Opinions on this-bad service or not?

LolaDub

Recently i was at a friends birthday dinner in fire restaurant next to the mansion house. Three of us ordered the same chicken dish but when i tasted mine i thought i was going to vomit-it was absolutely disgusting. In all honesty it tasted like mould had been growing on it, i've never tasted anything as bad. There was supposed to be a mustard sauce on it so i thought maybe its just the sauce. The other two said theirs was fine and tried mine. Both had the same gag reaction.

As it was a friends birthday i didn't want to make a scene but the waitress asked me what the problem was. I told her it tasted like it could have been gone off and i wouldn't be eating it so she called the manager over. The manager asked me what the problem was, same thing i said it tastes awful. She asked was it the sauce, i let her know it wasn't and the other girls who had ordered the same dish were able to confirm it tasted different. So the manager agreed to take it back and asked me could she get me anything else. I declined as my stomach had really been turned by the awful taste and thanked her for the offer. She kept insisting that i have something else, at first said it was means of apology, then said she felt bad that i wouldn't be going out on a sat night on an empty stomach etc etc. I then said that everyone else had finished their meals so it was fine, this was answered by just a sald it will take 2 mins only 2 mins so i gave in and said thats fine.

The rest ordered dessert while i had the salad which wasn't anything special. Anyhow the bill arrives and they had charged for the salad. The girl that was given the bill said to the waitress she didn't think it was right but the waitress said it was and the manager had instructed her to charge for the salad. I expected that the salad was complimentary to make up for the chicken especially as the manager offered it to me by means of apology and i felt she really pushed it on me. It was about 20 euro for it. Anyhow my question is do you think they should have charged for it or not?

In$omniac

No I don't think they should have charged you for it, I have heard of restaurants halving bills by means of apologising!!

reverandkenjami

I don't think you should have been charged. I was in a Steakhouse and asked for the steak well done. It came out rare and i ended up getting it for free having been recooked!

gerrycollins

it should have been for free no arguments but too late now. their customer service sounds fantastic but they fell at the last hurdle.

LolaDub

gerrycollins wrote: »

it should have been for free no arguments but too late now. their customer service sounds fantastic but they fell at the last hurdle.

Actually it was all round brutal but i didn't want to drag out the original post, when i arrived at the restaurant the recptionist ignored me as they were texting then walked off so i made my own way into the restaurant, tried to catch a few eyes of people that worked there but was just ignored. So i had to ring my friend and get her to stand up (the restaurant is big) to find where they were. I was told i could only have 2 mins to order if i wanted to be fed with the rest of the group and i wouldn't be allowed a started. I only arrived 5 mins after them. We were waiting 20 mins on our drinks, some of the starters still hadn't arrived by the time others mains did and they wouldn't mind a birthday cake for us. The waiter also accused one of the girls of moving her glass when he spilt the wine. It was one of the worst restaurants i have ever been for service tbh.

Darragh29

LolaDub wrote: »

Actually it was all round brutal but i didn't want to drag out the original post, when i arrived at the restaurant the recptionist ignored me as they were texting then walked off so i made my own way into the restaurant, tried to catch a few eyes of people that worked there but was just ignored. So i had to ring my friend and get her to stand up (the restaurant is big) to find where they were. I was told i could only have 2 mins to order if i wanted to be fed with the rest of the group and i wouldn't be allowed a started. I only arrived 5 mins after them. We were waiting 20 mins on our drinks, some of the starters still hadn't arrived by the time others mains did and they wouldn't mind a birthday cake for us. The waiter also accused one of the girls of moving her glass when he spilt the wine. It was one of the worst restaurants i have ever been for service tbh.

