Afternoon tea difficulty

[TheAverageJoanne]

Well it's ATBU. Booked afternoon tea for a few friends on Saturday for a birthday. One person only eats cheese on sandwiches but she'll have chutney and things like that on them.

Unfortunately they are being rather difficult. When I requested cheese sandwiches when I booked she had to check with her manager who said it would be OK. They phoned today saying they could only provide cream cheese & cucumber, but not plain cheese! I pointed out plain cheese was available on the children's menu but they weren't able to change the sandwich selection, only for allergy or food intolerance.

AIBU to not leave them a tip, grumble on Trip Advisor and complain to them? We want it to go ahead. I'm going to make some and take along in a sandwich box for this person, too. She doesn't eat meat or fish.

This is a prestige hotel that charges a lot btw.

Well if she will only eat one specific thing then the afternoon tea is pointless waste of money for her.

The rest of you can get the afternoon tea and she can order off the kids menu on the day. Then the hotel don’t have to change anything.

She can skip the sandwiches then. I don't blame the hotel for not changing the fillings on offer, they're not required to cater for fussy eaters.

That’s poor on the part of the hotel. A very easy request to accommodate.

I mean, she's fussy, but come on hotel, it's only a few slices of cheapo cheddar!

The cheese is already in the hotel fridge as it's used for the children's menu.

That is poor. I would mention it in my review for sure.

I can see both sides to this.

On one hand, they have the cheese, they have the bread, and it’s presumably pretty quick and easy to knock up a cheese sandwich.

That said, the menu is the menu, if it’s not to someone’s taste, outside of serious allergies, it must be annoying to have to pander to everyone’s preferences.

Also, these things are usually priced based on the ingredients. I know you’re not asking for expensive cheese but I suppose that might be a factor.

Overall, I think they should do it, if only because it’s good customer service.

I dont think either is being unreasonable actually.

The hotel want to maintain their menu of what they consider true afternoon tea and/or dont want to start agreeing to alterations for fussy eaters for their afternoon tea sittings.

But on the other hand the cheese is in the fridge already I can see why you'd be frustrated.

It's the problem of the fussy eater. She can wait until the scones come out.

The hotel will be imagining a scenario where they provide plain cheese sandwiches and their guest complains that they’ve been charged the price of afternoon tea and only been supplied with cheese sandwiches, rather than their full menu……

That's crap customer service. Any hotel should be able to knock up a plain cheese sandwich. Unless they outsource their sandwiches and they're not as freshly made as the price would suggest.

Afternoon tea is usually a set menu. Sometimes you may pick sandwich fillings, flavour of scone, type of cake but still from a list. Even a prestige hotel will be working to a budget. What if a fussy eater asks for extra sausage rolls rather than sandwiches, no scones but extra cakes? Although, if it's a sizeable group booking and with plenty of notice you would think they might have accommodated.

No it isn't! She eats all the sweet things. Other places have provided a range of cheese sandwiches in the past. Also vegetarian vol au vents and sausage roll equivalents have been available.

Also I don't think there's anything fussy about not liking certain foodstuffs. How many of us will eat absolutely anything?

What's the point in her going to an afternoon tea if she won't eat half the stuff there?!
It's not the fault of the restaurant's, they can't be expected to cater to every faddy, picky eater.
(Obviously not including allergies, coeliacs or vegans/vegetarians in there)
I mean, where would they draw the line? Ok to hand pick any onions out of the Bolognese sauce?
A menu is a menu.
You can't just open up your Tupperware box in a restaurant either, I mean come on 😁

I'm in two minds about this. On one hand doesn't the hotel want their customers to be happy? Changing to a filling that they have in stock isn't hard, why not do it to please the customer? On the other hand, there is a reason why they do afternoon tea as a set and fairly narrow menu, to do with stocking and making things in a streamlined way to lower costs and hassle. Why did your fussy friend not check whether she liked the menu and not come when she realised she didn't like it. Is their someone in the group who she could swap sandwiches with? (Not that anyone should, but would anyone be happy to?)

I think it's the simplest thing to accommodate. None of us are "fussy" and your point @ShowMeTheSea is irrelevant and hyperbole. I've never seen Bolognese sauce at an afternoon tea but there's always a first time I guess. For example I don't like smoked salmon but another friend does so we'll trade. We would have done this on Saturday anyway, but with just Philadelphia on the menu it's going to be bland.

And stop saying fussy. She's a vegetarian.

Literally all she has to do is not eat the freaking sandwiches.

Life is so unfair isn't it.....

They usually have options to cater for vegetarians ime. Does the hotel
offer anything like that?

I didn't mean Bolognese sauce at the afternoon tea, I completely agree that would be weird 😂
I meant if everyone phoned up with their preferences and tweaks to the menu they'd have to draw the line somewhere.
We'll have to agree to disagree that your friend (or is it really you? As it sounds like you as you're getting awfully defensive lol) isn't fussy as sounds a tad fussy to me.
Just eat the sweet stuff then or book somewhere you actually like the sound of.

Doesn't look like it. The other options are smoked salmon, Ham and mustard. Chicken and lemon Mayo. I've told her to dress up as Minnie Mouse and pretend she's 12 and get some cheese sandwiches.

There's a few really unpleasant comments on this thread.

Solved anyway, because she's bringing her own.

@ShowMeTheSea No, I don't play games and pretend to be someone else.

I was literally just thinking that after posting!
Can you imagine - they happily accommodate a plain cheese sandwich in their fancy afternoon tea, then OP /mate uploads their "look at what we've got in this so called fancy afternoon tea" package to their FB or whatever, it's not a great endorsement, is it 😁
They might be covering their backs. Don't blame them if so.
Afternoon teas are about the experience. A plain cheese cheddar sandwich is something you can knock up yourself at home.

No, I don't play games and pretend to be someone else

Oh good, you sometimes see confusing reverses or some details changed on here so good to know 🙂

That’s a pity @TheAverageJoanne.
The ones I’ve been to usually have vegetarian or vegan afternoon tea menus you can look at instead of the regular menu. Are you sure that’s not the case?

Oh don't be silly. Of course we're not going to do that.

If she's vegetarian then, can't she ask to see the vegetarian/vegan menu?
Most afternoon teas do one. I don't see much point in getting a non vegetarian afternoon tea if you're a veggie!

What's wrong with cream cheese and cucumber sorry? That's vegetarian