"Sizzling Hot. Not!"

A review of Sizzler's Steak House by Gdnumber1 written on Thursday 26th of August 2010

Sizzling Hot. Not!

Visited the restaurant on a Thursday evening 19 August 2010.

Never been before and after a bit of debating in the streets of the Merchant City we decided to go to Sizzlers. Entrance is through the courtyard of the old Candleriggs market and not on Albion Street itself.

The four of us, my wife and two sons opted for an inside table, it was virtually empty and lacking of atmosphere, very chain like in it's decoration and in my opinion a bit tired. Maybe different if the place was full (which I doubt it ever is).

Staff although not overly welcoming were not rude either. We were handed our laminated menu's, at this point my spidy senses started tingling, experience has taught me that laminated menu's are usually from places like Pizza Hut etc, so don't expect top restaurant fare. Unfortunately I was proved right.

Starters were the Prawn cocktail for my wife which she said was delicious, a garlic pizza bread for my son's, they were almost a main course in themselves and they thought they were very nice. I choose a soup of the day which was described as 'cream of mushroom'. Erm, creamy it was not, the colour of a dark watery sludge, thankfully it didn't taste of sludge, unfortunately it tasted of nothing and had a layer of glistening fat on top. It was accompanied by three small slices of everyday white bread (where's the effort or class in that) I was given the little foil wrapped butter portions to spread on the bread (no effort once again). I pointed out the poorness of the dish to the manageress and she took it away with no grumble and offered a replacement which I declined.

Mains. Spaghetti Meatballs for son number 1 and a Sirloin with chips for son number 2. My wife opted for a fillet steak with chips. Peppercorn sauce was ordered at a supplement for both steaks, what a rip-off when you consider the steaks were coming in around the £15 mark. I went for the seafood hotpot, with the promise of muscles, prawns and scallops in a white wine garlic sauce again coming in around the £15 mark.

Son number 1 didn't finish his meatballs but this was probably down to personal taste more than the quality of the dish (he didn't like the taste). Son number 2 loved his sirloin as did my wife with the fillet, however the size of the steaks for the money was shocking, as was the size of the chips portion which were set on a tiny bowl and must have numbered about 10 in each bowl. The peppercorn sauce was tasty.

Oh dear, I forgot to tell you about my main, the seafood hotpot. Served in a pot about 8 to 10 inches in depth the lid was removed and the contents were clearly piping hot. nestling on top of the huge pile of muscles were about 4 of the smallest scallops I have ever seen, they were approximately 1cm in diameter set in one half of their shell, must have been baby ones. They were so overcooked that they looked like the shell fish version of a prune, I tried one and sure enough it was definately in need of some fluid to rehydrate it, unfortunately the sauce was now at the bottom of the pot and was near impossible to get at due to the muscles and the depth of the pot.

I did try to get to the sauce, honestly, but it was too difficult. However, during my mining expedition to the bottom of the pot I did find about 4 medium sized prawns. Is this what I was paying £15 for? a pot of muslces garnished with baby scallops and four rubber prawns, I tried a prawn too, and yes it was rubbery not lovely. Tried a couple of muscles which tasted ok their shells had captured some sauce during it's descent to the bottom of the abyss and had thereby saved them from culinary hell. Bear in mind that a starter of muslces would cost about £5-£6 in most establishments and be easier to eat with an equal amount on offer too.

I gave up, and feeling emabarassed (why was I embarassed) got the manageress over again. Once again I pointed out the shockingly bad quality and she asked if I'd like more prawns or scallops, errr NO. She promptly took the pot away without a moan, she could clearly see that the produce was not up to scratch. I was offered to choose another main but did not want to take the risk.

My wife and son both visited the toilets and described them politely as leaving alot to desired, we'll leave that at that.

We declined desserts, and asked for the bill, which came to a hefty £91, that was minus my starter and main course which would have brought the bill up to about £110. Remember we only had 2 courses and a couple of beers and soft drinks between 4. You should also be aware that a 10% service charge will be added to yor bill, another warning sign, they don't want you to decide if they are worthy of a tip. Just as we were discussing the bill at the table the manageress came over and handed us a new bill which had the 10% service charge removed, bringing our overall bill down to about £83. So credit where credit is due she did what she could but it didn't really salvage the night......

In all my years of restaurant dining I have seldom sent any item back to the chef, let alone 2.

I will leave it to you to decide wether to dine here or not, but we will not be going back unless Gordon Ramsay has visited it in a new series of Kitchen Nightmares..

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