One of those new Jamie Oliver restaurants opened near my house recently. (Not 15, one of the ones called Jamie's Italian or some such thing). Oh good, I thought, they're meant to be really nice. I have no feelings one way or another about Jamie Oliver to be honest.
So DH and I went one night before Christmas. It was quite busy and the woman on 'reception' gave us a pager thing and said it would buzz when a table was ready (in about 15-20 minutes), and she invited us to have a drink in the bar while we waited. So we did, along with lots of other people waiting, which was fine. We had quite a nice meal (we did think that selling lots of Jamie Oliver themed dishcloths and the like was a bit odd, but hey).
So we came back on 3rd January for another meal. This time, the restaurant was very empty. I expected a table straight away. But the lady on reception gave us a pager and said that a table would be ready in 15-20 minutes and told us to have a drink at the bar. But, I said (not unreasonably I like to think), there are lots of free tables, can't we just go and sit down? No, she said, it will be 15-20 minutes and you can have a drink in the bar. So I sat down at the bar and waited (no one else was waiting). After 20 minutes I'd had enough of the watching empty tables and watching waiters hang around because they had no one to serve so I went up and asked if we could be seated. "Your pager hasn't buzzed" was the response.
at this point I asked if the pager system was solely for the purpose of making sure that people spend money in the bar first and was told that it was! I was really polite (not her fault and not her policy) but how rubbish. Jamie seems to make a big show of how these restaurants are really 'friendly' etc but actually it seems designed to fleece you as much as possible.
Rant over!