This was a horrible experience. My daughter and I had the hotel ring ahead to make sure they were open and could serve us. While it was 8:30 pm and it purported to close at 10:00 pm, UK places often close early. The hotel desk clerk, Joanne, let them know we were coming and would be there in 5 minutes. We arrived promptly and were greeted by Jack at the door with, "I don't know of we're still serving." I told him the hotel had just rang 5 minutes beforehand and whoever the clerk talked to said they, in fact were still serving. Jack came back and said, "No one called, that's not true... who did they talk to?" I said, "I don't know, however, why would one lie about that?" He said, "Well, no one called and while we do have room, I'm just letting you know, no one called." I then said, "once again, why would I lie?" He then told me while they were still serving, he'd have to ask me to leave."
At this point, I was completely confused, angry, offended... I tried to brush it off and diffuse the situation and managed to get my daughter and I seated. When the waitress came over, I had put the the hotel clerk on speaker phone to confirm that she had spoke to a person "upstairs." Long story short, there is an "upstairs" component to this restaurant and they DO answer the phone. Jack, 18, who called me a liar and nearly threw me out, never thought once about the fact that they aren't the only ones answering the phone. Rather, he abused his position (I found out night manager) and wanted to go home. IMHO there are very few 18 year olds that should be in management at a fine dining eatery. Jack needs to know this is called a service industry for a reason. This place fell below the bar... WAY below the bar. It's simple, don't call your patrons liars. Maybe they need a refresher in "the customer is always right?" In this case, they were. Oh BtW, a group of men showed up 45 minutes after we were seated and had no problem being seated. While Jack did find out from "
above" that the hotel did call, and he tried to apologize... I was enraged. What a nightmare... read more