red as my partner was having steak as their main (literally a plate with a slightly overcooked piece of ribeye and nothing else). When they arrived with the red wine, they put this on the table, then tried to pour white wine into his glass, so I'm not sure what they thought the red wine was for - this is typical of the inattentive and thoughtless nature of the service at Northbank.

Finally, after our meal we were the last party in the restaurant to leave as it took nearly an hour to get the attention of staff to receive the bill. I and my partner made eye contact and even resorted to waving at staff as they walked through our area repeatedly, and although they clearly saw us, they ignored us and walked past until finally my partner had to call out across the empty restaurant and ask for the bill. This was then brought with card machine and no chance to remove the automatically added, thoroughly undeserved service charge of 12.5%.

In addition to the rubbish service, the food, though cooked with fresh seasonal ingredients, was uninspired. The seered scallops were anything but and served with overly sweet accompanying vegetables so it could have been a desert. The mussels were served in a abundance but in a very 1970s heavy cream sauce that overwhelmed them, and as I mentioned before the steak was thinly cut and overcooked (served medium/well done when asked for medium rare) it as impossible to complain about the steak as the food was dropped on our table and following that no one came to check on the meal.