To think that this pub/restaurant was rude and out of order for telling us we had to rush our meals?

[CrystalMuffins]

We went out for Sunday lunch today to a two for one place, cheap and cheerful but always lovely when we've been there in the past.

We arrived at 2pm and we were seated the manager, who led us to our table and sat us down, before telling us that we had to be finished by 4pm because that table was booked. I noticed he was telling every single other person who was being seated the same thing, this was despite there being other empty tables in the pub. That gave us only two hours to enjoy our meal and a drink.

We ordered out food and then had a 45 minute wait for it to come. I was about to say something when it finally arrived. We order at 2.15 and it came at 3pm. By the time we has all finished it was 3.30 and we wanted a pudding, so ordered one each. The manager was the pacing up and down our part of the pub, getting more and more visibly agitated because people were still eating . I should say that no one was rushing, despite being told we had to be out 4pm.

He and other members of staff were pushing what empty tables were left together, which made me think that they had a large group booking for 4pm, but if that was the case why didn't they just close off that part of the pub and sit customers elsewhere? They were too busy pushing tables together and laying them that they were ignoring everyone else who wanted to pay their bills and not clearing dirty plates up.

We finally left at 4pm dead on, and I noticed a large birthday party arriving with party bags and cake etc.

AIBU to think that paying customers in a restaurant, no matter how cheap and cheerful should be allowed to take as long as they like to enjoy a meal and a catch up with friends and family? That's it's not out problem if they have a large booking later on and should have closed off a part of the pub to accommodate them earlier on? I've never been to a restaurant and been told that I had to be finished by a certain time before and thought it was really rude and disrespectful.

Perfectly reasonable to tell you that you had to leave by 4pm. Surprised that you've not come across this before. The service was very slow though.

YANBU because you had a 45 minute wait. Most resturants can turn a lunch service round in a lot less than that, but that assumes prompt service. I would assume 1 hour for a main only, 1.5 including pudding/coffee, 2 hours should be easy, but if they take 45 minutes to bring your food, then they should be aware they can't turn tables in 2 hours.

I wouldn't go there again, I've recently crossed another otherwise lovely family restaurant off our possible places to go list after they took 45 minutes to bring our food.

I won't be going there again. TBH the only reason I did is because everyone else loves it, but the service today was crappy, and yes, rushed.

WE've had but it has always been worded in a different way. ie we were told 'Yes we have a table BUT it needs to be vacated for 8.00pm. Are you OK with that?'
which is very different than what you had where you were sat at the table and told that you have to leave at the same time ie they didn't really leave you the option NOT to accept that set up.

The service was crap but imo that's a different issue.

Yes, I think it was the way that it was worded that annoyed me, and I don't believe the table was booked for 4pm either. Fair enough they went to make room for other patrons, but most people don't sit at a restaurant table for hours on end do they? We'd have been gone had we not had to wait so long for our food.

Stop telling op she's bu and she should have managed to eat up in two hours. They took three quarters if an hour to bring her food out but still expected her to leave on time - that's the blinking point.

I'd have walked out and found some place else to go.

That's not the whole point of her opening post, Puppy. She thinks that paying customers should be allowed to take as long as they want with their family and friends in any restaurant, and that she has never been to a restaurant where she has been told to leave by a certain time and that is unreasonable, rude and disrespectful.

For that, the OP is being unreasonable.

Puppy did you not see this part of the OP:

AIBU to think that paying customers in a restaurant, no matter how cheap and cheerful should be allowed to take as long as they like to enjoy a meal and a catch up with friends and family?

I work in a busy Indian restaurant ad last night every table was booked for 8pm, any walk ins effort that were told we were fully booked but we could fit them in but needed they table back by. 8pm. But we also then made sure that those tables were put through the kitchen quickly etc.

I go to all sorts of places to eat, and this has honestly never happened before. Maybe it's a new policy or something? They've certainly never said it in that restaurant until today.

Fairly standard practice in my experience.

I agree with others, the 45 minute wait was not on, but there is nothing wrong with them wanting the table back at 4.

If they had brought your food with in a reasonable time, but you were still there at 4, would you have felt differently?

In your own words it's a "two for one place, cheap and cheerful". It would be lovely to get good service everywhere we go, but don't expect too much from a Harvester or the like.

There wouldn't be anything wrong with wanting the table back by 4 p.m., if they hard served you more quickly. If they didn't give you your food until 3 p.m. though it's very poor to expect you to be out by 4 p.m. I wouldn't go there again.

