Well as the saying goes: “You get what you pay for”, but sometimes, that’s simply not the case. I’ve got two stories that highlight this point, a British one and an American one.
I’ve always been a critic of the restaurant service here in the UK and in general, I think it’s really poor compared to other countries. Moe, I don’t need to remind you of the steaks we had in Telford.
Anyways, recently I went out with a colleague from work and she suggested we go to Browns just off new bond street, which was perfect as it’s less than 2 minutes walk from work. We go in and ask for a table for two. We went a bit early, 12.15 so it was empty at the time with only a few people. We were directed to the dining area and it was empty with only 2 people sitting at one table. Out of all the tables available, he pointed us to the one right next to those 2 people (around 30 cm apart). I just cracked up and moved to another table. You must be kidding me…. Reminds me of one time when I went to a restaurant and it was absolutely empty and they asked if we had a reservation.
We sat down, ordered drinks and started studying the menu. I ordered a starter and the main course but my colleague wasn’t sure so we told the girl to come back. We called her again but yet again my friend wasn’t sure so we told her, bare with us for a minute. She went and then I waved at her and she totally ignored us. After a few minutes she showed up. She was pretending to be nice but we weren’t falling for it. Anyways, food was ordered and the starter showed up.
While we were eating the starter, the place started getting packed until it was full. We finished the starter, had a chat and kept waiting for the main course. I started to notice that the people who showed up 30 minutes after us had already received their dishes, so I called the waiter. Politely, I told him what’s taking so long, we were here before everyone but we still haven’t received our main dishes. Sarcastically, he (same guy who was responsible for seating us) said that all those people are eating their starters and that ours take a while to prepare, so we have to wait more. I laughed and told him, “Since when is Fish and Chips a starter??? Please go check the food”. I kid you not, less than 15 seconds later, the food was on the table.
Once we were done, the guy comes over and takes the dishes and asks if we fancy coffee and deserts. I told him, “No thanks, I fancy the bill more, so please get it”. We were going to pay by 2 cards so he brought the machine and it was my turn first. Half went on my card and that was fine. I verified my pin code and got the receipt. Now it was my colleagues turn. The guy set it up and left. It has an option to add a gratuity, which we obviously put 0. I wish they had a comments section, would’ve been happy to write something nice. Anyways, we got to the payment and we notice that the guy did not put half the price but rather the full amount so we cancelled the transaction. When he came back, without even asking, the first thing he said was, “YOU CANCELLED THE TRANSACTION”. We’re both like, “Ya, we don’t want to pay you 150%, check before you talk”. We took our receipt and just walked away.
One thing for sure, I’m not going back to that place again. It was an experience though, one that makes me laugh.
Over to the American story. This one is rather funny and just demonstrates the opposite. Around 3 months ago, we were just outside Philadelphia in the King of Prussia mall. We went to this restaurant for dinner. Initially we were 6 people. We ordered drinks and sat down to talk. Later on, other colleagues from work show up (by coincidence) and I told the waitress, let’s set up a big table so that we can all sit together. We ended up being 22 people.
Anyways, the lady offered to take our drinks over to the other table and I told her jokingly to not worry about my drink as I don’t want to torture her by letting her carry it. Anyways I got up and was talking with my friends and suddenly I just turned not knowing the waitress was right behind me. Well, to my embarrassment, I elbowed the tray with the drinks and showered her top to bottom in front of the manager. Besides being lost temporarily for words, I apologized and said that I’ll pay for them. Both the manager and the waitress were like, “Don’t dare you say that. There’s no way you’re paying for this. We’ll get you new ones right away”. Mind you, these drinks were worth around $40. Anyways, we were all laughing because I actually did end up torturing her, not technically hehe. Now this is why you end up tipping them in the first place.
I can go on for a long time about all the restaurant stories, but it just shows you that in a lot of cases, you’ll either get way less than what you bargained for, or way more.
If you do have any funny restaurant stories, do share them :).
