Comically bad service (1 Viewer)

[egg_]

Country restaurants are bad because country people think big portions=a good meal.

I worked as a waiter once in Wexford town and accidentally ate someone's meal. It was near the end of the night and the chef handed me a meal and said "That's yours" meaning it was for one of my customers but I thought he meant it was mine so I ate it. Later on the customers came up to the counter and said they had never got what they ordered (it was one pizza between 2) and I was bamboozled - the manager apologised but we were closing up at the stage, so that was that. It was only the next day I realised what I had done

 

[minka]

gruel on dame street wins the award for the worst service i've experienced; the staff were abominable.
and i once had a meal in kingsland, again on dame street, which ended in a threat to walk out without paying for anything.

weird, they've always been at least passably pleasant in gruel when i've been there. mr. minka got free cake from one of them once at lunchtime because he looked like he was really enjoying his book and had finished his sandwich.

 

[magicbastarder]

a bunch of about 11 of us went in there; they refused to serve us the full menu because of the size of the group.
the highlight of the night was one of the waiters telling one of our group to shut up because she was talking, and he couldn't hear what someone was ordering.

 

[jane]

a bunch of about 11 of us went in there; they refused to serve us the full menu because of the size of the group.
the highlight of the night was one of the waiters telling one of our group to shut up because she was talking, and he couldn't hear what someone was ordering.

I think there's a real problem with restaurants knowing how to handle a big group. It always seems that the big group gets the worst service, when actually, for a restaurant, they are frequently drinking, ordering lots, and generally running up a bigger bill than a series of small groups might. So, it's in the restaurant's interest to give them better service. As well, even if the service in FXB is good if you're just a table of two, I'm not going to risk it. A big group means you've brought people in who might never have been there before. Bad service for a big group means scaring off potential regulars. And you want regulars because restaurant-going is fickle.

I don't understand why they think they can treat a big group with such disdain, and they should have established serving and customer service strategies specifically for big groups. Fine, it's kind of annoying when you're in a restaurant, trying to have a quiet dinner, and there's a massive table, who are obviously going to be loud because, duh, that's how it goes. If restaurants don't want to cater for a big group, or just try to 'control' them, or put the emphasis on making it easier for the staff rather than nicer for the customers (e.g., refusing to serve the full menu, which is the most ridiculous fucking practice ever), then that pretty much ticks every single box on the Bad Customer Service Checklist. Rather than keep the group happy by being nice to them, they just make it difficult for the group thinking it makes it easier on the staff, when actually, it's a fucking shitty way to treat someone who is paying for a service.

There are a lot of places where a big group will be treated like shit, and it makes you not want to go there. I also like gruel, if only because at least when they're inefficient at night, they pretty much always own up to it. Any time they've taken ages or made a mistake, they've always been incredibly accommodating. Still, I don't doubt that they have problems handling a large group. I don't expect perfect service, but I do expect good manners and for them not to forget that customers are paying their wages. Also, that reviews are one thing, but word-of-mouth is incredibly powerful. I would never set foot in, say 66, because I've heard too many bad stories to take the risk. I'd be pretty hesitant to go back to Chez Max (I won't write a place off completely, but it will drop down my Eating Priority List if someone whose opinion I trust has a bad time), but I'd climb mountains to go to a good restaurant if someone raved about it.

But if restaurants can't be nice to big groups or deal with them efficiently, then they just shouldn't take big group bookings at all. Not that that's really a viable solution, considering big meals out are a pretty important social activity for a lot of people, but still, I'd rather know where I was going to be treated like a human than pay money to be treated like a nuisance who has to eat and get out ASAP.

 

[cpr]

a bunch of about 11 of us went in there; they refused to serve us the full menu because of the size of the group.
the highlight of the night was one of the waiters telling one of our group to shut up because she was talking, and he couldn't hear what someone was ordering.

i went in there a few years ago with a group of college heads and their mates. one of the girls was dithering over what to have for about two or three minutes and the waitress snapped" are you gonna make up your mind this century or will I come back?" everyone looked shocked at the table but inside i think everyone was thinking the same thing-just hurry the fuck up and order!

