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.

You'd have to ask them.

I assume prestige hotels would rather have sophisticated grown-ups staying with them, not Disney adults.

If memory serves me that was The Royal Family? 😂

Is there really nowhere else you could go instead?

i Would also only eat cheese sandwiches (I dont really like afternoon tea anyway) I have previously just ordered a kids menu to get the cheese sandwiches.

I have also been offered cottage cheese and cucumber sandwich’s when I asked for a plain cheese sandwich. They were 🤮

What a snotty, rude attitude

Well, that's prestige hotels for you.

It probably doesn't get much easier because you book further ahead. They need notice so they can make sure to have the right number of each little cake, each type of bread, etc. But they aren't going to be able to prep the sandwiches days in advance.

Have you ever tried doing a tea like a good tea place does at home for a big group of people? It's difficult. All of those sandwiches need making really close to the time they're going to be eaten, but they're fiddly and need lots of different ingredients, so you have to be organized and plan. Have a well refined production line. One plate being different is a problem you have to be constantly aware of, or do separately from the main line.

I'm not saying you're unreasonable because they told you they could do it so they ought to do it with good grace. And it's really bad of the to back out of that commitment after they said they'd do it. I'm just saying it isn't a simple change that is inconsequential, so I can see why a place might not be prepared to be that flexible about it.

They normally just want money, and people with money. And people with money are famously picky.

Only know about it because DH’s best mate hated coriander and yet was a trained chef, and a curry fiend. Had to insist on the coriander being served in the side and not on the dish. I’d never heard of it before either!

Can you imagine if chocolate tasted like soap? Who would need weight loss jabs?!

No, they have a reputation to keep up. They have to try and look classy and sophisticated, not like a Harvester.

Which they mainly do by graciously acquiescing to what their guests want.

The idea that the sort of people expensive hotels are after would never want something as “Disney” (which - how the hell do you make that association) as a cheese sandwich is ridiculous.

How hard can it be to make a basic sandwich with a slice of cheddar cheese? A six year old could do it in minutes.

This isn’t “fussy eating”, it’s a very modest request, and if a hotel cannot even do that much for a customer then I would not be going back there.

It is fussy eating and I presume if the everyone in the OP wanted food that a 6 year old would make they would eat at home, it is a venue it has a menu I would either eat there or not, no I do not as for alternatives as for a high tea if there is only one thing I wont eat I would leave that and eat everything else, a 6 year old may have a tantrum ovet it me as a grown up would just move on

Yes, ‘prestige’ seems to have become a synonym for ‘snooty, incompetent and inflexible’.

I presume prestige hotels would want their customers to have a pleasant afternoon and actually enjoy the food they were paying for. If anything, prestige hotels tend to bend over backwards to meet their customer’s (sometimes eccentric) requests. Asking for a cheese sandwich wouldn’t even register as an inconvenience at The Ritz. They’d be delighted to agree to what is a very modest request.

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They’d rather the customer lie saying they have an allergy or food intolerance to get what they need, rather than bring their own cheese sandwiches in a Tupperware box to a prestigious hotel followed by a bad review online.

So you come on!

I very much doubt the hotel wants their customers to lie about having allergies! It’s much easier to cater for a preference than an allergy. Someone could die if you get it wrong with an allergy. It’s stressful all round.

Your suggestion of lying is also really unfair on people who do actually have allergies and are taken less seriously because of people like you.

You’re just making things up (again!!) about the review. OP has never indicated she’d leave a bad review about this and has dismissed at least one pp who made a similar suggestion.

Your suggestion of lying is also really unfair on people who do actually have allergies and are taken less seriously because of people like you

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It's hard enough with allergies without someone suggesting that they pretend they have an allergy just to get a plain cheese sandwich! 😡
When the much better option would be book somewhere that caters for vegetarians in the first place....

OP stated in her opening post

AIBU to not leave them a tip, grumble on Trip Advisor and complain to them?

So what do you call grumble on Trip Advisor if not a bad online review?

Exactly

My husband is a chef and this happens all the time. People ask for things on menus to be changed and if they are told it’s not possible for whatever reason people then suddenly claim it is an allergy

And does he make the change for them?

He will if he can, but it’s not always possible eg if it’s a pre prepared cake or something and the alleged “allergen” is baked in! All he can do then if offer an alternative

The point is though, if someone is allergic to eg eggs they’ll say either in advance or at the point of ordering and ensure what they order is egg free. They won’t say for example “can the Victoria sandwich be served egg free” (for example) and then claim an “allergy” when told no.