mistake after mistake. update 31-may-12
since writing the review below, the company that owns this restaurant (the individual restaurant company) have been in touch and assured me that the experiences above are a one-off and not indicative of normal customer service. i am satisfied they have taken the appropriate action and do take customer service very seriously. they are willing to listen to and engage professionally with customers. although i am reluctant to return to this restaurant (once bitten twice shy) i am happy to go to others they manage (bank, zinc, the restaurant bar & grill)
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the service we received was totally unsatisfactory further compounded by mistake after mistake:
- the wine waiter brought the wine to our table and poured a glass for everyone, except for me. i had to ask for him to fill my glass.
- after learning we were celebrating two birthdays, the same waiter offered us complimentary tomato and a mozzeralla pizza bread. we were grateful for the kind and generous offer. two metal plate holders were placed on our table in anticipation of holding the pizza bread. these took up much of the space on our small table. our starters arrived but the pizza bread did not. we finished our starters; the pizza bread had still not arrived. while the waiter was clearing our starter plates i asked where the pizza bread so kindly offered to us was. he went to check and a few minutes later it arrived with an explanation that the chef had burnt the first portion and had to remake them. frankly, an unbelievable excuse. the pizza bread was delicious and we appreciated the gesture.
- after finishing the pizza bread, we waited for our main course to arrive. after waiting one and quarter hours (thankfully the prosecco and conversation were excellent), a waiter arrived at our table and started to clear our side plates. he asked if we wanted to see the dessert menu. we politely told him that we had not yet had our main meal. he went away to check. a front of house lady came to our table to apologise, she gave no excuse or explanation, but did kindly offer to buy us a complimentary drink. as we had just started another bottle of prosecco we declined the offer. our food arrived fairly swiftly after.
- i had ordered the nodino di vitello, simply grilled with simply grilled with rosemary & lemon butter. what arrived was the milanese in a parmesan & rosemary breadcrumbs. i did not say anything to the waiter as everyone else at our table had their correct order; at this point i would have lost my temper but did not want to spoil the evening further.
- after the main meal we ordered desserts, which thankfully, arrived without any issues.
- we then ordered two coffees. from my seat i could see our coffees were brewed and waiting on the bar near the coffee machine. we waited and waited for them to be brought to our table. after at least 15-20minutes of waiting i walked up to the lady at the front of house and asked where our coffees were. she asked our waiter, he said they were ready and he would bring them over immediately. i knew they had been sitting there for at least 15-20minutes so asked if they could make them from fresh. i returned to our table. the front of house lady came to our table to again apologise. she explained that the coffee machine had broken causing the delay to brewing our coffees. she could not explain why no-one pro-actively came to our table with a polite explanation of why it was taking so long. the front of house lady offered to refund the cost of our desserts.
- enough was enough; we cancelled the coffees and asked for the bill. i am not proud of this, but for the first time in my life i refused to pay a service charge or leave a tip.