Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To have thought we should have been allowed another cup

393 replies

lakia · 01/06/2015 19:39

Was in a restaurant today with my parents they wanted a cream tea we saw on the notice board that it came with a big pot of tea and two generous sized scones with cream and jam.
My parents seeing the size of it decided to order the one between them it wasn't stated as either been for one or two people.
Anyway so we ordered paid and one cup was put on the tray and of course we asked if we could have another cup and the guy who happened to be the manager refused we was bit taken back by this and thought maybe he had misunderstood so again we said we want another cup to which he refused again.
We asked why and he said this is a cream tea for one person and I said its too much for my parents and they want to share he replied that he is a business and that if we want another cup then we have to buy a separate cup of tea I said that's ridiculous and he said no it isn't and he would not budge. He then said that its like him giving one cream tea to a load of people to share and its not good for his business.
Just interested in your thoughts.

OP posts:
Ledkr · 02/06/2015 11:37

When I was a teen, I used to work in a cafe near to a very well known exclusive girls school.
On Sunday's the parebts would visit their daughters and bring them to the cafe where they would order a pot of tea for one and two cups, then they would order more water and milk ALL FROM ONE TEABAG Shock tight arsed fuckers.

BookSnark · 02/06/2015 11:41

My granny lived through the war - and she can't tolerate waste.

She would find it very hard to be given a pint of tea and two scones and not be allowed to share - she'd refuse to let it be chucked - but would probably take about three hours to eat it. (Presumably hardly improving the owners mood!).

It's Simples.

"At busy times, minimum order of £5 per customer".

And then try to charm the low spenders at the till to get them up to the total (or choose to take their business elsewhere). not a standoff once the food has arrived.

TSSDNCOP · 02/06/2015 11:41

Giles a pot was ordered and drunk by two people from a cup.

It does sound as though the whole restaurant experience is one that you rarely enjoy though.

IME the people that make ridiculous, petulant demands on the basis of the proprietor having to provide or lose business are the very people that never shop or eat in a place more than once. They just like to have their demands met or spit out their dummy and log onto TripAdvisor.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 02/06/2015 11:41

Well people on this thread have said that two scones is needed for one person, others have said that only one scone is needed. Café is generous in this case, provides two scones/one tea pot.

A 'cream tea' is for one person - cream teas for two would have elicited a different response and costing. Is that very hard to understand?

For the hard of thinking then, you go into a café and you ask for what you actually want, ie. tea for two, you don't go in and say "One tea please" - pay for it and then ask for another cup.

I think OP was blithely ignorant and what person sits in a café and orders nothing, not even a drink? You don't, people who have any cognisance in normal, aware-of-others behaviour, just don't do this.

6Musiclover · 02/06/2015 11:44

As a customer who pays the asking price without quibble in cafes, i'd be very happy for all the table hoggers and penny pinchers to bugger off.
Whether it's the elderly couple in this thread or the buggy brigade with their noisy offspring in Costa, they're all a pain in the arse!
I meet a friend once a week for coffe and cake, sometimes lunch if it's later in the day.

We go to a fab Independant cafe which serves fantastic food and has very pleasant staff whom we've gotten to know quite well.
It's not child friendly, nor would it pander to customers like those of the OP's parents.

It's always busy, and often we have to wait for a table.
I wish there were more like it.

Only1scoop · 02/06/2015 11:46

I'm with 6 Grin

Love a nice 'child unfriendly' cafe

Can't beat em'

Summerisle1 · 02/06/2015 11:48

The thing about a cream tea is that it isn't the same thing as a cup of tea and a buttered scone. The former constitutes a small meal in this house and the latter is merely a 'little something'. So anything less than a 2-scone cream tea would be considered a proper swizz.

slithytove · 02/06/2015 11:48

There is a cafe I go to, I order a sandwich and share it between me and my kids (sandwiches are mammoth) and they even give me an extra plate. I also buy a juice and share it with my DS. DD has her sippy cup.

Because they do this, I visit once a week, and suggest it if people ask for a nice place to have lunch. I'd say that extra plate, glass and use of high chair should be well worth the repeat and recommended custom.

TSSDNCOP · 02/06/2015 11:50

Exactly summer isn't a person supposed to feel a teensy bit sick after a good cream tea? I've never managed an evening meal after tea Envy

slithytove · 02/06/2015 11:50

And yeah, I am "penny pinching", if I wasn't i'd never get a treat like eating in a cafe. Nor could I afford 3 sandwiches and 3 drinks, nor would I appreciate the waste.

