Advice please - tricky situation with restaurant

[hairbearbunches]

Any advice on this welcome. I'm not sure what to do next other than chalk it up to a poor experience and move on, but I'm pretty cross about it. Went to a pretty upmarket restaurant last week not far from where we live. Second time I've been. DH has been a few times more with work colleagues. The waitress dropped some cutlery behind my chair as she was clearing away the plates of the table next to us - group of 5 women. Loud noise, nothing more than that or so I thought at the time. As we were leaving, DH went to loo and asked me to take the dog who had been sitting underneath his side of the table the entire meal. I took her lead and she started paying serious interest in my coat which was hanging off the back of the chair. When I looked down, it was covered in grease marks, there was pretty much a perfect imprint of a greasy knife up the left hand side of the sleeve as well as other biggish greasy marks. It was quite obvious what had happened so I went and told the waitress who had dropped the cutlery. She looked a bit rabbit in headlights and I got the distinct impression she knew it was already there and had been hoping we weren't going to notice. The coat is a waxed coat from Toast. I got it in the sale but it still cost £175. It can't be dry cleaned, hand wash cold only. I've tried to get the grease out and made a decent stab of it, but it's not the same coat. There are still stains on it.
Anyway, long story short, I finally got an email back from them tonight saying they'd spoken to the waitress and the knife (singular) she dropped was nowhere my coat and therefore they believe that my coat was already greased up before I got there and the dog licking it has made it worse (the dog licked it once).
What would you do? Put it down to bad luck and accidents happen or pursue it further. I'm pretty hacked off with their dismissive attitude. I walked in to their restaurant with a pristine coat and walked out with it in a right mess and they've made me feel like I'm trying to pull a scam on them.

Comments like this are soooooo boring. My god.

As soon as I saw OP mention the dog in the first post I knew that some posters wouldn’t be able to resist replying the same thing ad nauseum. Only on mumsnet.

They should look at the CCTV footage. It is easy enough to do. Tell them what time you arrived. They will see the waitresss dropping all the cutlery b

As per every other Mumsnet thread, people are jumping in and being quite frankly mean to OP. No need for it.

OP, that is hell of a stain, I wouldn't be happy with that either. Hope Toast can offer some ideas on how to clean the grease off

The restaurant doesn’t sound unreasonable, offering to clean it and a voucher for £50 is ok. Go back to them with the recommended cleaning method from toast, whatever that costs and ask them to cover that cost.

I can see how a piece of cutlery got dropped in a restaurant and it’s just life it landed on your sleeve.
Honestly if you want to wear very expensive, uncleanable coats you’re going to be in this same position again.

Hardly the point though is it? The restaurant is at fault and are covering their tracks.

I could have predicted the responses before I even read them.

Stain devils are pretty good. Otherwise you could go to decent dry cleaner, they usually have advice for stain removal of range of fabrics. There are also various professional stain and repair companies on line, we used one for a leather sofa once and they got a really odd and persistent stain out.

I mean, both things can be true.

Of course the restaurant are at fault but I genuinely don't understand hundreds of pounds for coat that can't be cleaned either.

Personally I would kick myself for buying an coat that impractical for daily life and rack it up to experience.

I really don't think businesses should be at the mercy of
compensation claims from every customer who chooses to wear expensive impractical clothing.

after reading all your updates .. I think the restaurant is actually being nice about it by offering you £50 off your next meal.
they also offered to dry clean your coat but it’s not their fault your coat can’t be dry cleaned.

what were you expecting!? A full refund on a £200 meal due to an accident that they don’t fully know was definitely caused by their staff but was definitely made worse by your dog?

You said on one of your updates you didn’t want a free meal but I’m getting the feeling you do otherwise £50 would be fine … it was an accident after all.

maybe this is a good thing to happen to you so you can buy a new coat that can actually be washed or dry cleaned. Especially with a dog, it was your dog that made the stain worse after all, by licking it.

I would to take the £50 and put it up to experience and ask for my coat to be hung up next time I go to any restaurant.

They will have public liability insurance, so can pay for professional cleaning/ reproofing or a replacement.

The dog is a red herring. And yes, I think it's reasonable to expect a full refund. It's their business and they should invest in courting return custom.

