I’ve worked in restaurants and fully understand that things go wrong, the good restaurants know how to account for these instances and apply due reason. Viners is not one of these, it started bad, got worse and by the end I felt like I was sitting in an episode of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares...
“Table booked for four under AP”
“We don’t have a reservation under that name”
“OK, I called a few weeks ago but nevermind, can I have a table for four please”
[Pause, long pause] “OK, take a seat in the bar”.
We sat, and were ignored. The required sharpener – a gin and tonic – took twenty minutes to arrive was served without ice, in a warm glass, tonic from a can and disheveled lemon with more pip than lemon – was this, Ryan Air?
What followed was a crash-course in how not to run a restaurant, waiters spilt my wine without apology, dirty plates remained on tables for eternities, guests walked out halfway through meals and chefs dressed down staff at the bar.
I have managed to all but erase the memory of the food from my mind but a confit duck leg still hangs heavy and would have been more at home in a KFC.
Kevin Viner seems to lord about the fact he was the first chef in Cornwall to achieve a Michelin star. Needless to say he no longer has it and his decade old awards hang around the restaurant like obituaries.
My mother always said that if you don’t have anything nice to say then say nothing at all.
- Austin Peasley
(Viners at Summercourt can be found in Newquay, Cornwall. Assuming you still want to go there, which we don't.)
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