With a heavy heart and this time in English - for a broader audience to understand - I feel that I need to tell fellow yelpers about my recent experience at Buffet Kull.
A friend of ours had chosen Buffet Kull - yet again, following a very positive experience the previous year - as the location of his birthday dinner. There were supposed to be 8 of us, however due to it being the cold and flu season, we had two drop outs early on the day the restaurant was immediately informed of. At night, we heard that the spouse of yet another couple had taken ill - they had been waiting with a cancellation as it was not clear whether one of them could make it.
To summarize, 5 of us were going to have dinner at Buffet Kull. The birthday boy was the first one to arrive at the restaurant, informing the staff that there would now possibly be only 5 instead of 6. This was acknowledged by the removal of 1 cover, leaving table for 5.
When two more of us arrived, we ordered some sparkling wine for a first toast, as it was not clear when the other two would arrive. We had just received the glasses and drank a toast to the birthday boy, when another wait staff - clearly someone in the "supervisor category", judging by his dress and appearance, approached our table with a tray and asked, with an extremely well trained quizzical look, how many of us there were. We explained the whole story, and that we were now waiting for number 4 to join us shortly, and number 5 to arrive at a later stage. He looked at us quite coldly and informed us that because of the unfortunate situation of the table having been reduced from 8 to 5, and this resulting in a loss of business for him, we were to move to another table for 4.
Were you able to follow my count of how many people were going to occupy the table in the end? I assume you could, using the most basic equation of adding up figures: yes, 5.
We must have looked a bit forlorn, as he pointedly informed us, that we were to move to a table for 4 as we were only 4, and should we be 5 at a later stage, he would move us to a table for 5. At the same time, he swiftly took our glasses to place them on the tray that he had brought with him.
To make it simple, we "were moved" - without our consent or even waiting for our consent, or nicely asking us to do so, with the prospect of, e.g. free drinks. This was a birthday, after all.
No - surprisingly enough, his (very) basic notion was, that we would not give him enough business (obviously we were dealing with someone being able to foretell future events...), and he just had to fit 8 people back there, with us being squeezed onto something much smaller.
My friend, whose wine glass had been forcefully removed, asked, whether we had a choice. His answer was no. She prompted him again if we had a choice as - if not - she found herself wanting to leave, actually, since his demeanor was not acceptable.
Guess what: no choice. Take the smaller table or leave.
I remind you: this was a birthday.
We got up and moved towards the door. I felt I had to tell him, that Buffet Kull was a regular hangout, that we had been coming here for 10 years, and that the 5 (since we were going to be 5) of us would've spent more money than any other 8 guests would have. (I know this as we always have steep restaurant bills - and again, it was a birthday, so we were not going to eat and drink on the cheap...).
He kept on wishing us a nice evening, coming after us, asking us to understand, and again, wishing us a nice evening.
So preposterous.
We walked away, thinking that this was the last time anyone of us had set a foot in this place. I have sent many people their way. My boss. Other business relations. I won't any longer, and I will tell anyone who wants to hear how sad it is that a professional place like this has no clue of how hospitality works. Or, alternatively, that their restaurant supervisor needs a course in the four basic arithmetical operations.
Needless to say, we were 5, shortly afterwards, reconvening at another restaurant and leaving them with a steep bill. I have nothing more to add. read more