The 2 hour window should have been reasonable. The slow service and pressure is not when that affects your ability to dine at a sensible pace by that deadline.

I've had this happen occasionally and hate it with a passion. Memorably one Hotel we were staying in rushed us off our table, we asked for the desert menu and the waitress looked at her watch and said "I don't think you have time"

I think it's particularly unusual in the time slot you had, very popular restaurants on Friday and Saturday nights maybe but mid afternoon on a Sunday is odd. Personally I'd vote with my feed and not go back.

I wouldn't have minded so much of the food had been of an excellent quality, but it wasn't, obviously done in a microwave and the chips obviously frozen ones. It shouldn't really have taken as long as it did to serve us, and we certainly wouldn't have taken as long as we did had the service been more prompt.

I've never experienced this either and I like to think I've been in many restaurants in my time.. They just make people sit in the waiting area until tables become available IME although admittedly my tables never been needed for a large booking so maybe I just got lucky .

Two hours could be enough time except it took 15 minutes to place the order and then another 45 to actually arrive. Guessing it takes maybe 15/20 minutes to finish eating it, then the extra time ordering, waiting for and eating dessert. It all could get very rushed and not be very pleasurable. They did warn you when you went in but I gather you didn't expect to wait a massive 45 minutes for the food so I'd personally say yanbu.

I've never experienced this either and I like to think I've been in many restaurants in my time.. They just make people sit in the waiting area until tables become available IME although admittedly my tables never been needed for a large booking so maybe I just got lucky .

Two hours could be enough time except it took 15 minutes to place the order and then another 45 to actually arrive. Guessing it takes maybe 15/20 minutes to finish eating it, then the extra time ordering, waiting for and eating dessert. It all could get very rushed and not be very pleasurable. They did warn you when you went in but I gather you didn't expect to wait a massive 45 minutes for the food so I'd personally say yanbu.

Yanbu - it sounds like poor planning.

When I worked in a restaurant if we had a very large table coming in it would be set up out of the way about 2-3 hours in advance and would not be used.

We wouldn't expect to treat other customers rudely and ignore them because we hadn't planned well for a table.

Like many others, I am also on the fence. They were BU to be so slow with bringing your main meal but you were BU to order dessert when you knew you'd be asked to be out by 4 pm.

They were not unreasonable to want the table back at a given time and as they told you this at the start YABU on that point. I used to work as a waitress and we did this at busy times.

However, their slow service was unacceptable. Where I worked we made sure the service was fast enough that people were not rushed.

I've eaten in places which have said they need the table by X time and have never had a problem. If it's a special occasion and I want to take my time we book a more 'fine dine' type place which don't do it.
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YABU about expecting non-frozen chips in a cheap 'n' cheerful, two for one place! Do you really think they're going to peel potatoes and make fresh chips daily?! Can you imagine the vast piles of potatoes... And of course they'll be using microwaved food, most places like these don't actually freshly cook the food daily. You're not fine dining!

YABU to be annoyed about being asked to vacate by 4pm. It is common practice in many places. You can't expect a restaurant to not use a large amount of seats during Sunday lunch because of a 4pm booking. They are a business and empty seats mean no money!

YANBU about a 45 minute wait, but then I probably would've still been able to eat two courses within an hour must be greedy

Considering you had to wait so long for your food I'd be pretty annoyed. But in normal circumstances if somewhere told me 'we're closing at 3' or 'we're booked up at 5' etc and there was a decent time to eat, I'd either agree and eat up, or leave and take my custom elsewhere.

I've had it before where I've gone to a restaurant and been seated - no parties booked etc like in your example - and the staff have done their level best to rush me as quickly as they can through my food. Normally I take even longer and take my sweet ol' time now when they do this

It's not a 'common' thing IME to be told you have to be off the table by a certain time, but it's definitely happened to me three or four times in my restaurants going life.

It was then bad form on their part to take so long to serve your meal, and they should have apologised and knocked something off your bill, not made you feel even more under pressure. I imagine there was a problem in the kitchen, short-staffed or faulty equipment or something.

I think the OP is NBU.

It's totally standard for a busy restaurant to ask you to vacate the table after a certain time, but:

• They didn't tell her about the time thing until AFTER they'd seated her; IME they always say as soon as you walk in 'You can have that table but we do need it back by 8/9/whenever'

• The food took way too long to arrive; it wasn't the OP's fault that they took a long time to eat their meal

• If they knew they had a large party arriving, all they needed to do was put the large table aside in advance

I wouldn't go back either.