Gourmet Guide 

Caution when redeeming!!!!, my husband was gifted a £50 Gourmet Guide voucher from work during lockdown and as soon as 19th June passed we felt we wanted to use the voucher to give the restaurants the chance to build their trade up again and a the thought of a little bit of fine dining was the lovely too. We chose the Red Lion in Cricklade. The communication from GG was excellent. They confirmed the booking and told us we weren’t to worry about taking the voucher as it wasn’t necessary, the pub was expecting us. I then got another email wishing us a lovely evening on the Friday prior to the booking. On arrival to the venue we were a little dubious as always when using a voucher, but true to the confirmation received from GG, the booking had been received and our table was waiting for us. The meal was excellent and we enjoyed the experience very much. I even texted my daughter To say we had found a lovely place and that they should try it. The embarrassment started when the bill came and the price was for the full amount £83. I told her that we had booked through GG and that we had redeemed a £50 voucher when making the reservation through GG. She then said she would check with her boss, then came back to the table and asked for the voucher or some kind of proof. GG said I would not need the voucher!!! So embarrassing! She then went off with the voucher. 5 minutes later the Maitre came over to say that they didn’t accept vouchers and that we were fortunate as the voucher was valid until the end of the year so we could use it somewhere else! Mortified by now, we refused and showed him the 2 emails from GG. He then shot off and we saw him speaking on the phone. Perhaps to his superior. He then came over and started to backtrack and apologise because his superior hadn’t told him or any of the staff about GG. He then asked if we had enjoyed our meal and proceeded to charge us £33. The whole final experience spoiled the night. We felt stupid and cheap, we decided last minute not to leave the £10 tip which we thought the staff deserved for the simple reason that we were embarrassed. Lack of communication from management to staff ruined our lovely evening. So our advice to voucher redeemers is be cautious. We later wondered if we should have mentioned it on arrival but GG said there was no need to even show the voucher, that the venue would be aware. If we had mentioned it, we would have probably not been shown to our table as the Maitre had no idea whatsoever. Unbelievable! Finally, these vouchers are issued to people with good intention but sometimes they are a pain in the butt. Great meal but awfully embarrassing.

I was dubious about booking a meal with my gourmet guide voucher after discovering I had to find the restaurant I wanted to visit, then ring GG and they would book it for me!
What a pleasant experience the phone was answered on the first ring by a lady called Ronana who was very polite and efficient. My meal was booked in less than a minute and confirmed by email immediately.
We enjoyed our meal and the £40 voucher had been deducted from our bill .

1) To redeem the voucher you have to call a phone number. No opening times of this phone line were provided with the voucher (they are only available in office hours and Saturday till 5:30pm) and you can't redeem the voucher directly in the restaurant. You have to book the restaurant through this phone line. That was aleeady very inconvenient!
2) I called Sat 06/08/21 4:30 pm and I had to call 12 times before I got someone picking up the phone and with a few times were the operator cut off the line while it was ringing. It was obvious someone was there, but they had no interest in answering the phone. The operator told me she was on a break (who is taking a break one hour before they finish work).
3) The operator told me I could not book this particular restaurant, because she knows the restaurant and supposingly it is always fully booked on a Sunday, which was not true as I could make a booking myself, which I did. She also told me that for this restaurant she has to buy the voucher from the restaurant itself and she couldn't buy it because the restaurant website was down. While I acknowledge that the main page had an issue, all sub pages were working.
4) the operator told me she would be on a break again till 5pm! Either gourmet guide is quite generous with their work breaks or this women was making her own working hours. Also the opening times of the phone line doesn't include any breaks!! I called at 5pm, but the answering machine did not take me anymore to the operator. She must have changed that (the length that people go through to not do their work is incredible!!). I did manage to call a number she previously called me from to say that this restaurant is fully booked (which was not true) and finally got her to redeem the voucher.

The whole process took almost an hour!! All in all a very inconvenient and very unprofessional service. I would NOT recommend anyone to buy a voucher from this gourmet guide!

Great restaurant, really lovely staff and great service , delicious foods, good price. Thank you

I love apps like these that actually work. Can travel and rest assured my favourite restaurant is booked. Very happy

Easy to use and helped us book a restaurant whilst on a business trip! First class!

This app is fantastic and so easy to use. I needed to find a restaurant quickly and the app provided many different options in a clear and concise way.

Hello, I have been traveling to Manchester and was looking for an oriental place to eat. I found a fantastic restaurant near my hotel. I really like the application, I had no problem. I recommend it.

I’m having the same bad experience as other reviewers. I phone the number to do the booking and the answering machine says phone between 10 and 2. I phoned today at 11 to be told no phone bookings and to email. This I did but the email address is not valid.
I have an awful feeling that they are going out of business and don’t have enough money to make our reservations.

Brilliant!! Staff are just beyond friendly & helpful. An absolute pleasure dealing with you.

I have been trying to book a table for weeks now using a voucher which originally expired in June 2020- have been unable to book online ( doesn't let me select a date) , have sent emails, and tried to call numerous times - but no reply.

Easy-to-navigate website, and a good selection of restaurants in Surrey. To ensure a stress-free experience (as with any restaurant vouchers / bookings on any sites to be fair) I would also advise to check with the restaurant in advance of visiting that they will definitely accept the voucher.
Looking forward to visiting a few soon!

Your answering system at the weekend says that because of Covid, your phone lines are open 1000-1400. You answering system during that time says that because of Covid you phones are closed.
The restaurants are working, what aspect of Covid is stopping you manning the phones?

This was really easy to book and our voucher total was deducted from the bill automatically for us. Great customer service and great all round experience.

I received a voucher as a birthday gift and I was able to spend this locally.
It’s a great idea and I would use this company myself again in future.
Thank you

Needed to find restaurants for a family sunday roast and this was spot on. The vouchers are very handy and there is always some discount that you can use for the restaurant. The reservation system works very well too.

I found this restaurants online and I wanted to give it a try. I checked the website before going and I saw they have few dog friendly restaurants, also they look pretty good for birthday celebrations so I gave them a try for a friend’s birthday. I found the nearest restaurant in two seconds in their website (the nearest was in 1.7 miles, wow!), we found everything actually good and tasty. We will for sure come back again

This was originally a one star review because there were very few restaurants near me and my family couldnt travel far because of health: the voucher was therefore useless.
However, to their credit, Gourmet Guide contacted me and booked the restaurent of my choice even though it wasnt on the website list. This is great service, and many thanks to the GG team. My recommendation to anyone in a similar situation is to contact the Gourmet guide team.

Had some issues with booking vouchers and getting hold of them through coronavirus but we complained and they did sort it all out and we had a lovely meal

We got a voucher worth £250 which expired during this 4 months lockdown, we have been trying to contact gourmet guide but the phone number is incorrect, no reply to our emails. It's terrible service!