Today my family took me to The Graphic Arts Club in Mascot. I experienced a personal first, being walking out of a restaurant without eating.
Firstly let me paint a picture. I have been here a number of times and the food is OK. I hadn't had a bad experience before but it seems that a semi-full restaurant is well outside of their capabilities. On this occasion there couldn't have been more than fifty people seated, with a number of still free tables, but somehow the place was in chaos.
To start with we weren't allowed to sit outside. For some reason the little patio area, which I have frequented in the past was off limits. The problems begin to get worse as we were seated.
No matter what we tried it was impossible to get the attention of a waitress. When after 10 minutes we were attended to we were told abruptly that someone would be by to take our drink orders. When my three year old son asked for an apple-juice he was told in the same flat tone that it wasn't her job and that he would have to wait.
I then proceeded to walk to the bar to order a round of drinks. We sat down and got into the mood. Eventually a starter arrived with a serving of pesto bread. We finished both, looking around to see what was happening with our food when we noticed two tables that arrived well after us were receiving their main course. One table even ended up sending a burger and chips back, twice. Something was definitely amiss.
After 40 minutes of waiting I called the waitress over and enquired politely about our food. Her response was to speak to me in a condescending tone: "We are busy today and I gave the orders to the chef so I cant help it if the order isn't right."
I was dumbfounded. Here I was, a paying customer, being told that I am being unreasonable for harassing her when she was doing a good job. She did not accept responsibility and did in no way apologise. A definite peeve of mine. If you are the face of the organisation, I expect you to acknowledge the issue and offer to help me. All she offered to do at this point was to check with the kitchen.
While we were still reeling in shock, and my wife was outside placating my son, the waitress returned and explained flatly, yet again, that there seems to be a mixup and pointing at my son asked: "Has the kid got his meal?" With a series of sarcastic remarks running through my head I simply looked at her and said:No!" She offered to get it and once again returned to the kitchen. She did come out a few minutes later delivering food to yet another table.
By this stage I was fuming. I vowed that if the next meal is not one of ours we would leave. Sure enough I was prompted to call the waitress over and ask her to bill us for what we had received and that we would be off. It seems I hit the right nerve. Out came the tirade of apologies."There has been a mixup and your food was sent to the wrong table, but your child's meal will be out in five minutes." Great! If I wait another five minutes I could be able to watch my child eat but we would have to take a gamble on watching someone else eating our meal. I waited for an offer of free food or desserts or a discount, anything to demonstrate that they would be prepared to somehow acknowledge the inconvenience but nothing was forthcoming. The same waitress slammed the bill in front of us, sending me the message that I should have accepted her poor service and even poorer resolution instead of making her look bad.
I keep wondering if I overreacted but it generally takes a lot to get me to leave a meal. Even a mediocre one relevant to the price is better than trying to find another place to eat. In this case though they broke every rule of customer service. Oh well, it will be a while before I eat there.
Firstly let me paint a picture. I have been here a number of times and the food is OK. I hadn't had a bad experience before but it seems that a semi-full restaurant is well outside of their capabilities. On this occasion there couldn't have been more than fifty people seated, with a number of still free tables, but somehow the place was in chaos.
To start with we weren't allowed to sit outside. For some reason the little patio area, which I have frequented in the past was off limits. The problems begin to get worse as we were seated.
No matter what we tried it was impossible to get the attention of a waitress. When after 10 minutes we were attended to we were told abruptly that someone would be by to take our drink orders. When my three year old son asked for an apple-juice he was told in the same flat tone that it wasn't her job and that he would have to wait.
I then proceeded to walk to the bar to order a round of drinks. We sat down and got into the mood. Eventually a starter arrived with a serving of pesto bread. We finished both, looking around to see what was happening with our food when we noticed two tables that arrived well after us were receiving their main course. One table even ended up sending a burger and chips back, twice. Something was definitely amiss.
After 40 minutes of waiting I called the waitress over and enquired politely about our food. Her response was to speak to me in a condescending tone: "We are busy today and I gave the orders to the chef so I cant help it if the order isn't right."
I was dumbfounded. Here I was, a paying customer, being told that I am being unreasonable for harassing her when she was doing a good job. She did not accept responsibility and did in no way apologise. A definite peeve of mine. If you are the face of the organisation, I expect you to acknowledge the issue and offer to help me. All she offered to do at this point was to check with the kitchen.
While we were still reeling in shock, and my wife was outside placating my son, the waitress returned and explained flatly, yet again, that there seems to be a mixup and pointing at my son asked: "Has the kid got his meal?" With a series of sarcastic remarks running through my head I simply looked at her and said:No!" She offered to get it and once again returned to the kitchen. She did come out a few minutes later delivering food to yet another table.
By this stage I was fuming. I vowed that if the next meal is not one of ours we would leave. Sure enough I was prompted to call the waitress over and ask her to bill us for what we had received and that we would be off. It seems I hit the right nerve. Out came the tirade of apologies."There has been a mixup and your food was sent to the wrong table, but your child's meal will be out in five minutes." Great! If I wait another five minutes I could be able to watch my child eat but we would have to take a gamble on watching someone else eating our meal. I waited for an offer of free food or desserts or a discount, anything to demonstrate that they would be prepared to somehow acknowledge the inconvenience but nothing was forthcoming. The same waitress slammed the bill in front of us, sending me the message that I should have accepted her poor service and even poorer resolution instead of making her look bad.
I keep wondering if I overreacted but it generally takes a lot to get me to leave a meal. Even a mediocre one relevant to the price is better than trying to find another place to eat. In this case though they broke every rule of customer service. Oh well, it will be a while before I eat there.
