I don't know about you but I am always wary of recommending things, whether its books, films or attractions I always feel the burden of responsibility when the person I've recommended to doesn't enjoy it. Celebrating my 40th Birthday last week I booked a table at inexpensive Italian restaurant Pesto, just outside Sutton Town centre, for my close family to share a meal and celebrate. Regretfully I haven't had so much reputational egg on my face since I recommended my Grandad read 50 Shades of Grey and watch Human Centipede at the Belfry's Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen Winter Wonderland last December.
Now, I can get into details, times places what happened and where but you are really not that interested so lets just get to the point. The bottom line is that all we arrived at 830, all guests but one ordered two dishes plus polenta chips - dishes are served tapas style - and by 1020 4 of the 7 polenta chips still hadn't been served, with the restaurant offering to reduce the bill by... 3 portions of polenta chips. Like a bad episode of My Family you can imagine that the 2 hours between ordering and the final argument with the manager consisted of nothing but conversation about where the chips were, who should complain, whether the complaint had been made too strongly, or not strongly enough. Meanwhile various waiters and waitresses promised that "the chips were just coming" - for clarity's sake they never did. This was not the only issue, all orders for drinks and food were prompted by us as were requests for starters to be cleared away and for new cutlery.
To be clear although dishes are served tapas style there is no warning that there may be a wait between dishes either on the menu or from the staff, and whilst a few minutes is an acceptable delay during a tapas style dinner for the dishes to simply never materialise after 30 minutes of being told they are "just coming" is not a traditional Mediterranean form of dining, its plain simple being forgotten about. My Birthday meal was an unforgettable experience for all the wrong reasons, I genuinely felt as though our table had inconvenienced the restaurant, it felt as though our requests for food and drink were getting in the way of their Saturday night business. The food we were served was nice enough, although for those who stubbornly waited for their chips it was cold, however the service both before during and after the chips incident was simply amateurish. It would appear that the infrastructure simply isn't there to cater for orders that go beyond a table for two. In two hours we only had two rounds of drinks and because of the lateness of the chips there was no time for desert. My relatives, some of whom had travelled considerable distance said they thought the restaurant was "poor" and "dire" and that if invited they would "never go there again".
I went to Pesto to celebrate a milestone birthday and instead I left embarrassed, angry and hungry. Pesto is similarly named to the unfortunate magician Presto from the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, the ginger haired lad cloaked in green who always pulled the wrong thing from his hat. In place of a much needed sword Presto would offer up a French stick, instead of a helmet, a rubber duck. Despite this if I needed a bowl of Polenta Chips in a hurry, based on Saturday's performance, I think I'd take my chances with Presto over Pesto every time, at least I'd know he was trying his best. read more