We had Sunday lunch for five at the Bildeston Crown on the bank holiday weekend. On arrival at 1.00pm the restaurant was virtually empty.
To set the scene and end the suspense: The food was mostly fine. However the service, despite the significant size of the waiting brigade for the number of covers, was sadly lacking. The order was taken swiftly but there seemed to be no particular waitress assigned to our table. A bewildering number of staff brought, bread, water, alternate cutlery and the first bottle of wine. The lady that wrestled ineffectually with the bottle was no sommelier.
Starters arrived and they were fine, much as we remembered from a number of years ago when we used to visit a couple of times a year. The wine bottle was emptied with the first course so we asked for another bottle. Plates were cleared and the mains arrived very swiftly thereafter. If anything a little too swiftly. Other than to mention that the beef was presented rare there was no information supplied by the, again multiple, waiting staff about the food. Surprising, but not a fault. We reminded a waitress that we had ordered another bottle which had not appeared and were assured it was on its way.
Everyone was well into their mains and no wine had appeared. Waiting staff were passing frequently but studiously avoiding eye contact. With a bit of effort on our part we reminded another passing waitress of our order of wine.
We'd finished our mains by the time another (? a bewildering range of faces had me confused by now) waitress again assured us the wine was on its way. I suggested that it was now no longer needed. Another waitress appeared, had we not had our wine? We explained and cancelled the order once again. We were assured that the manager would be informed. Unfortunately a few more customers now arrived including a large party. This seemed to confuse the waiting staff and there was much bustling past us, again with no eye contact, but no one made any effort to clear our plates or offer a dessert menu. We passed our soiled plates to the end of the table to flag up our readiness to be cleared and receive the dessert menu.
The promised manager did not arrive. However one waitress did stop by to personally apologise and plates were eventually cleared and four dessert menus and a sandwich (?!) menu arrived. We decided to order coffees and petit fours at the same time to avoid further delay. We were careful to order a full set of petit fours for each of us. At this point another person arrived to ask if all was well. I explained that the food was fine but the service had been terrible. She apologised briefly and disappeared, strangely without asking what the problem was.
The desserts contained the first real disappointment in the food department. The Eton mess was a meagre deconstructed affair (how does one tell a deconstructed Eton mess from a deconstructed Pavlova?), a blob of cream, a fragment of merengue and a scatter of berries.
With desserts finished a single serving of petit fours arrived; we decided to share. One waitress delivered espressos from one direction whilst cappuccino and Americano arrived from another with the announcement that the coffees were complementary.
Our experience of the mains had been spoiled by thirst and a long wait over empty, greasy, plates. This is particularly strange since it is common knowledge that the largest mark-up is typically on the wine list. It is usual in restaurants with a pricey wine list to be over attentive about pouring and enquiring if more wine is required often to the point of annoyance. It is equally bewildering that an Eton mess would be so meagre, since a bit of meringue and a bit of fruit jus is hardly expensive. How can a 'mess' be deconstructed, isn't that an oxymoron? Perhaps that's the joke.
At no point did any manager introduce themselves and enquire what the problem with service had been. For excellent service I would typically tip 15% and work down from there. This is the first time in my life that I did not leave a tip. I do not think that it was the fault of any particular waitress since we sampled the service of many. It must have been a matter of organisation and training. How can three separate waitresses take an order for wine and none arrive? Where did they go with the order? Could three independently forget? There was a lot of tramping about past our table by waiting staff seemingly for nothing but the exercise. We never did find out who, if any, our designated waitress was and, if anything, the restaurant seemed to be over staffed and hardly under pre
ssure. The restaurant missed out on at least another £100 for wine and petit fours. If wine had actually arrived as ordered we'd probably have got through three bottles and been mellow enough to have given the Eton mess the benefit of the doubt. read more