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Gruel is way too pokey to bring a gang to, I would've thought.
I almost always grab dinner there when I'm working nearby and I've never had any trouble at all.
I also like Chez Max a lot too, so maybe I'm losing it altogether

 

[krystal]

gruel on dame street wins the award for the worst service i've experienced; the staff were abominable.
and i once had a meal in kingsland, again on dame street, which ended in a threat to walk out without paying for anything.

really? the kingsland is one of my folkseses favourite restaurants and has been the scene of many a fambily do, never had a bad experience in there at all.

 

[magicbastarder]

in kingsland, the menu claimed "all main courses are served with boiled or fried rice".
so we got the bill; there were three of us. the bill was a tenner more than we were expecting, and it had three servings of rice at about three euro each on it.
so we queried it. we were told rice was extra, which we refused to accept given the menu. it got quite heated; the manager even accepted that the menu implied rice was free with the main course, but that we still had to pay for it. so we told him to either bring us a bill without the rice on it, or that we were leaving without paying. he backed down; but by this stage the entire restaurant was eavesdropping.

 

[minka]

i was just thinking last week when reading this thread that i hadn't actually encountered any comically bad service in ages, in fact that even what others have described as bad service wouldn't really bother me - then i went to havana off camden st. on friday night. hoo boy.

the manager who shouted at a waitress in front of us for pushing two tables together for us and then chivvied us up the stairs to an even smaller table! the waitress who seemed incapable of remembering orders! the ludicrous wait for both food and the bill (which arrived with five mints even though there were six of us)!

they do a nice lentil and chorizo stew, mind.

 

[JohnnyRaz]

a bunch of about 11 of us went in there; they refused to serve us the full menu because of the size of the group.
the highlight of the night was one of the waiters telling one of our group to shut up because she was talking, and he couldn't hear what someone was ordering.

I too have found the staff in gruel to be upleasant and off hand to the point of distanful arrogance. The foods not that fucking nice, or the furniture that funky. Pricks.

 

[RSJ]

Worst service i ever got was when the family went out for a meal and one of the waiters, not our waiter, took a shine to me, took over our table and would stand behind me with his hands on my shoulders every time he came to the table. He also announced the desserts by creeping up behind me and dashing the menu over my head to about two inches front of my face, both arms touching either side of my head, asking "can i get you anything *pause* extra?". I would have had the cunt fired only the family thought it was hilarious. Cunt.

 

[Super Dexta]

have any of you ever had gravy poured on you at your birthday dinner?

someone in the place i work has.

possibly by me.




it's not my fault, i am an artiste.

 

[therealjohnny]

I would have had the cunt fired only the family thought it was hilarious. Cunt.

that IS hilarious

 

[Johnnyc]

...both arms touching either side of my head, asking "can i get you anything *pause* extra?". I would have had the cunt fired only the family thought it was hilarious. Cunt.

"Yes. Oral. Proceed, garcon."
*unzip*

 

[RSJ]

Seems the brother is a magnet for bad service - they was out in the bridge mills in galway thursday night, it has three rooms and there were four staff serving, but none were assigned to any one room, which meant the brother's party had to wait half an hour to order dessert. Anyways, towards the end of the meal, this table next to them calls over the waitress and points out that some of the bread in the bread basket has chunks bitten out of it, and some is buttered. The waitress laughs and says, "well, do you want to see the manager or something?". They say yes and she disappears. A minute later the manager storms over to the brother's table and menacingly says "i hear there's a problem?". The brother points him to the proper table and the manager goes over, makes no apology, and replaces the bread basket about ten minutes later.

How are these people running restaurants if they can't manage simple things like politely resolving customer complaints, assigning waiting staff to rooms when there's more staff than rooms, or making sure half eaten bread doesn't get brought out to a table! Insayno.

 

[seanface]

is that the italian place?

food = nice
service = shite

 

[Yurn!]

if the staff in ther Market Bar don't get sounder i'm gonna break their backs.