Once I was a regular here, having reviewed Shed in 2015 awarding a four star rating and five stars in 2016. Unfortunately, I'm no longer a fan and now avoid Shed completely. They have, according to staff, stopped offering a dedicated vegetarian menu and now offer only one veg option integrated into the main menu, usually a boring risotto. More importantly I have found a particular waiter, possibly supervisor/ manager, extremely rude and obnoxious on my last three visits, spanning over the period of a year and which can be summarised as follows:
Visit 1) Asked waiter (seemed new as we had not seen him in Shed previously) if we could see the dedicated vegetarian menu. He looked at us bemused and in a patronising tone enquired if we were sure we really wanted vegetarian food. I was quite taken aback by this as obviously we would only ask for such a menu if we wanted a vegetarian meal. He then told us Shed didn't have one, to which I responded that we had eaten there numerous times previously, always ordering off the vegetarian menu, plus it was still listed on their website. He stormed away from our table and came back with vegetarian menus but proceeded to tell us that half the items were unavailable, Shed will stop offering a dedicated vegetarian menu in future and reiterated again that we might like to order "something better" from the main menu. I could hardly believe his condescending manner and the rude way he spoke to us. We ordered from the vegetarian menu, ate and left. Although food was good, the poor attitude of this man created a bad ambience and we did not enjoy our evening. In hindsight, due to his rudeness, we should just have left immediately without ordering - but I think we were quite stunned by his manner, hence didn't react as we should have.
Visit 2) Having enjoyed Shed in the past I was hopeful the above experience was a one-off blip. Thus a few months later I called in again. Unfortunately the same lousy maître d' greeted us at the door. I use the term 'greeted' loosely, because a lump of driftwood could display better customer service skills than this man. To clarify he is unwelcoming, unsmiling and unhelpful. Determined not to waste our evening again, before being seated we asked if the vegetarian menu was still available. He told us it wasn't, but that there was one vegetarian main - risotto. We declined, thanked him, and left. Not that he deserved thanks, as his attitude problem was still blatantly evident.
Visit 3) A couple of month ago, more out of mischief than anything, I thought I'd pop in whilst passing, to ask if they offer vegan options. We were sure the maître d' would provide much amusement for us via his response. Alas, he was confused and initially didn't seem to know what we were talking about. He examined the menu closely before pointing out an onion soup starter and a risotto main. I had to clarify vegan meant no butter and creams etc. He couldn't confirm the ingredients of any dishes, didn't bother to check with the chef, and just said they could "probably" be adapted - but he wasn't sure. Not convinced, we declined such adaptation, thanked him and left.
The irony being, as I type this review (05/04/2018), Shed still actually have a full dedicated vegetarian menu listed on their website! So either this man is clueless regarding the menus his restaurant offer, hasn't bothered to update the website, dislikes vegetarians, or is just an obnoxious moron with a terrible attitude. If you want a real-life demonstration of how to destroy a perfectly good restaurant through crap customer service then I highly recommend you book a table in Shed... read more