Gileswithachainsaw · 02/06/2015 11:50

I don't get how people buying the food that they want and are able to actually eat is tight or penny pinching. really? ??

so people with small appetites unable to drink bowls of tea and coffee or finish cakes the size of Jupiter aren't welcome in a cafe?

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 02/06/2015 11:52

Me too, although it's not the children that are horrid (not yet), it's their accompanying 'parents'.

Some people just think others are there to run around them and service their every whim, without any kind of quid pro quo, ie. custom. The clue is in the title of the visitor to a premises... a customer.

I wish cafes and independents would stand up for themselves more - they don't need customers like OP/her parents/braying buggy inveiglers, they need PAYING people so that they can survive and keep their business going.

There is a place for non/half-payers... there are beer gardens and chain places where they just don't care. Go to those please.

Scotinoz · 02/06/2015 11:53

A two scone cream tea is standard where I am. Just order an extra pot of tea and split the scones - also standard where I am. Not worth the drama!

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 02/06/2015 11:53

Doggy bag, Giles. I know it's American but we have them here. It is also possible to leave stuff on your plate/in your cup and order small portions.

6Musiclover · 02/06/2015 11:55

There's a place for non/half payers. I think it's called home Lying Smile

Gileswithachainsaw · 02/06/2015 11:56

Who the fuck is going to walk around all day clutching that mornings breakfast. really.

yea I know people can leave stuff. but you can't compare handfuls of chips or half a burger to an entire duplicate of what you just ordered and didn't want just because some random person thinks you should order twice as much as you can ever eat just to take home squished again in the name of keeping a shop open.

6Musiclover · 02/06/2015 11:57

I want a cream tea now, but I am not in cream tea county at all sadlySad

Only1scoop · 02/06/2015 12:01

Get your three tier stand out and channel your thoughts to a scene of virtual cream tea heaven Grin

whatsthatcomingoverthehill · 02/06/2015 12:03

Who was saying it was wrong to share the food?

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 02/06/2015 12:06

Yes, 6... clicks ruby (blue) slippers and proclaims "There's no place like home, no place like home"... it is blowing a gale outside and I have to go out in a bit.

I will call into a café en route, I think.

6Musiclover · 02/06/2015 12:13

ooh now there's an idea Scoop* Channelling Cornwall a few years ago. It rained a lot while we were there, so of course we had to spend lots of time in cafes scoffing delicious cream teasGrin Aaah..

BookSnark · 02/06/2015 12:33

Cafes that don't want families shouldn't have highchairs.

Cafes that don't want freelancers who nurse a cup of coffee for three hours shouldn't have wifi.

Cafes that don't want low-spending stubborn old people shouldnt serve fecking cream teas .

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 02/06/2015 12:46

We use highchairs, the wifi and I would buy my mum cream teas... we wouldn't act like stingy, money-grabbing, entitled arses though. We want to visit a café and use their facilities, we pay for them, we don't work around them trying to claw back money that actually, belongs to the café.

Stay home, please.

BookSnark · 02/06/2015 13:04

No one was clawing back money.

People using highchairs -> they bring kids, who may be messier or more disruptive.

People using wifi -> staying longer than it takes you to physically consume your food. More likely to be alone.

OAP friendly menu -> less spend per head. Not able to eat such big portions.

I can't actually think who would go in a cafe between 9am-12.00pm or 2pm -5pm that wouldn't be one of those three groups. You can't alienate swathes of your customer base and in the next breath bemoan why people aren't coming.

My point is that - once the cafe had accepted OP parents money for 1 cream tea/3 people - then there was absolutely no point arguing the toss over how many cups they used. Drinking from one cup wouldn't make them move faster or spend more.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 02/06/2015 13:10

Café owner just didn't expect such 'customers'. He'll know for future. I wouldn't behave like this, it makes me shudder. I doubt very much that he will miss OP or people who behave like that and think it ok. The owner accepted money for ONE cream tea... he allowed the other two people to sit there. Kind of him.

I get it. Some people can do as they please. It's the zeleb thing, so many think they are entitled to be treated as such. Not your posts specifically, Book, the ones upthread. They really are a joke and I'm glad there are still people who think they are utterly ridiculous.