You would think, wouldn't you, that phoning in the food order - burgers and chips all round - two days before, as they suggested when we booked a table for 16, would mean you'd get served quickly, especially when you're out for lunch, and have a limited amount of time (although lots of other eateries in the area can handle it with ease). Not a bit of it. We sat down at 12:35, and were served at 13:40; every 10 minutes or so we'd ask what was going on and every time we got the answer that it was '...just on the way', although at one stage the maitre de told us the greeter upstairs had just told her we had arrived late (we were in fact bang on time), so the message to the kitchen that we had arrived, been seated, given Cokes and (warm) beers, and were waiting for food, hadn't been sent through. One of our number even had to leave before we were served, we were on a tight lunchtime schedule from work, and he had to get back to his desk. And it wasn't even worth the wait; tasteless beef, chicken and veggie burgers, hard, stone cold chips and acrid coleslaw served by utterly inept staff (plus, a small, flattened, squishy mushroom, a slice of Easy Single cheese and a scrap of lettuce in a bun is not, I'm pretty sure, a Mushroom Double Swiss Burger). The abysmally shambolic process even continued with the bill, our refusal to pay service charge causing utter confusion, with some of us paying for what we'd had, some of us paying for an equal split of the bill without service charge, and some of us paying for an equal split of the bill with service charge; my £8.45 meal (worth no more than £2.99, £1.95 of that the beer), but it cost me £11.67 (and i had to chase the waiter around the restaurant to get the receipt). I am so never ever going to any branch of Grand Union again, and would urge anyone who likes to be served good quality, fresh food with cold beer fairly soon after it's been ordered, to stay away from this disgraceful restaurant. read more