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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be annoyed with Brewers Fayre?

27 replies

scruffyy · 07/08/2008 20:55

I went to one of their restaurants on 20th July and was really dissapointed with the standard of cleanliness of the highchairs they had. I complained on the day and was told that the one my DD was in was only 3 months old and that the tray got cleaned every morning and that the harness gets cleaned on a Monday (bearing in mind this was a Sunday!!!!). The highchair was gross! The plastic of the seat had been ripped off exposing old foam on most of the seat bottom and the harness was caked in old sticky food. The lady did not seem to understand my point, but said thank you she would note it down!!!!!
I then went on their website and complained as I was sure my "feedback" had fallen on deaf ears. A week later - nothing so I wrote again. A week later I rang (yesterday) and was told that something was in the post to me, which arrived later in the day. The letter basically said nothing other than the highchairs do wear very quickly and that they are deep cleaned once a week. There was a sorry - but not a titter about the fact that what I experienced was unacceptable.
I know this is probably a subject that has been moaned about before but I'm really angry that a family orientated restaraunt doesn't seem to take this sort of thing seriously.

OP posts:
catsmother · 07/08/2008 21:04

I think all eating places, if they provide highchairs (regardless of whether they're family-orientated, but I appreciate if they advertise themselves as "family friendly" this is particularly galling) should ensure they're spotless. It takes 2 minutes to spray and wipe after each customer, before any spilt food has the chance to solidify.

Any reputable restaurant wouldn't expect its adult customers to sit on filthy chairs or to eat off dirty tables and I don't see why babies & toddlers should be any different.

Sadly, I found this time and again in all sorts of places ...... like, if it's a baby, it doesn't matter.

TheCrackFox · 07/08/2008 21:09

In general, thogh, Brewers Fayre is shite.

FluffyMummy123 · 07/08/2008 21:12

Message withdrawn

Original poster
scruffyy · 07/08/2008 21:12

The letter is so badly written. The following sentence sums it up:
Please accept my sincere for your visit
They couldn't even write the word "appologies"!!!!

OP posts:
morningpaper · 07/08/2008 21:14

I don't mind the brewer's fayre as far as crappy family eating is concerned, but it is MASSIVELY expensive - halve the prices and it would be fine

dont' understand why anyone would go there and pay 60 quid for a family lunch, when you'd get the same stuff at wetherspoons for 15 quid

oh yes I am an expert on shite family eating places

KatieDD · 07/08/2008 21:14

I have to agree as a parent, I would clean the bloody highchair if my baby covered it in food and crap, I wouldn't leave it for the next person to use in that state.

Original poster
scruffyy · 07/08/2008 21:14

The monitors which are meant to allow you to see your child playing in the Fun Factory were not switched on either - this was apparently due to the local council advising them not to use them following child protection!!!!

OP posts:
orangehead · 07/08/2008 21:16

I informed the bar staff at brewers fayre once that there was a condom on the toilet floor. The lady looked at me as if to say why would I want to know

onepieceoflollipop · 07/08/2008 21:17

I once was served a slimy lettuce garnish (i.e. mouldy) on my dinner when pg. Brewers' Fayre is awful - I never went back.

I took my plate to the counter, (no one came to the table to ask "is everything all right with your meal!?). I lifted the lettuce off and handed it to them, and they could see I was pg. No apology, no nothing. Perhaps it is against their policy to apologise.

Filthy place imo.

onepieceoflollipop · 07/08/2008 21:19

orangehead that makes my lettuce complaint look really pathetic.

Also when we were there we approached a table in a large, deserted area of the pub. The manager shouted at us to go to the family area. The power had obviously gone to his head.

Original poster
scruffyy · 07/08/2008 21:22

There used to be a pizza place in town which after every use the highchairs were cleaned with disinfectent and the trays clingfilmed to show that they had been cleaned. Why do more more places not take a pride in their cleanliness I do not know!

OP posts:
ChukkyPig · 07/08/2008 21:25

Had a fab one in Brewer's Fayre once. When the food came it was really awful, utterly inedible, the meat was so you couldn't cut into it with a knife and everything else was rock hard too.

