Dexter’s Grill & Bar

Unfortunately, I came here on a weekend. If only I’d read Angela’s review, I would never have made this gravest of errors!
If there’s one thing I hate, it is bad food. And I am a stickler for steak in particular. To me, a steak is not just a lump of meat. A steak is something that should be respected, revered and ultimately scoffed. When I cook a steak I make sure to let it marinate awhile in its own blood and some olive oil, with seasoning. Then I cook it, lovingly, in a pan as hot as the Sun, for the shortest time possible. Then I enjoy it. I respect the steak.
The chefs at Dexters do not respect the steak. Cue a gristly sirloin and a fatty sirloin turning up at our table greasy, lukewarm and criminally overcooked. I don’t understand how soooo many places get it wrong. I order it bleu. I want it bleu. Bleu does not mean well-​done. Bleu means basically barely-​dead. In this case I tried to send back the wayyyy well-​done steaks (about £12 each) and we were told that they would charge us for the steaks we had (which we’d not even had a bite of), and the replacements. We ate our original steaks but, needless to say, it turned to ash in my mouth. The chips were OK, but chips are chips.
The staff were rude and the service was literally appalling. We waited for about 15 minutes, having been told we’d «be seated in just a sec» on entering. Then we waited about 20 minutes before our drinks order was taken. When our drinks came, I’d been given a large wine instead of a small, and the boyf’s coke was flat. Our waitress was unbelieveably rude, to the very end, when we said we weren’t paying for the starters on the bill… because we didn’t order starters!!! In the end we had to get the manager to come over, and even then I think he thought we were pulling a fast one!
Crappy steak is a crime, in my eyes. But I suppose if you fancy rude service, crappy steak, decent chips and being erroneously charged £10 more than you should, Dexter’s is right up your street.

Dexter’s lacks consistency. If you come here on a weekday at the Trafford, it’s likely you’ll get fast and friendly service and well cooked and presented food. Come here during a very busy period and as I learnt first hand, everything seems to go to pot. You’ll be waiting to be sat down, then you’ll have to ask to be served and finally when the food comes, it isn’t quite the same as before.
Don’t get me wrong, there are much worse places to be dining in the centre. The New Orleans atmosphere here and comfortable booth seating win my vote, and when the food is good, it’s delicious, the burgers and steaks are cooked to perfection. But there have been other occasions where the steak has been sinewy and the burgers overcooked. This place needs a management overhaul.

Agree 100% with Robbie, I visited here for the first (and last) time in Aug 09 with my wife, we both ordered burgers because there apparently award winning, they were also very expensive especially as extras like onion rings are an eye watering £4!!! anyway the burger was fine, it would have to be a pretty bad place to mess up a burger and fries right? but the staff were rude lazy and abrupt, we were dumped at a table for ages with no service while the staff chatted and joked amongst themselves when we finally managed to order it was like talking to «Kevin the grumpy teenager» from the Harry Enfield show, «yeah, wot d’ya want?» with plenty of sighing and «cant be bothered» attitude, ok I realise they are at work but a friendly smile wouldnt of gone amiss, (no wonder this place was empty) I swore I’d never return just because of the service, we mustn’t of been the only ones because on a recent visit to the Trafford Centre we noticed that they had gone bankrupt! good ridence.

Today while shopping in the Trafford centre we stopped into Dexter’s for a burger. I had been advised previously this place do great burgers so I though it was worth a shot. Considering the shopping centre was s busy we were seated straight away. Unfortunately we had to be asked to be served; the staff didn’t seem overly keen to be working. When we did get the food it was delicious so I cannot fault that. Once we paid we thought it was a bit expensive so we looked at the recipe as we walked away. I was very angry to find that they had automatically taken a 12.5% service charge and not asked us. Apparently you have the option to opt out of this at the time of payment but afterwards it too late. I will not be eating here again.