Why a sudden slew of posts bitching about the OO's coat being ridiculously impractical?
She probably wouldn't choose to wear it on a hike in the Lake District, but I bet none of you would think 'Oh, I won't wear that nice expensive coat to lunch/dinner today cos you never know, the staff might drop a pile of greasy cutlery down it.'
Then again, I forgot, you're all too morally upstanding/proudly impoverished to own a coat that cost £175 and seems to be a symbol of the OP's moral weakness, aren't you.

Ok, so Toast have now responded and their suggestion is baking soda rubbed in with a soft bristle tooth brush, leaving it for around 2 hours so it can absorb the oil and then dish soap to break up the remainder, followed by a cold hand wash as per instructions. This seems to be along the lines of other comments, thanks very much, so i'll give that a go. Pain in the arse, but hopefully it will work.

Regarding the dog, she did not make the stain worse. That was the assertion of the restaurant. She was sniffing my sleeve and trying to lick it which is what alerted me to the issue, so as others have said it was clearly a greasy food stain. She maybe got one lick on it before I stopped her. But, really, the dog needs to be applauded. Had it not been for her, this may have not been picked up until after I'd left the restaurant and then I really would have had no comeback at all.

I really had no idea some people were so wound up by dogs it leads to a crazy bias in their opinions.

Because the dog isn’t a red herring. If the dog didn’t lick the “fresh” stain then there would have been a better chance of it washing out but because it was licked / rubbed in, whatever the stain was gets pushed into the fabric. Plus the dog licking it has probably taken the protective wax layer off causing the damage (just like rubbing a stain would).

they offered to get it dry cleaned .. which ordinarily would be enough to get a stain out & offered the OP £50.

they also have zero proof it was caused 100% by their own staff, or that it definitely happened in the restaurant and not before. They are just giving a gesture of good will, to encourage returning custom.

YABU - for taking a dog into a restaurant. Grim 🤮

I agree! Your dog acted like a well-trained police dog!

The reason I said that back at the very beginning that you had muddied the waters by mentioning the dog to the restaurant was because they used this as an excuse to say her lick was the cause of the stain, not their food.

However, as I started to think about how to prove that the stain was caused in the restaurant I realised that her “evidence” was crucial to the case!

Good luck with the baking soda, do let us know how you get on.

@SomethingUniqueThisTime last year we took them with us to Prism in Berlin and Joia in Milan.

Best read the OP's comment on the dog above.

It’s now got to be the principle rather than the end result. I wouldn’t be happy with the way they’ve handled it.

OP, you've come in for so much shit on here on a matter that seems, from your version of events, to be entirely the fault of the restaurant. I'd definitely not be happy with the general manager's offer and would be pursuing a MoneyClaim Online action - taking the risk that the court may find in the restaurant's favour.

Either way - successful or not - I'd be satisfied that I'd done my best to take action as far as I could because the restaurant and the actions of the waitress seem unfair (and, frankly, dismissive of an establishment that would appear to pride themselves on being a cut above) and you've been the one left out of pocket.

Good luck!

Ahh sorry & thank you. I mis-read the OP from the beginning. I thought it said that that the dog had licked it (as in multiple times). Now I see. Yes the dog is a red herring. Sorry!

I’ve also looked at the photo of the grease and it does actually look like a knife! So quite obvious how it happened, by the Waitrose dropping the cutlery.

Because the dog isn’t a red herring. If the dog didn’t lick the “fresh” stain then there would have been a better chance of it washing out but because it was licked / rubbed in, whatever the stain was gets pushed into the fabric. Plus the dog licking it has probably taken the protective wax layer off causing the damage (just like rubbing a stain would).

So the dog rubbed the stain in, whilst simultaneously removing the layer of wax that the stain was on? That's some impressive licking.

When I had dogs I never bothered picking up dropped food, I just let the dogs deal with it. They are very efficient food hoovers and I doubt that whatever the OP's dog did, it made the situation any worse.

I’ve changed my view!! Since looking at all your replies & the grease print on your coat picture - I think the restaurant should be doing more.

(initially I thought just take the £50 and put it up to experience - I’d actually mis-read your original post and thought the dog had licked it all off, causing more damage. Sorry!)

I think you should be pushing for more.
you are out of pocket for something that was caused by someone else, though it was an accident.
but I’d not like to be out of pocket for wearing my nice coat out for a nice meal.

I imagine restaurants are covered for accidental damage.
sorry the manager is being hard work!!

sorry for my original comment - i didn’t mean to be bitchy or come across that way.
I hope you manage get some compensation for a new coat!
good luck with the baking soda trick, hopefully that will work too 💐

🙄