Horrible Experience At Village Burger In Liverpool
I almost hate having to write this one, but the story needs to be told. Not necessarily because I was overly unhappy but because of what happened to my friend Kelvin. Is this a cautionary tale? Stick around and tell me after you read this.
I had been hearing good things about Village Burger on Old Liverpool Road in Liverpool. It replaced the old McDonalds that’s been closed for years and had been sitting there empty for the most part. And replacing one of the top fast food burger joints with a local burger joint that serves specialty burgers sounds like a great deal.
I call up Kelvin and say we have to go. He says he doesn’t have a lot of time but why not. I make a quick stop elsewhere and say where I’m going for lunch, and the lady tells me that I’m going to enjoy whatever I order.
I get there first and take a look inside. The place looks packed, and when I check the line it’s almost outside the door. That’s both a good and bad sign in my mind; good because it seems people might like it, bad because I know this means it might take a little while before getting our food. Kelvin shows up and we go in, barely being able to stand inside.
The line is going slow, and this gives Kelvin and me time to talk and to look around. At one point Kelvin steps out of line and goes to talk to one of the ladies that’s taking orders and calling out numbers to deliver the food. When he comes back he tells me that he saw one of the people working in the back handling the french fries, sprinkling salt on them without wearing the plastic gloves. We all know this is mandated in our county, and it’s comforting knowing that people are wearing them, even though it’s something to get used to when we’re not in our own area. Anyway he mentioned it to this lady, and I saw her go back and mention it to the guy.
We eventually get up to order our food after 10 minutes. He orders a 1/4 cheeseburger with bacon, I order a 1/2 pound burger with fries and we decide to split some onion rings. Then we get a spot to sit and we wait.
And we wait, and we wait, and we wait. Forty minutes later our number is called, and I go up to get the food. As soon as I take a look at his burger I already know there’s going to be trouble. If you look at the picture you’ll see why; it’s barely there. He sees it, goes back up to the counter to show them what he got, the the woman says it was measured and that’s how it comes out. When compared to what I got it was a major shame. I certainly didn’t get a full 1/2 pound burger either, but I figure mine cooked down some. His wasn’t close to half of mine, as you can see.
But in the picture you see something else as well. It seems they went the extra step of burning cheese onto the bottom of his burger, just to rub it in. It looked fine on top but I asked him what this strange looking crusty stuff was on the side and that’s what it turned out to be.
Was this payback for his mentioning the gloves? It sure seems like it was made personal. As for the food… The burger was just a burger, kind of dry, nothing special. The fuss must be for all the specialty stuff, as I saw they made patties (in my mind if it’s not hamburger it’s a patty) out of turkey, sausage, and a couple other things, and they have some unique toppings as well. The french fries were pretty good, and the onion rings were superb. Kelvin wouldn’t eat the fries after seeing someone touch fries earlier but even he liked the onion rings, which I had him put a small one next to the burger to show just how tiny it really was.
The only bright spot for Kelvin was that I paid for the meal. That’s why it becomes a bad experience for me because he got ripped off and I’m the one who paid for it; something definitely not right about that.
small onion ring bigger than burger
Nope, won’t be going back to Village Burger, and now you also know why I didn’t give them a link. If there aren’t improvements I can’t see them lasting all that long. How many of you have the time to wait 50 minutes or so for a lunch you might not get to eat, or might not have a place to sit after the fact? I guess it’s back to Burger King for me. 
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell
25 Responses to “Horrible Experience At Village Burger In Liverpool”
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Most people don’t get that long of a lunch hour!
Isn’t that the truth, Carolee. I mean, time is of the essence, especially during lunch, although the time thing isn’t entirely their fault since no one says consumers should all be showing up at the same time.
Thank you for sharing this.
It is these types of experiences that can make or break a business.
This definately gives new meaning to: “Where’s the Beef”.
It’s a major shame, Kimmy, because I went there with such high hopes. And the thing is we’re not sure if it was payback for my friend saying something or just a bad day by someone. But it was horrendous nonetheless.
Post a review on Tripadvisor (www.tripadvisor.com) it contains the largest reviews of restaurants and is the most widely read. I have posted over 500 times and I get emails all the time after people have read the review. In addition we never book a hotel, eat in a restaurant or visit an attraction anywhere in the world until we check tripadvisor. Yelp is ok but it is only in certain cities, has nothing internationally, is not read near as much.
Keith, I’ve never posted a review on any of these sites, and it seems that no one else has posted a review of this place there to date. However, maybe I need to think about it, after this post, because it looks like someone was able to filter out the bad reviews on the site I linked to (which is why I worked my way around it) and that’s just wrong.
Good day Mr. Mitchell. Pardon me for taking so long to comment on this blog post but it’s been a very hectic few days for me. Thanks for telling that story. Ya know… I’m not a complainer, and to be honest I’d be very hesitant to actually say that my burger was “payback,” but circumstancially, the connection would be easy to make.