We complained and the waiter got the manager who came over and just said "disgusting is it?" and we said "yes" and she said "Ok here's your money back and your drinks are free".

Amazing. That the manager was sending out food that she knew and acknowledged was "disgusting" and just carried on doing it. There's quality for you!!

onepieceoflollipop · 07/08/2008 21:27

Sorry I know it isn't funny but "disgusting is it?" really made me rofl. Have they no shame?

greenlawn · 07/08/2008 21:29

Never been to a brewers fayre - sounds gross though. Also sounds like the highchair wasn't an appropriate type anyway - ie with the foam splitting - surely they should have something that can be easily disinfected all over between each use?

Must admit at the risk of sounding completely precious I always tried to take my own little travel seat for the babies if we ate anywhere (sits/straps onto a normal chair).

TheQueenIsDead · 07/08/2008 21:31

Orangehead, I had similar experience. DS1 (about 18 months old at the time) and I were getting changed to go swimming at a council-run pool and he was looking at something on the changing room floor and about to pick it up. Turned out it was a used condom. I reported it to reception but they weren't interested.
I'd expected them to be horrified. Imagine if DS1 had picked it up and put it in his mouth

ChukkyPig · 07/08/2008 21:54

Lollipop we roffled at the time until we realised that it was too late to eat anywhere else and we had to go to bed with no food just a few pints of warm brewer's fayre lager to sustain us. And I suspect the manager was roffling behind our backs as she applied the hardening spray to the next days foods.

ravenAK · 07/08/2008 22:45

Why wouldn't they just get those all-wood, v basic highchairs that you can just wipe down after a busy shift? Obviously anything with foam padding is going to get minging.

& detachable harnesses, surely, that could go through a hot wash occasionally with the kitchen staff's whites.

DonnyLass · 07/08/2008 22:57

not unreasonable at all

tables for adults get cleaned over after EVERY sitting ... so why not highchairs

once a day is absolutely disgusting

badgermonkey · 07/08/2008 23:07

When I was a teenager, I had a waitressing job at a Brewer's Fayre. It made me decide never to eat in one if I could help it, that's for sure. But even as, admittedly, one of the most resentful and lazy 16-year-old waitresses on the planet (my resignation came as no loss to the service industry), I would have wiped down a highchair when I cleaned the table - you have to fold it up and put it back anyway, so it's not really hard to do.

FluffyMummy123 · 08/08/2008 08:02

Message withdrawn

JamInMyWellies · 08/08/2008 08:31

I worked in a beefeater as a teenager in the days of the snazzy lets try dress you as a yeoman . Anyway lets just say I would not expect anything less than that from a chain type place if people only knew what wen on in the kitchens they would never eat in a chain restruant again.

FluffyMummy123 · 08/08/2008 08:32

Message withdrawn

laweaselmys · 08/08/2008 08:45

Yup. Agree with everybody else that has worked somewhere rubbish, when you get paid rubbish wages and get no respect for the management you end up not caring that much about the customers! And all the deep clean stuff is such a lie, I worked at the same place for more than a year and we didn't do a deep clean once. The staff kept asking too, but our manager wouldn't arrange an out of hours time to do it and pay us for it so it never got done!

I feel really bad now... (sorry)

GetOrfMoiLand · 08/08/2008 10:17

Urgh. Hate chain style restaurants. Ate in a Beefeaters once and halfway through my meal discovered the tomato (part of the 'salad garnish', hate that word) was mouldy

Have never eaten at a Brewers Fayre, thank the lord and all his cherubim. Apart from everything else, the name is irredeemably naff.

badgermonkey · 08/08/2008 13:06

I saw all sorts: foods dropped on the floor and then put back in the deep-fat frier and served again, people putting stuff on plates with their fingers etc. The salad garnishes were put on a big tray and left to fester next to the ovens all day, so if you got one of the last on the tray it'd be all warm and shrivelled. They used to leave me to run kids' birthday parties - bearing in mind I was 16 and had no training or experience with kids at all. Also in pub restaurants the waiting staff rarely get tips, because you pay the till when you order, so there's no real incentive to go out of your way for anyone, and you get treated like absolute crap by customers all the time. Never again!