Meza

Victoria B (13 April 2007)

If there was a school for bad service the Meza staff would surely have all graduated with honours. A party of 8 of us went recently to celebrate a friend's birthday. After spending the first hour in the bar it soon became clear that staff were trialling a new method of service whereby they would only deliver items which had been requested a minimum of three times and no sooner than 20 minutes after the order was placed. Seated at 9pm for dinner and having by now got the hang of it we made our three requests to place our order - a selection of small tapas dishes and four paellas. The tapas arrived gradually over the period of the next hour. Nice food but very small portions finished within minutes and we all waited hungrily for our paella. Well over an hour after the order was placed two of the four dishes arrived. Having double checked to ensure that these were not doubled up and two further portions were still expected we waited for the rest of our order. Fifteen minutes later and still no sign, so we called the waiter, who seemingly had been confused over our order and actually this was it. He went off to order two more. Another twenty minutes or so later and an hour and forty minutes after our original order was placed, we were tired of waiting And cancelled them.

Soon enough we saw the manager coming over to us (head boy at the school for bad service?). Ah we thought, an apology but no he had only come over to admonish us for cancelling an order which had apparently been placed only twenty minutes ago! Having patiently explained the situation and the level of poor service we had consistently received whilst he nodded and seemingly took it all in, his response was "right well I'll just go and throw these away then"!... and he walked off. The headmaster at the school for bad service would have been beyond proud. Surprising then how on requesting the bill it arrived within two minutes complete with £40 service charge which funnily enough we declined to pay. Funnier still when just as we were about to leave a waiter was seen heading over to us with one of our enigmatic paella dishes. (The other one is probably arriving as I write this). So if you like your service excruciatingly bad, management beyond rude and your paella only in your imagination. Vote Meza.

Amy (2 October 2003)

Excellent place, relaxed, brilliant staff and service, food out of the world.