Poor eating experience but refused to complain!

[Kimbers]

Is it just me or do us British refuse to complain when something is substandard?

Sunday we went out for a meal at a Restuarant and, well, to say it was pretentious crap is an understatement. You know how, when you go out, you tend to overeat? Starter, main and afters? Well I left there feeling hungry (please no comments about my stomach size). Starter Crab with salad and cranberry......what they should have said is 2 small mouthfulls of mashed crab meat made into a little circle with 0.00002p's worth of salad trimmed into the same shape (2 leaves) with one drop of cranberry Jus on the side.

Main course Sirloin Steak!!! YES! They can't screw you over on that can they!!........They thinly slice the steak LENGTHWISE and you got 2 thin slices each....prob only 2 steaks used between 10 of us. 2 potatoes each 2 mini carrots and 2 SHELLED broadbeans!!....looked pretty.

Afters was an exquisite dish of Merangue, raspberries and home made icecream covered in Moroccan Vanilla infused fresh cream.

That was a mini merangue nest with a very small ball of icecream, 4 raspberries and a thimble of cream...that tasted of.......cream.

Utter and complete Bollocks for

[Advantage]

My tummy's just rumbled.

[ajb1967]

Nah Kimbers,they do that on the continent in Europe also.

Looks great but you feel like having a kebab on the way home ;-)

Sometimes food is just there for the pleasure of eating it,not just fulfilling the pangs of hunger :-) HAHAHAHA

[Loose Cannon]

Most people are just too polite for their own good, and the thought is "we just won't come again". Daft really as the assumption is the waiter/owner will be affronted and make a scene, when they actually might value some feedback. In your instance you would probably feel you were greedy for complaining about portions.

Past experience has shown that when you do reply in the negative to "was everything alright", you just get a blank stare, as they are obviously not tooled up for responding to anything other that uncomfortable nods!

[mangel]

Personally I would never complain about size of portions. Generally you can tell if its going to be a poncey place with small portions before you go in!! Just look at the price and the ammount of times they mention Jus on the menu.

If there is a problem with quality I always complain. If you don't they won't know.

I once asked to see the chef from a hotel in plymouth and asked him if he'd run a crab over in the car park as my crab cake had that much shell in it.

Oh and yes I am British

[rogerch]

The UK is famous and revered for many things, cuisine isn

[jimmybondi]

Tony, you just have discovered the 'Nouvelle cuisine'

[Kimbers]

That went out 10 years ago mate.

You watch the likes of Gordon Ramsey and other great chefs and their restuarants make it look nice but stress good sized portions and no poncy presentation. Merely nicely presented.

What we had was pretentious crap from someone who could obviously cook, but concentrated more on art than keeping customers happy. Complete and utter bollocks.

[Tentenths]

Take Wendy and/or the family here matey.

I guarantee you won't be disappointed

[Kimbers]

Sorry mate, gotta be local or no go....best part is the excuse to drink a nice bottle of vino and I'm not paying

[nfulcher]

Kimbers ,you should go to the recruiting seargent at Coltishal I bet you would not be able to eat 3 courses in there, they fill your platr beyond belief.

And yes I will complain about anything if things are not correct whatever it is, I even had a go at your dad at Lotus once and that was 30 years ago and things were put right, I am putting my foot in it quite often as I work to exacting standards and expect every one else to be the same, so next time say what you feel.

Nick Fulcher.

[Tentenths]

Kimbers ,you should go to the recruiting seargent at Coltishal I bet you would not be able to eat 3 courses in there, they fill your platr beyond belief.

Another of the aged parents' regular haunts. As Nick says, more-than-adequate portions of v.decent pub food. Damn good value for money too.

[Stefan Ertler]

Needless to say that Germans complain

But we are queue busters anyway :lol

[punky]

Your first clue is in this picture.

I wouldn

[rogerch]

OK, this might be a bit far in a cab, but well worth the trip.

http://www.jordonsrestaurant.com.au/home.html

One of the things I miss about Sydney, Coffs Harbour has no equivalent.

Roger

[bigsi]

well i did tell the manager at the wensum about the problems thier food caused me, to which he said" do you want me to tell teh chef what you said?" i replied, tell him what you want the food was still bad

[Spiggsy]

I will never complain if the food is not what I thought it would be ... if the portions are too small, or if it's not the taste I expected.