Was it fu*kin' Fawlty Towers you were at!?!?!

gerrycollins

LolaDub wrote: »

Actually it was all round brutal but i didn't want to drag out the original post, when i arrived at the restaurant the recptionist ignored me as they were texting then walked off so i made my own way into the restaurant, tried to catch a few eyes of people that worked there but was just ignored. So i had to ring my friend and get her to stand up (the restaurant is big) to find where they were. I was told i could only have 2 mins to order if i wanted to be fed with the rest of the group and i wouldn't be allowed a started. I only arrived 5 mins after them. We were waiting 20 mins on our drinks, some of the starters still hadn't arrived by the time others mains did and they wouldn't mind a birthday cake for us. The waiter also accused one of the girls of moving her glass when he spilt the wine. It was one of the worst restaurants i have ever been for service tbh.

well thats worst than faulty towers, this is the other end of the scale to what your first post said. you should have kicked up an almighty fuss

LolaDub

Well tbh i wanted to know if i was right to expect the salad free or not but it was a terrible meal and terrible service, from such a high profile restaurant it was insane

foggy_lad

places like this generally dont give a f**k about you as a customer as if you leave unhappy there are ten people waiting to take your seat/reservation.

i would suggest putting a complaint in writing and see what their reaction is.

cmcsoft

I think it's reckless, no matter how popular the place is they should still be polite (it's not going to kill them) and I would expect that the salad would have been free (I'm not fussy). I just think it's polite to treat you're customers right

wyndham

Get it up on menupages.ie, so they can have it deleted.

olaola

wyndham wrote: »

Get it up on menupages.ie, so they can have it deleted.

LOL!

That is dreadful!!! Just say you were preggers or something and that chicken had been gone off. I'd write a letter, that is really disgraceful. Did they charge you service?

Nasty_Girl

I've had a similar experience and charging for the apology food they practically ram down your throat seems to be the norm

In my case I orderd "plaice and potato wedges" in a place that shall not be named.
My food came about ten minutes after everyone elses and the "potato wedges" were RAW.
I sent it back and the manager insisted that's how they were meant to be cooked and he'd spoken to the chef. I told him to eat them himself!
He said he had tried them.
He offered me something else to go with it and kept pushing and pushing, I told him that if that if that's what his chef considers to be cooked then I didn't want anyhting out of his bloody kitchen !
Anyway I eventually gave in, they gave me mash that tasted like play dough and by now the fish was cold so I didn't eat it anyway.

Wish I stuck to my guns and told him to shove his frozen wedges up his hole and refused to pay.
Ah well.

My husband got very fatty pork in a place but when he pointed it out to the waitress they apologised perfusely and didn't charge him for it but he didn't have anything else instead of it.

dietcola

lol... reminds me of the service i experience regularly in the UK, no i would have not have paid for the salad! go back with your recipt and demand to see the manager again... tell her about your discomfort and that you will never return to the restaurant unless they refund you.

they could have atleast given you something to rectify your bad experiences... a drink or two

shellyboo

LolaDub wrote: »

Well tbh i wanted to know if i was right to expect the salad free or not but it was a terrible meal and terrible service, from such a high profile restaurant it was insane

Well, in any restaurant I've worked in, the general policy was 'you eat it, you pay for it'. However, if you'd have spoken to the manager again, detailing the generally bad service and the fact that you'd expect the replacement meal to be free as a conciliatory gesture, then she would have given in.

It's common practice to do this sort of thing, especially in larger restaurants - they were basically chancing their arm because we Irish are so awful at complaining we'll accept anything, and I bet nine times out of ten they get away with it, too.

There's no solution except to ALWAYS complain if something's wrong!!

EDIT: Totally on your side, btw... that should have been a free meal.

Emerald Lass

this reminds me of an experience a friend of mine had. He lives abroad and his g/f is foreign, so on a recent hol to Ireland they decided to go have lunch in a well known italian and seafood restaurant in Malahide for some of the wonderful seafood we have here in Ireland. Well lets just say the food was crap. Prawns were still fozen in the middle, the calamarie was chewy and some of the mussels were closed, and what were open tasted rank, and the few oysters they got were also frozen! - despite being described on the menu as 'fresh Dublin bay oysters!

anyway he complained. Bear in mind he lives in Sri Lanka where he eats seafood practically every day, so he does know what he is talking about. so he complained to teh waiter, who didn't give a toss, so he asked to see the chef. The waiter told him there was no point to speak to the chef as he was chinese and couldn't speak english! (and yet he was working in an Italian restaurant ??????)

