Restaurant

[Busymomof3]

Dear other moms.

So went for a lovely meal to catch up with friends yesterday for the xmas.
Meal was lovely however the service was very bad.
There was an awful draught in the door asked could we be moved they said no as fully booked fair enough!
Waitress closed inner door which helped with that.
Anyways we ordered our food and drinks.
No one came to see how everything was at any point?
We had to get their attention a few times as they forgot to bring portion of chips.
Then my rose wine was gone off!!had to grt their attention again.
They gave me a different drink on the house.
That was fine then we had get their attention again for a dessert menu.

And yet again for more drinks and tea.
Yes came on good time.
My and 1 other friend had gin they took over 20 mins to come with these!!
Then says girls ye only have 10 mins now and we need table we were surprised as they let us order more drinks?
2 mins later another waiter says ye only have 5 mins now!!and thing card machine for us to pay!
One of the girls is regular there she was shocked at this!!

We paid Bill and left and had one more drink at a bar nearly.
We went back to complain and girl made out they didn't mean to Insult us!I understand that maybe only have table for 2 hours but why let us order more drinks and basically ask us to leave??

Are we been unreasonable here?

Busy mom of 3

Are those of us who are not mothers permitted to form an opinion on your experience?

None of that sounds particularly out of the ordinary for a busy, fully-booked restaurant — not attentive service, absolutely, but you surely understood that a busy restaurant would be turn8 g tables over Christmas?

All sounds standard for a restaurant at its busiest time of year. 🤷‍♀️
(Not a mom)

Just sounds to me like another busy restaurant over Christmas with not enough staff. The 2 hour rule for most restaurants has been a pretty permanent thing since Covid.

Sounds pretty normal to me. If you want drinks after a meal where there is a fixed time slot it would be better to plan to go on to a bar. I would only have a coffee after a meal and usually not even that. More usual to have a G&T before while waiting for the starter.

Did you know you only had the table for a set amount of time?

Sounds like pretty rubbish service - becoming more the norm though! If they needed your table back after two hours they should have told you at the start of the meal or when the table was booked, not ten minutes before they needed you to leave, and it sounds like service was slow and inattentive.

Brexit and covid both did a number on the quality of restaurant service in my opinion. The quality has declined seriously in the last few years and all too often restaurants are staffed by too few people - who haven’t had the right training, are badly underpaid (but overworked), and dealing with unfair pressure from customers and their own management. It’s not their fault that service is poor, they’re doing their best in a bad situation usually, but it’s generally not a great customer experience.

Sorry my apologies i should have said dear readers.
I do think the waiter should have waited a little longer and they shouldn't have let is order more drinks then ask us to leave?
Of course I get it's very busy time of year.

No we didn't know there was set time til afterwards I don't get out much so not used to this new 2, hour rule but will know for next time.

Dear olive Leader.

I totally agree with you there.
Definitely they were short staffed for sure but we should have been informed at beginning of meal about 2, hour rule
They shouldn't have let us order more drinks it should have been said before we ordered them that we only had 10 mins left.

What has being a mother got to do with this?

I book tables online when needed and most places say in the information that it's a 2 hour thing. My favourite pub gives you an option of 2 or 3 hours when you book. Which is great when it's a big crowd, because they always take longer than just two people. Still sounds like shit service. Vote with your feet, dont go again.

Sorry, not clear from your post, what is the timescale between the last lot of drinks being served to you and being asked to leave your table? I think they should give 15 mins minimum to finish drinks, and if there was a delay between you ordering and the drinks arriving that should have been factored in by the restaurant.

So depending on timings, YANBU.

So we ordered drinks and within 5 mins waitress said ye have to be gone in the next 10 mins.
There was no way I could drink my drink back and then 3 mins after her the waiter came and said 5 mins is all we have and he hard the card machine with him very bad service I must say

Yes exactly yes for sure they shouldn't have let us order drinks in the first place that late and should have maybe takin the drinks off the bill then when they so badly wanted us out!!

Who booked the table? Was it booked online?

I agree, or at least told you at the point of ordering that you only had 5 mins left so you could make an informed choice about whether to get more drinks.

It's the busiest most wonderful time of the year isn't it!
Hospitality is brutal at the moment for those working within it, most places are short staffed because unfortunately there isn't an endless supply of serfs who want to work for low pay, long hours, no perks and being treated badly by customers for the privilege.

If you've received a confirmation then usually, the time the table is required back is on there - not that many people read it, or bother to heed it or forward on to those in their party even if they do. And as for 'letting' customers do anything, that's actually funny. Customers rule the roost, what they want happens regardless of anything else or there's hell to pay. If they'd said no to more drinks you'd have likely been moaning about that too and saying no wonder hospitality is struggling if they refuse to serve people. I've had that comment today, fully booked back to back and got a mouthful about refusing a walk in booking as we had no space for anyone else.

Sometimes you don't have time to do check backs on tables because you're being pulled from pillar to post and other customers are demanding your attention constantly, and they are not bothered if you're actually dealing with someone else at the time or carrying someone's food or drinks, everyone thinks they are entitled to exclusive service and that's not the way it can work. It's really not that laborious to ask someone for something if they don't happen to appear the second you want them in those circumstances. And some people get really pissed off if you're at the table regularly asking if they want anything else or if everything is ok. So you really can't win.

You might think it's 'really bad service' but it's the result of a battered industry because no one wants to work in it.

Sounds rubbish service.

In the week before Christmas we ate out twice. Both usually very decent places to eat (nice atmosphere, nice food).

Service was poor both times (different places and different reasons).
One place reduced our bill by 50% and we hadn't even complained.

I think hospitality is struggling with rising costs and lack of staff.

But it puts you off eating out when it's a bit of battle.

My friend who's a regular customer there booked it in the phone

@hospitalitysux yes I totally understand that and they were definitely understaffed and I'm a very understanding person myself I work in customer care dealing with ppl all the time!
So I do totally get that and that the public can be very demanding.
But what bothered us the most was that wee were allowed order more drinks has wait 20 mins for the then to be told ye only have 10 mins left to be told 3 mins later to be told only have 5, mins was like we were been pushed out !! just thought it was rude.

What does being a 'mom' have to do with your meal out??? 😕

I'm not a 'mom' but will reply anyways! Its a busy time of year and maybe staff called in sick and they were short staffed. They did give you a replacement rose, but I can understand their lack of checking on the meal etc would be annoying.

I can't believe though, that you left, went for another drink, THEN RETURNED the same night to complain!!! WFT! IMO, the staff might have rightly or wrongly assumed you were a pissed up group who returned just to make a complaint! This is the weirdest part of your story!

If I'd felt the service was really below par, I would have emailed the manager a day or so later and waited for the response. Pointing out that you were not told about their time limit etc and felt rushed out. Depending on their response, I might give a factual account on say tripadvisor/google reviews.

Returning was overkill, were you all drunk perchance?

Whoever booked on the phone should've been told about the (very normal) 2 hour time limit in this busy restaurant.

You should've been reminded before being served the last drinks.

The rest I couldn't get fussed by at such a busy time of year.

Is this really worth a thread about it? Surely trip advisor is where this post belongs. Very odd post about being a mom and even stranger you went back are you drunk