I will complain every single time if the food is bad, uncooked, or not what the menu depicts.

I will also walk from a restuarant if they do not have ground pepper.

[John V6]

Tony,

How right you are.

Have just come back from organising dinner of five old school friends of 50 + years.

Spent quite a bit of money, paid bill and we were still talking after payment.

Wanted another cup of coffee each and got charged for the coffee.

Main good point opened up at 11.30 instead of 12.00

[rens914]

I allways complain or like i rather like to put it "give feedback"

the only way the standard can go up is when people state that something is wrong

only about 4 of the 100 who want to complain actually do

that's killing for the business

even my wife complained last night

oops

that's another subject

rens

Edited July 31, 2008 by rens914

[USAndretti42]

That's one thing I learned to do after moving to the States. If you complain about the food they will do something about it, replace with another one, get you another choice off the menu or take it off the bill even if you just didn't like it. Much better service than I was used to in the UK.

[Paul C]

well i did tell the manager at the wensum about the problems thier food caused me, to which he said" do you want me to tell teh chef what you said?" i replied, tell him what you want the food was still bad

Si,

You could take a gun and shoot a big hole through that guys head,

and even then you would have to actually tell him you had done it.

I used to be bothered about small amounts, not so now. I lost a couple of

stone last year and am losing half a stone this year, just by not pigging out.

Last night me and Vic went to our local Thai place and shared a main course

and side. Last year that would have just been 'mine', but last night we shared

and i actually left some! whereas last year i'd have hoovered it up.

As long as the food is good, and i know the kind of thing i'm buying into then

nowadays i'm actually happy to have a fairly small amount and eat it all. I don't

want the stuffed experience anymore.

TBH i think the biggest food waste in this country is large amounts. A Cod and chips

in most chip shops now will easily feed two people (it does us, with spare). Go to any

indian resturant and see piles of rice, side orders and nan breads half eaten and left.

Me and Kimbers ordered a Mixed grill each at the porridgepot, even the man himself

could not eat it all (i was offering him a fiver to eat a chop, he could not!), i think i left

half mine.

All food in the bin, animals bred, slaughtered, butchered, cooked, then piled up on plates

to be half eaten and binned. Think about it, you see it everywhere, especially in the take

away enviroment. It's only my opinion, but i think thats more of a thing to complain about

than small portions, as it's epidemic.

Food is said to be expensive after all.

[snuffy]

That's one thing I learned to do after moving to the States. If you complain about the food they will do something about it, replace with another one, get you another choice off the menu or take it off the bill even if you just didn't like it. Much better service than I was used to in the UK.

What's the difference between the UK and US dictionary ? The UK version does not have the word "service" in it.

[Kimbers]

Are you calling me a pig Paul?

Like you did, I do eat large portions....well I have my sylph like figure to keep don't I!! But that was just rediculous. EVEN I couldn't eat another bit of that mixed grill and being a total carnivore now (unfortunately my stomach can no longer take veg's) I was stunned by the huge amounts.

We've cut back here. Instead of doing one huge shop a week my wife now does a small shop every day or every other day. Alot less waste;

[Mark Blanchard]

Hi Kimbers,

As mentioned, all sounds very English. Reminds me of that Fawlty Towers sketch! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGm5XWPMB5U

[SE Owner :-D]

If i'm paying i want what i want and what is promised or offered 'and' also excellent service however the majority of British can't do that...My wife and I have both worked or work for US companies/airlines and we know what to expect, unfortunately it can't be delivered to a high enough standard by the locals.

Restaurants are a bunch of pish takers anyway - i can do a better job myself and source my ingredients more ethically, environmentally, or ecologically as well as put them together with a myriad of cocktails, aperitifs, wines and shooters whilst intercoursing with some of the finest anecdotes 'about plasitc spatulas and bivouac making' whilst administering portion control that is socially appropriate for even the smallest or largest of bellies...

The service would be extra however...

In essence what i'm saying is you get what you pay for in these days of 'I wannabe a TV Chef celebrity cook/gastro twat' and live vicariously through TV Cookery whilst chowing down on a ready meal society, and sometimes your lucky if you get that what you pay for so COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN and make a right noise especially to the management not the spotty waiter/waitress on