Right well my mate refused to pay, and the waiter told him that if he didn't pay he would call the guards. Go ahead said my mate. 'I can't' says the waiter 'not until you have left, cos you have not stolen anything until you leave the premises without paying!' Righty oh, my mate goes into the porch of the restaurant and yells back inside - 'ring them now, I've left!'

Strangely enough, the waiter decided not to call the guards! My mate told him there would be no problem if he changed his mind, just give the guards his description, in fact here's my address, and that he wouldn't mind the guards questioning him about his atrocious meal.

To add to the hilarity of it all, my mate is blind, 6'3", has long hair, a guide dog and an Indian girlfriend - I'm sure that the guards would've had no problem finding him! lol

Imagine arguing with a blind man with a guide dog about food which is frozen and cooked by a Chinese chef who speaks no english and works in an italian restaurant???? You couldn't make it up!!!

sorry to hijack the post, but it just proves that when it comes to restaurants and food service in Ireland we still have A LOT to learn!

LolaDub

wyndham wrote: »

Get it up on menupages.ie, so they can have it deleted.

I've been thinking that!!!!!

shellyboo wrote: »

Well, in any restaurant I've worked in, the general policy was 'you eat it, you pay for it'.

I didn't eat it, it was disgusting, couldn't eat it or anything else on the plate. I picked at the salad but really wasn't hungry after the first chicken meal.


The entire experience was awful, normally i would have had a lot to say but my friend was very embarrassed and obviously disappointed that her birthday night was going so wrong, so i asked them to re check and then just said how disappointed i was and left. I don't think anybody particularly enjoyed the meal and then we had to carry the cake around town all night because they wouldn't mind it for us! They just said they didn't 'do' that but the cake had been dropped in earlier on that day and they were fine minding it until the dinner. There was obviously something very wrong with my chicken as it tasted different to my friends dish who had ordered the same thing as i did. Thanks for the comments everyone!

craichoe

Emerald Lass wrote: »

this reminds me of an experience a friend of mine had. He lives abroad and his g/f is foreign, so on a recent hol to Ireland they decided to go have lunch in a well known italian and seafood restaurant in Malahide for some of the wonderful seafood we have here in Ireland. Well lets just say the food was crap. Prawns were still fozen in the middle, the calamarie was chewy and some of the mussels were closed, and what were open tasted rank, and the few oysters they got were also frozen! - despite being described on the menu as 'fresh Dublin bay oysters!

anyway he complained. Bear in mind he lives in Sri Lanka where he eats seafood practically every day, so he does know what he is talking about. so he complained to teh waiter, who didn't give a toss, so he asked to see the chef. The waiter told him there was no point to speak to the chef as he was chinese and couldn't speak english! (and yet he was working in an Italian restaurant ??????)

Right well my mate refused to pay, and the waiter told him that if he didn't pay he would call the guards. Go ahead said my mate. 'I can't' says the waiter 'not until you have left, cos you have not stolen anything until you leave the premises without paying!' Righty oh, my mate goes into the porch of the restaurant and yells back inside - 'ring them now, I've left!'

Strangely enough, the waiter decided not to call the guards! My mate told him there would be no problem if he changed his mind, just give the guards his description, in fact here's my address, and that he wouldn't mind the guards questioning him about his atrocious meal.

To add to the hilarity of it all, my mate is blind, 6'3", has long hair, a guide dog and an Indian girlfriend - I'm sure that the guards would've had no problem finding him! lol

Imagine arguing with a blind man with a guide dog about food which is frozen and cooked by a Chinese chef who speaks no english and works in an italian restaurant???? You couldn't make it up!!!

sorry to hijack the post, but it just proves that when it comes to restaurants and food service in Ireland we still have A LOT to learn!

It was an idle threat, the Gardai would have told him its a Civil matter and nothing to do with them.