I booked a space for a party with approx 45 guests with 26 sitting down for meals. The food had to be ordered in advance via email to the manager. I did this two weeks before the event, giving a very accurate overview of the expected numbers and the orders. I asked for nibbles on tables to welcome guests, meal orders from starters through to deserts and five platters at a rather expensive £20 each, for guests who couldn't commit to meals. There was no mention on my part as to when I required the food on the night, as I wouldn't have known when all my guests would be present.
All this was to be run on a tab so guests could enjoy food and drink on me.
What actually happened was.....
Guests who arrived before me were told they had to pay for drinks until I arrived. It was a SURPRISE party. I wasn't going to turn up with the birthday boy BEFORE all my guests!
No nibbles on tables
The kitchen had not been informed of the platter orders, these were thrown together on the night.
Someone got the impression I'd asked for food to be served at 5.20????! Ten minutes BEFORE even I arrived. I thought I would give the kitchen the go ahead to start serving food when I requested it ON THE NIGHT. Hence, my theory is, the kitchen had cooked a lot of the food, but had then had to hold it back until we were ready. This resulted in some of the greasiest food I've ever had the displeasure in eating. Some of it, so bad, we thought it must have been deep fried to re-heat it.
Three orders for Chorizo burgers had been mis-read, as I'd requested ONE with no cheese. Hence only one meal was brought out on the night. When this was pointed out it must have taken them half an hour to get out two more meals. Almost ALL my other guests had finished eating by the time the meals came!
Only two people ordered starters and you would assume the mains would follow rapidly. This didn't happen, I had to chase them up for the mains. Meanwhile my guests were all trapped in a space that was quite frankly, too small for the party. People coudn't mingle as we spent most of our time waiting to be served.
One of my group has three children who didn't really want all the fancy sauces with their burgers, so she asked them to deviate sightly from the menu, this was apparently not possible. She didn't request anything they weren't serving, but there you go.
....and finally, I asked for a discount as I wasn't too happy with how the evening had gone. I was running around trying to gee up the staff. I asked a guest to help make sure they got the platters out. It was stressful to say the least and was not the relaxing evening I'd hoped for, where the 'professionas' would take the strain! For a night that came in around £1000, I got one bottle of Prosecco in compensation. I shared it with the guests I felt had been most agrieved. It didn't go far.
To sum up. Will go back for a drink, but definitely do NOT recommend this place to cater for large parties. The communication just doesn't exist to support it. Takes a lot for me to give bad reviews!! read more