Several years ago for a Christmas treat I had booked a table for four, myself, , wife, son, and daughter,
we arrive 10 minutes before time, and we waited for a few minutes as the table was being re-laid, the restaurant is very busy at that time of year, and during the year is very popular,
so well we waited over twenty five minutes, before the soup arrived and not long after that the dinner arrived, minus the stuffing, having asked the waiter where's the stuffing, we were told the stuffing is extra,
having explained that we had booked for the full three course meal including all the trimmings. the waiter apologised but we still didn't get the stuffing, the meal was to our minds warmed up and not nice and hot straight out of the oven as one would have expected,
we didn't wait for the Christmas pudding, as that too looked as if it had seen better days especially when people on the next table to ours were heard commenting about the food, the service, all thougherly disappointing, including the Christmas pudding, ??
we weren't alone as other customers by then were doing like wise as we noticed some leaving before they too had had the whole three course meal,
we had asked the waiter for the manager, as we had noticed there were only two waiters , attending over twenty tables all with at least four persons to a table, the reply was the manager was busy and might be some time before we would be able to speak to her,
And so we left fuming and very angry as we noticed other customers too were not far of the mark ready to explode, evidently they too had much the same problem as we had,
after Christmas I sent several e-mails to the head office which un-known to me then were passed back to the same restaurant we had gone to have our Christmas dinner with, so she received all my e-mails of complaint, ?
the manageress apologised, and offered us a voucher for a free meal after the Christmas period ,as she had few too staff too few waiters at that time as others didn't want to work on Christmas day, either??
I replied that I would tell all our friends and neighbours not ever to go to that restaurant especially for the Christmas meal, unless they wanted a Hugh disappointment, not only on the food but with the service in general,
she asked me which waiter had told me the stuffing was and extra charge and I told her as there was only two waiters attending the whole restaurant, one was a woman, the other was the man, who had told us , she asked what was his name I replied how would I know ??
she said there was no charge for the stuffing to which I replied how many other customers had been told the same story as I had ,
??
evidently a neighbour who lives in our cul de sac also went to the same restaurant an hour after we had been there, and they too had a similar experience regarding warmed up food, they wont be going there again definitely not at Christmas time,
I didn't go to that restaurant for almost eighteen months, and only went in the middle of the week in the summer time when at least the food was piping hot and the service was excellent ,
so never again will I book anywhere for a Christmas dinner, no matter what the cost, as the experience learnt, was some thing we will never have again,..... our neighbours too stay at home for Christmas, as well,
Q; have you a story to tell about Christmas ,.