Simply Heathcotes, Manchester Review

I booked Simply Heathcotes from a website which recommended the restaurant as the best restaurant in Manchester.

I made a reservation for myself and my fianc to celebrate her 40th birthday. When making the booking I was asked if it was a special occasion and I told them that It was my fianc s 40th birthday - The lady which took the booking said that the chef would do something special to celebrate the occasion and decorate her plate with "happy Birthday". At this I was excited at the thought of eating at Heathcotes and the additional chef surprise would be a great surprise and memory of the evening.



On arrival at the restaurant we found that there was nobody on reception to greet us or to guide us to where we was suppose to go. When we reached the top of the stairs we were greeted by a very busy and stressed looking waitress that guided us to our table.



First impressions that the restaurant was extremely busy with a good atmosphere an indication that we were in for a treat.



The initial service was good with bread then drinks brought to the table - although the wine was weirdly uncorked and re-corked until the main course arrived??



Starters were very nice - Duck & fig salad and lamb salad. Roughly about £6 each.



Main course of fillet steak and special duck ordered with a side dish of baby new potatoes. Unfortunately when the waitress read back the order the potatoes went from new to mash - We then corrected her and confirmed the original request again.



On arrival the potatoes were in fact mashed! My fianc s main course of requested "medium cooked" steak was quite bloody, and was sent back to the kitchen for a little extra cooking, which was fine apart from the fact that I was left with my meal whilst my partners meal had been taken away for an un known length of time. Initially we thought perhaps the steak would be returned to our table with in a few minutes, however after 10 minutes had passed and no sign of the steak or the waitress my partner insisted that I shouldn't wait to start eating as of course my meal was going cold. I started eating and had almost finished when the steak finally returned- some 20 minutes later!! This of course is not an ideal way to enjoy what was supposed to be a romantic special meal.



At 16 and 22 pounds per meal we ended up eating virtually separately as we had no chance of calling over the waitress to ask if she could keep the other meal warm would have been impossible with the tables she was looking after!



By the time it came to ordering deserts we wanted to just leave as the evening was ruined by what had happened.



The food overall was quite good - the service however left a lot to be improved on.

- There was no offer to try the wine - we poured it ourselves

- We did not get asked if we would like more drinks when we had empty glasses.

- We did not get asked if our meals were ok.

There was a total lack of being waited on and timings between courses were unacceptable.







Total bill cost 86.15



Amazing forthcoming events poster in the toilets - Bragging how the restaurant has been chosen to star as a Michelin starred venue in the Manchester food and drink festival 2006.



Question is did they forget that it was booked as a special occasion?- Answer is no, we actually had a table cloth - impressed? - I think not!!