Bren (17 December 2007)

I went with a party of over twenty people for a Christmas dinner, booked some months ago. The service was slow and poor as to be almost laughable - if we were not paying quite so much, needless to say - but the attitude was a lot less funny. I had my knife taken away so I could have a steak knife but was then left with a steak and no knife at all. I was given the wrong dish, promised a glass of wine which never arrived, side orders arrived after the meal had finished, glasses were removed while still being used - you get the picture.

We had a glass of wine with our starters, but then waited almost an hour for any more bottles of wine to appear. One of our party managed to track down our elusive waiter and asked him to bring some. When, after a further twenty minutes and none had appeared and some people had almost finished their meals, I went to see the lady who appeared to be in charge of that particular comedy act. As I began speaking to her, our harried waiter arrived and interrupted me, saying, I know, I know, I know. I’ve been too busy.

Too busy? Sorry? Is that my fault? Do I care? Christmas dinner, no wine - isn’t that where they make their margin? No service to speak of but plenty of attitude. As opening a bottle of wine is hardly rocket science, I found myself saying, Give me four bottles and a corkscrew and I will do it for you. Hardly an enjoyable night out if you have to battle to get any service or civility.

To be totally fair, they reduced the bill in acknowledgement that we’d had less than impressive service. But I would have liked to apply a negative service charge. As it was we paid close to £1,500 for indifferent food and the worst service I have experienced in any restaurant for many, many years. I won’t be going back.