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Sunday 29 July 2012

Restaurant Coworth Park

Ladysolly and I went for Sunday lunch with daughter.2 and boyfriend.

The first problem was the first course; it took an *extremely* long time to arrive. We got three apologies for this; the second time we were told "literally two minutes" (no it didn't), the second time "coming now" (no it didn't) and then it eventually arrived. The head waiter came by to explain that there had been a problem with the printer. Don't ask my why that would make the first course take such a very long time.

The problems with the food: ladysolly asked for low salt in her soup; the soup itself was low salt, but the thing in the midle of the soup was very salty. Also, the soup was lukewarm. I had the salmon; usually I would expect a spread of several slices of salmon, with trimmings. Here I got six very tiny strips (about 4 inches by 1/2 inch), and the mustard sauce was missing.

Then the main course. I was happy with my roast beef, but daughter.2 ordered monkfish, and got such a tiny helping that even she (a very light eater) felt cheated. She said it was more like a single medallion of monkfish. We also ordered side vegetables for the table - what we got was a single bowl, smaller than a teacup.

The desserts were good, the coffee nice, the chocolates (I had to remind them to bring them) fine.

After the meal, we explained all this to the head waiter. He explained that this was the first time that this particular menu had been served, and he was as upset as we were. He agreed about the size of the salmon helpings (he thought it should have been carved at table, not in kitchen) and also about the monkfish.

He offered us a tour of the grounds - we declined. He was keen that we should return some other time to see how good they were. Sorry chum, there's a thousand restaurants we can visit, why would be come back to yours after a bad experience?

We were given a 50% discount on the bill (and no "12.5% discretionary service charge", which I would have exercised my discretion not to pay), which was a good gesture by the head waiter, but what we'd wanted was a good experience at a good restaurant, and we didn't get that.

I would lay the blame for this on the restaurant manager. A new menu should *NOT* be tested on customers. If the menu is changed, the management should try it out before the customers get to see it. When you're running a software house (the situation I know best) you don't take the software straight from the programmers and give it to customers. You test it first! You don't wait for customers to tell you about obvious problems.

Whatever problem with the printer had caused the absurdly long delay of the first course - they should have improvised a solution, perhaps use pencil and paper to write down the orders? Leaving customers to sit and wait for ages was not the best option.

I suspect that whoever is the boss of the restaurant manager will never hear about this fiasco, and won't therefore give the restaurant manager the carpeting that he so richly deserves. Who's going to tell him? The restaurant manager won't, and the head waiter and chef won't go over his head. I don't even know who he is, and I doubt if he'll read this web site, although anyone who has management responsibility in the hospitality industry should be keen to hear about bad experiences in their establishment, so that they can fix whatever problems they have.

Since the problem is clearly one of management, we won't be going back, because it's unlikely that there will be management changes.

3 comments:

  1. Enjoy reading your blogs...

    "When you're running a software house (the situation I know best) you don't take the software straight from the programmers and give it to customers. You test it first! You don't wait for customers to tell you about obvious problems."

    Isn't that what usually happens then? :-)

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  2. We used to test it for a week, when we were doing monthly upgrades.

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  3. Update:

    The General Manager has offered us a complete refund for the meal, and a free meal at a date of our choosing. So they are taking it seriously.

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