I had to stay overnight in London last night so got in touch with my former lodger who is living in Brixton to see if she and her teenaged niece who lives with her would like to go out for a meal.
I don’t know the area at all so they suggested a couple of restaurants to choose from.
When we ordered the niece chose first and the waitress suggested something similar. I was reading her choice upside down from my side of the table and my impression was that it was about the same price so I wasn’t concerned and thought she was being helpful. When my friend chose however she again recommended a change which would have taken the cost from a dish at £30 to £105. As my friend doesn’t have English as a first language she was confused and I was just opening my mouth to say no, when fortunately she herself turned it down.
My main question though was that I was very surprised to be asked to pay after ordering. I don’t think I’ve ever had that in a restaurant- yes sometimes when ordering at the bar in a pub. Presumably they were concerned about dine and dash.
I was left fairly unimpressed with their service with the combination of upselling, charging us up front and then their attitude to allergies. We had all ordered mocktails. Mine came with a strawberry slice floating in it. My friend saw it first and tried sending it back, saying I’m allergic. In fact I’m not, just a mild intolerance so there was no danger and I was going to pluck it out anyway, however the waitress’s reply before I had chance to do so was that it hadn’t been in long and was only small. She had no concern at all that I might be allergic to something I wasn’t expecting to be in my drink.