Birthday dinner ruined - restaurant refused eat free offer!

[Heatherstory]

NC’d for this.

Birthday meal out at a local restaurant - they do an offer where the birthday person eats free as long as 1. It’s their actual birthday date and ID is provided to confirm and 2. There’s a minimum party size of 5.

It’s an all you can eat concept where food is brought to the table rather than you go and get it, a great deal as the food is lovely and the offer saves £30.

When we asked for the bill, we mentioned it was my birthday and I said I’d get my ID out of my bag. Someone came over (not the person we asked for the bill) and explained we were not eligible for the offer as only 4 of us had the all you can eat. My 2 year old DD was with us and obviously had a small meal (which we were to pay for).

My DH asked to speak to the manager - the person who came over said that he is the manager and refused to budge. We reluctantly paid.

We’ve checked the offer wording and it’s clearly stated it’s based on 5 dining (doesn’t specify it has to be the all you can eat) which we fulfilled.

It really soured the evening and we will not be returning which is a real shame as it’s a lovely restaurant, but they have been so underhand with this.

'so it wouldn’t be a shock if on reflection, we get a voucher to settle the matter.'

but of course you won't accept it nor use it, as you have vowed never to set foot in the place again...

Who on earth believes that a young child counts as one of the group, esp when only ordering a £5 child meal...

If I saw a shitty review based on that for a restaurant, I'd think what an absolute clown show you were and would more likely pay a visit to the restaurant.

In fact, someone posted something here last week saying the Lidl toy sale was shit. I hadn't heard about the toy sale until then so took a look yesterday, bought some great bits for my kids for xmas.

How absolutely pathetic of you.
You got it wrong and you're going to attempt to damage their business?

Perhaps not toddlers but yes when my 2 children were younger, I've often taken them out with a friend each to a restaurant when they were quite small, on my own - a bit stressful at times but perfectly doable

You are dodging the question, I’m guessing because you know that the spirit of the offer is not to include (already discounted) kids meals. Similarly, sitting with 4 adults who order bread and water wouldn’t qualify for the free meal I imagine.

Would have been obvious to me that a party of five meant five adults or at least adults and teenagers. Not four adults and a toddler.

I think you were wrong, if I was the restaurant manager I would have given you the toddler meal for free as a goodwill gesture.

No wonder our catering industry is fucked. People expecting to eat at a loss to the venue then leaving a shitty review. Hopefully other customers will read the review and think good, one less chav family to be seated next to.

Having said this, there are often threads which centre around toddlers’ meals 🙄

I'm surprised at how many people are saying the op got the terms wrong. No, it was clearly the restaurant (taking op's wording at face value) in not setting out conditions and any exclusions they wanted to apply. It isn't up to customers to read between the lines and interpret what is a reasonable deal or not for a business, and it's irrelevant from a legal point of view whether what the restaurant is offering makes commercial sense or not.

I think the op is dealing with this in an unreasonable and pettily vindictive way, but that doesn't change the above.

Why didn’t you say upfront that it was your birthday and you’d be expecting the free meal? That way no one is surprised at the end.

My guess is that you knew it was fishy, so you left it till it was a fait accompli.

You did get a meal for almost free because if you count yourself as 5 diners, with a standard cost per meal of £30, you only paid £5 for your fifth meal saving £25.

This to me is seeming like the OP is one of the reasons we have 'Do not eat' on porous silicon dioxides and 'Contains nuts' on packets of peanuts.

Oh dear, how disappointing. I was in a restaurant that had a children eat free offer. A couple with six young children got their bill only to be told it only applied one per adult meal. I was gutted for them and paid for four children (discreetly, I presume they think the manager had second thoughts). My husband, who is not so trusting, had a look at the offer it did clearly state one child per full paying adult. He thought they were trying it on with the drama.
Usually an offer and sometimes a voucher have to be declared when you enter the restaurant. If you did this then the server will be in trouble for not explaining. I think I would have asked does a child menu still contribute to the free meal?
A shame it spoiled your birthday treat. I hope you still had a lovely evening.

Writing a bad review would just be mean.

I would assume all 5 people of the party had to be eating from the same menu/offer for that deal to apply. Not one eating for £5

@JillMW again in that situation I can't believe a family would think that all their children would eat for free. Any child free offer usually has restrictions to number of children, or child to adult ratio, age of child etc

Or they'll double down and call you out for being a cheap cheeky fucker

I really couldn’t let this ruin my birthday.
I feel like if I was in this situation and it hadn’t crossed my mind that a 2 year olds £5 plate wouldn’t be included, I’d be a bit disappointed to realise I wasn’t getting my birthday meal for free. I’d also maybe point out that there should be some small print on the offer that it was adult meals only. But it would end there. Id accept that I probably should’ve twigged that it only meant adult meals. I wouldn’t let it sour the evening, and I wouldn’t describe the restaurant as being underhand. Also whenever I have a discount or offer or something for a restaurant (blue light card, meerkat meals, seen an offer online etc) I would ALWAYS mention it when first ordering, not wait until the end.

I agree but I eat out, work in a restaurant where we get a lot of chancers and am not naive some people do seem to be so …or think they are entitled to something if they complain. I pretty much think that the restaurant would have clearly stated the terms. We do have some restaurants near here where all the children (usually under seven) do get a free meal. I am giving the poster the benefit of the doubt thinking that they never have the opportunity to eat out.

Can you post the Ts and Cs on here?

Hopefully. This is so cheeky it’s almost unbelievable.

Yes, OP is very spiteful.

I agree that the restaurant’s Ts & Cs should make it clear that it has to be 5 people having the All-you-can-eat menu/5 adults, @Heatherstory. Whilst it is common sense that it would be 5 adults dining to fulfil the terms of the offer, businesses should make sure that they clearly state the terms and conditions of an offer, and shouldn’t rely on their diners all sharing the same common sense view.

Oh cmon, who thinks a 2 year old having a kids meal for a fiver counts. I don’t even beleive for one moment the op thought that, that’s why they waited till the end.

I would add, though, that any review should be factual, not spiteful, @Heatherstory.

Saying that the restaurant’s terms and conditions do not specify that it has to be five adults dining/five people having the all-you-can-eat menu, and that this meant you were refused the offer is accurate and will be helpful to other potential patrons, and I wouldn't think the restaurant could object.

But getting into a slanging match with the restaurant would be a bad idea.