When I saw the young man pick up a hand full of already cooked french fries “bare handed” so he could salt the ones underneath, I didn’t yell out across the restaurant. I very privately mentioned to the young lady at the counter that they might want to take care of that. She seemed appreciative at the time. But, after waiting 40 minutes to get that nugget-sized burger and then having that say young lady tell me that’s just the way it is… it was obvious that customer satisfaction wasn’t so high on their list — at least in my mind.
Perhaps others had a better experience. You’re right; the onions rings were quite good… but the fries I saw were burned anyway. They definitely lost a customer in me.
Kelvin recently posted..It All Starts With You
Kelvin, thanks for giving your perspective on this, especially since you were the “victim” here. I think the part that really got on my nerve is that you actually tried to help them avoid problems by pointing something out, yet their customer service on the back end was horrid. So, here it is, and they’ve lost two customers for good.
I have gone there on numerous occasions food was awesome.. he does say take his menu and call ahead…Did Art give you a new burger…I have never seen one that small.
Lucretia, Kelvin went up there and was pretty much told that was how it was. He didn’t get to talk to anyone else; if he had, there might have been the chance for some satisfaction. But you can see why he was dismayed; it almost seemed personal.
Mitch I expect a small serve when going silver service but not when going to a fast food restaurant. I don’t know how they could defend serving that poor excuse for a burger. Sort of puts to shame the myth that everything in America is BIG
Sire recently posted..Ah- If Only All I Had To Do Was Blog
Sire, that’s only in Texas where everything is big. lol It’s funny that they’ve determined that what they’ve offered is good customer service; shameful.
I just ate at village burger and after coming home I googled if they had a website so I could rate them and came across your review. I must admit my experience was much better I have since eaten there 4 to 5 times. I am in love with Village Burger, I have never seen Portuguese Sausage served in any restaurant here in Syracuse, and I am so glad they do, It was one of the best I have ever had. I agree it does take 15min or longer but I guess they grind there own meat and everything is fresh and it well worth any wait, I brought a menu home so I can now call ahead. I could go on and on on how much My family and I love this place, But wanted to mainly state my experience was much better. My wife had the 1/4 pound burger also and said it was one of the best she isn’t a big eater so 1/4 pound is sufficient for one her size but I think it may have appeared bigger then your pics appear to show. Everyone is entitles to a an opinion but I wanted mine stated as well as I hope people don’t just read this and automatically not go.
The thing about opinions Michael is that everyone’s allowed to have one and everyone’s allowed to ignore it as well. You see the pictures above so I do have proof of what happened to us. As I said, I hope it wasn’t a racial thing, as you don’t indicate what yours is (then again why would you?), and that maybe they just had a bad day. Still, their customer service on this day was horrible, and responses I heard after the fact when my complaint, based on this email, was passed on to the owner was less than satisfying as well. But I’m glad you had a great experience and I hope others that visit have great experiences as well.
Hey Mitch, just so you see what a real burger looks like This Is A BURGER
Man, that’s not a burger; THIS is a burger! http://www.cheese-burger.net/images/worlds_biggest_burger.jpg
Crikes! Is that on the menu?
Sire recently posted..Another Avenue For Making Money With Your Blog
Not at that restaurant, Sire. If it was I wouldn’t have written this post about it. lol
I went to village burger after reading this post, expecting the worst. Instead I had a great experience. The girl at the counter explained all the burgers to us, was very friendly, outgoing and knowledgable. There were 6 in our party, 4 ordered burgers and 2 Philly cheese steaks. The burgers were huge and the taste was incredible!
Danielle, I’m glad it worked out for you. At least you can see the picture I put up so you know the experience we had, but at this point it was a year ago so maybe they’ve improved some of their processes.
I have eaten at Village Burger about 15 times. Thy are responsible for at least 2″ of my waistline. If you haven’t eaten there, please don’t let this review discourage you. They serve the best burgers on this side of town. Only Blarney Stone and Five Guys are as good as Village Burger in the syracuse area. This picture is not representative of any of the food I have had at this restaurant.
Mike, I’m glad it worked out for you. The picture is definitely indicative of how my friend’s meal came back, and the customer service in addressing it was horrible as well. Hopefully my and my friend’s experience isn’t what others go through, although I have heard that everyone has a very long wait during lunch.
Mitch, I wasn’t disputing your claim. I just encourage everyone to consider it an anomoly. If you want the best burger in Liverpool, you should allow them a second chance.
Your experience may have been a fluke. I have been there many times and I am always blown away by the taste and generous size of their delicious burgers.
That’s possible Tyler but it did happen. As I wrote, my burger was the right size but we’ve all seen what a quarter pounder should look like via Mickey D’s and Burger King and as you see the image you know that’s not what my friend got. As you and some others who have commented here have shown, the restaurant survives this review.