AIBU to never go here again & tell everyone I know how awful it is?

[FrazzledCareerWoman]

New fancy "mums brasserie" type place has opened in the London suburb where I live. Think zone 3, up and coming area. Lots of yummy mummies, baby classes, mums fitness, etc around. People have money to spend.

So they open this place that is marketed as a wellness and foodie experience where you can have lunch and spa treatments while they watch your little darlings. Sounds amazing, non?

They also will have classes for the kids that are put on by external providers, and a soft play area.

Okay, fine. Me and NCT friend decide to go and check it out just for lunch.

Well, I think I'm still in shock. No alcohol at all firstly - I tried to order a glass of Prosecco and they were like "what's that"? So clearly missing a trick there 🤷🏻‍♀️

Secondly, waiting staff obviously had never worked in so much as a greasy spoon previously as they were faffing around doing very little, extremely inattentive and managed to take an hour to bring our starters and a further 30 mins for our next courses. To be fair they claimed this was due to a power cut (which lasted about 5 mins after we had already been waiting for an hour).

Thirdly, it was eye wateringly expensive. Their sushi chef hadn't started yet and so they was barely anything on the menu that was available.

Our bill was £43, no alcohol, 1 tea, 1 latte, 1 dip with crudités, 1 broccoli soup, 1 stale foccacia slice, 1 eggs Benedict with cold sauce , 1 basic salad.

I waited an hour for a “Japanese style avocado salad” that was cucumber tomato and iceberg lettuce. The bread with my soup was stale.

So you would think we were offered our meal for free after all that wouldn't you? Well not only am I ashamed to say I didn't blink and paid the full £43 when asked but the owner had the audacity to offer us "a free dish next time you come".

I feel like they are totally ruining something that could have been great! And they are clearly mental and have done zero research. Membership is around £500 a year.

Just speechless.

Wow. Had a look at that website and they do seem woefully underprepared. The softplay and garden are not up and running, and they only list 2 spa treatments. Why would anyone pay for annual membership upfront if the facilities are not even in place? The whole website looks like it was cobbled together in a hurry and badly needs proof reading. The promises they’re making re the Montessori stuff seem hugely over-ambitious and the blurb suggests this will be covered by the membership fee. Really? I think they are making promises that could get them into trouble.

OMFG those replies from The Peacock on TA
They've brought unexpected joy on a hangover riddled Sunday!

It was me @JiltedJohnsJulie
He served a prison sentence after assaulting a local, completely unhinged!
His responses are just

I really do have to thank you Gin. Like XiCi said, they have brought unexpected joy 😀

But regardless, seemly the place is rammed almost constantly. Hilarious 😆

I've never been to the Peacock but the TA reviews suggest, at a glance, it to be one of those niche fetish places where people go to be throughly treated like shit and pay for the privilege!

OMG that peacock guy is bat.shit.

Frazzled - special cateogory needed for Peacock maneven the folk saying nice things get a good slappin'

I feel very uncomfortable about this pile on of people who have never been to the place doing their best to destroy a new business.

I have to say there is a bit of an undercurrent of racism in this thread. Tooting is famous for its curry houses and Asian community with lots of Asian groceries etc.

Since this thread started I’ve realised that the people running this cafe come from that community and would be the sort of people who might have set up the sort of ‘authentic’ curry restaurants that gentrified Tooting incomers rave about.

The people setting up this place obviously haven’t decided to go down that route and have tried to set up a trendy and aspirational place appealing to gentrified locals.

All this mocking of their language and taste and ambition smacks of telling uppity colonials to get back in their boxes and make is a curry instead of trying to keep up with white middle class people and doing it all wrong so they’re laughed at and mocked.

I am really not someone who calls racism and offence over every tiny thing. In fact I’m really quite right wing and am probably more likely to be accused of being a racist.

But I’m calling it on this one. It’s good, old fashioned mock the ethnic for trying to be aspirational and fit in with higher class people they don’t belong amongst.

Just plain nasty.

Another deliciously hypocritical post from bejam, god love ya.

Sorry you've overplayed your hairy troll hand there Bejam.

I wouldn't get them the responses they want, tbh, best to ignore.

*give them

Bejam is the gift that keeps giving.

This is one of my alll time favourite threads.

The intervention of the owner and Bejam’s hilariously Pooterish comment make it really special.

But I’m calling it on this one. It’s good, old fashioned mock the ethnic for trying to be aspirational and fit in with higher class people they don’t belong amongst.

How on earth does anyone know the ethnicity of the owners?!

I appreciate of course that skin colour is not the same as ethnicity but the only picture I can find of the owner doesn’t appear to back up Bejam’s point, so I’m confused.

If you google the restaurant lots comes up showing the venue owners and their friends all have Muslim names common in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

TataniaLariana, seeing as you’re one of the most notoriously nasty posters on Mumsnet, if you don’t like something I’d generally assume it was going along the right track.

I'd made no such assumption about the ethnicity. In fact my assumption was likely similar to most other posters in that I expected a white middle class hipster to be the culprit. I know nothing about the cultural demographic of Tooting, nor had it entered my mind!

If you google the restaurant lots comes up showing the venue owners and their friends all have Muslim names common in Pakistan and Bangladesh

I can’t find the owners’ names for love nor money and I am usually a very effective online stalker...

So I’m just going off the Insta

Seriously! No one gives a rat’sarse where the owner is or isn’t from and what colour she is! That’s a bloody leap! We’re not allowed to mock wanky worded concepts if they may be written by someone from a different background? Omfg, I’ve only read the menu, it sounds pretentious, that’s it. I also have no fucking clue who or what lives in Tooting or any other fucking part of sodding London.

Whatever it is your smoking, Bejam, let us know because I'm staying the hell away from it (as well as prosecco).

Bejam are you owen jones?

Wow, that's a bit of a stretch , and a rather nasty one at that. It's completely irrelevant.

Bejam - you are spoiling us. 🤣

(Don’t stop)

I am old and my youngest is now a teen

Can somebody tell me what a babychino is ? Is it some kind of junior cappachino or something ? Genuinely don't know.

It's frothy milk, rabbits
With some dusted chocolate powder on top