Maybe I ask too much, maybe I should expect less of the people that I hand over my hard earned money too. I mean, after all they are only setting up a service business. Why should I expect them to serve me with anything less than contempt?
Picture the scene if you will. Myself and my wife, on a cold winter's Wednesday night, venture to a local Italian restaurant for a quick evening bite. All seems good so far. We arrive at said restaurant without a booking but from looking through the windows we can see only a couple of tables taken. We assume that we will be eating shortly but as an old school teacher once told me, "to assume makes and ass of you and me" (still unsure how it makes an ass of him but anyway).
We are greeted at the door by a surly man who I later find out is the manager. This Italian version of Basil Fawlty lumbers over with not so much of a smile
"Good evening, have you booked a table?"
looking around the 3 quarters empty restaurant I reply; "no I'm afraid not but if we could just have a table for two please?"
"I'm sorry sir but we are fully booked."
Now this must be some sort of joke, clearly I have wandered in off the street on to the set of the latest series of "Punk'd" or "Beadles About". Then it begins to dawn on me that Beadle is dead and such a TV show would only be in bad taste and this would really be scrapping the bottom of the barrel for comedy ideas. " The restaurant seems quite quiet is there no way we can eat before the bookings come in?" I ask.
"I'm sorry sir I cant spare the table." he replies
Normally I would argue this point until I was given a table but for some reason, lack of food, lack of sleep or the state of shock I was in, we decide to leave and find somewhere else to eat.
This sorry tale happened almost 2 years ago but here I am still telling it to anyone that will listen. Surely this is not the reputation that this restaurant wants and certainly they are better than that as I know from experiences before and since. The issue I have with this sorry tale is that it highlights the lack of idea, the lack of care, the lack of commercial awareness and lack of good service that there is in a number of restaurants in the UK. I know of very few businesses that can afford to turn money away, especially in the restaurant industry. So why make it so difficult for people to spend money with you? In this day and age there is so much choice that every customer should be treated with your best service, don't send them to a competitor because you don't know how to turn a table!
You can do better than this and I dont just mean that restaurant but I mean all restaurants! I dont want to have to feel like you are doing me a favour it should be the other way round. I have worked in restaurants in my teens, I know how easy it is to turn tables. I wouldn't have minded being given a time limit to eat before the bookings arrived. Although don't start me on time limits when I am booking a week in advance because I refuse to rush my food if you can't serve me in an appropriate time! I dont want to wait at the door until you can be bothered to serve me, I dont want to wait half an hour to have my order taken and I definitely don't want to be turned away from half empty restaurants!
We are living in 2010 almost 2011, so why must our service standards be stuck in the mid seventies? This country has done so much to improve it's food culture since I was a child but please dont let poor management and uneducated staff ruin the food heroes we have cultivated in the last 30 years.
Please don't stop me spending my money because if I and everyone else does, who will you be able to be rude to? I don't think your Nan would put up with that sort of attitude...
Recent Comments