My wife and I had been looking forward to spending our 52nd wedding anniversary at Verdes and the experience completely spoiled our day. We had made a reservation for 6pm a number of weeks before and arrived at 5.55pm. We announced to the young lady behind the bar that we had a 6pm reservation and was asked would we sit and have a drink whilst waiting for our table. A waiter suddenly appeared and asked would we like a table for 2. We tried to explain that we had pre booked but he didn't seem interested and never checked on our reservation. We were offered a choice of tables. I always thought that if you had made a reservation that a certain table would have been allocated to you so that if the restaurant was exceptionally busy your table would still be available. We were given the menus and ordered drinks while deciding on what to eat. Some 25 minutes passed before I managed to make contact with a waiter and asked if we could order. When our starters arrived my wifes order was wrong. Apology accepted as we can all make mistakes and the correct order duly arrived. My wife had ordered steak diane with the steak to be med to rare and I ordered the beef stroganoff. The steak was well done and my portion of stroganoff was tiny for the price of £23.99. I would have got a more substantial meal for £8.00 from Tesco's finest range. My wife would not let me complain as she does not like confrontation so I said I would wait till we paid. Both of us having a sweet tooth we ordered desserts. The waiter didn't seem to know what the cheesecake was so my wife ordered strawberries and ice cream while I ordered profiteroles with ice cream. The order arrived with some half a dozen strawberries cut in half and a blob of ice cream and 3 profiteroles with fresh cream. Enough was enough and we didn't bother with coffees. Throughout our time here all of the staff we encountered showed nothing but apathy. Not once did any of them try to engage with us, smile or show any concern as to whether we were enjoying the experience. Only when I went to pay the bill was I asked was everything ok. Whilst the wife waited in the hallway I patiently (for me) went through all the issues we had experienced. Offering an apology the chap offered me a bottle of wine as a form of compensation. Sorry but a bottle of wine on the menu might be £20 but it probably only cost the restaurant a fiver. I refused and paid the bill in full stating that we would never return. While waiting for our lift the waiter who mixed up the starter came to apologise again. I the told him all of the other issues we had had and it would be fair to say he was left speechless. So thank you very much Verdes for spoiling our 52nd wedding anniversary.
Verdes Restaurant – Chorley