To think the 'posher' the place,the worse the service..

[Tomorrow88]

Had a day off a couple of weeks ago and went to the cafe of a ' posh' well known department store for a cup of tea . Got the usual question ' milk and sugar'? and answered ' just milk please' Tea arrives with no milk and had to ask again ....no milk arrives and had to ask another twice with gaps between...and they weren't busy! In my experience, service and even food tends to be better, say in a small family run cafe than ' posh' cafes and restaurants Anyone find the same ?

Harvey Nichols, leeds is great too.

I disagree with the Op though. I dont find more expensive places have bed service

House of Fraser caff is not posh

I think the places with the worst service are generally the places with a reputation for being "trendy". Of course there are exceptions to this, but it's a good rule of thumb.

There's a difference between actually good and just pretentious.

A shop cafe that can't even get the basics of a coffee order right, isn't very good. Though it might be a one-off aberration.

But you will probably get better standards in a nearby independent coffee shop then a store concession.

Thinking about it, Liberty's and arguably Harvey Nicks could be added to the posh list. That's it.

Deffo not Harrods.

"Of course Harrods restaurant is posh. £5 for a cup of tea."

Expensive and posh aren't synonyms.

I've found the following..

Cheapo/chain restaurants...service can be good, service can be bad. Varies wildly based on the individual waiter/waitress.

Expensive restaurants... consistently good service...much less dependent on the personality of an individual waiter/waitress.

Fortnum and Mason or John Lewis?

Not posh Brasty. Just overpriced.

A posh place would bring teapot, hotwater jug, sugar, milk or lemon (or even both) automatically not.ask what you want.

Surely it depends what you are used to? I am never going to go anywhere that some people on here would see as posh.

I doubt that a department store cafe really qualifies as 'posh'.

Probably M&S

Well if it was M&S it's not surprising. The service there is awful in that it's glacially slow. More than 2 people in the queue and you'll be waiting until Christmas.

But they do have a good system where they won't let anyone bag a table until their food is ready and then they escort you to a free table. But it's necessary there due to aforementioned slowness.

Jenners in Edinburgh, which was posh in a particularly local way has suffered a lot since House of Fraser took over. The restaurant service is awful.

Have just had a really fancy lunch out with DH yesterday (very rare treat for our anniversary) and the service was amazing. They were seriously smooth, but in the most charming way. I'll remember that lunch and the people who served us for a long time I think!