Couch Potato — Restaurant in Adelaide

We frequent the gym next door & this place used to be our usual go-to place every few weeks for after-gym drinks & a meal on the odd Tuesday night.

Our little gym group of friends slowly grew from around 8 people to 12 people & whilst we usually got a table (as Tuesday nights is one of the quietest nights of the week), we reached a point where it was getting too risky & one night we were turned away as they couldn't accommodate all of us. The next time we decided to do the smart thing & make a booking ahead of time (!) however, unless we all committed to paying for a banquet, we were told we couldn't book a table!! Like what?!

So we went elsewhere.....

That was 18 months ago. We have decided to try our luck with this place & we were hopeful that they may have changed their "rules", especially on a Tuesday night for bookings.

I called them today to see if we could make a booking but of course the answer is still "no.". The person I spoke to explained they need to charge for the banquet as their kitchen is small and they like to know, in advance, these larger food orders upon the booking & also they like to be able to get all the meals out at once apparently, (even when we have been here before we've never had all of our meals brought out at the same time... Scattered up to 40 plus minutes apart)

It just seems as though this company does not care about its customers.-everyone knows Tuesday nights are the quietest so I'm really unsure of why they don't want our business.

The person I spoke to on the phone was also quite rude when I did mention to him I would be writing this (honest) review. He said the terms and conditions of the banquet and larger bookings are on their website and if people can read English themselves they can get it from the website! No, I think this information should also come from a review. Because it's reviews that create the change in your business. And change is what you need!!

He also continually cut me off and wouldn't let me speak. Absolutely not ok when it's a customer calling. He said, "I've given you the rules now you need to accept them. This is our home & our rules. I wouldn't walk into your home & leave my shoes on if your rules to remove the shoes." Absolutely childish communication.

We certainly will never attempt to return here and will be advising others the same. If I were you I would also avoid it.

Edited to add: clearly you can see the unprofessionalism of this company by the defensive nature of the 'manager' who has responded to my review.

Completely misconstruing my phone call and certainly patronizing both over the phone and also, as is evident in his reply. He calls my review inaccurate and then tries to make up a story to frame themselves to look good...

*"staff were listening to the person on the phone and couldn’t believe how composed the person was after taking a beating for 10’mins straight"...

I'm not sure how I could give a 'beating' (!) to someone for 10 minutes straight when the call only went for just over 7 minutes.... Pic attached... Whose inaccurate?

Please stay away from this unprofessional business who think they are better than the customer and completely dismiss the customer concerns and complaints.

FYI- saying something like the following in your reply would have been seen as being a professional and reasonable response (as you can see by what I would have said - you can probably guess that I work in customer relations)-

"We are incredibly sorry that you feel this way and whilst we did explain the reasons for us not be able able to service your group to you over the phone, we understand the frustration and upset this must cause you and your group. We take pride in being able to offer the service that we do here at Couch Potato but we understand we cannot please everybody. I hope you understand we have taken your comments seriously but we know we are unable to change anything for your now. However, if we ever do change our rules in the future then we would be more than happy to welcome you and your group back...

Pictures look better than the taste. Kitchen got temperatures wrong so some food hot, some cold. Crammed in like sardines. Poor arrogant attitude of owner.

Hard pass.

EDIT/UPDATED REVIEW IN RESPONCE TO OWNER:

"you were very thankful of being allowed to dine considering you didn’t have a booking on a fully booked evening."

Justin: You think if I acted any other way you'd allowed us in, no. That's how you deal with people. And I could see you couldn't handle the stress of being fully booked. While we were talking, 4 people who didn't have or attempt to make a booking went in front of our, my friend pointed this out which you took offence to and then you got the ar*e.

"You pretended our website didn’t exist knowing full well it advised no seating available and chose to send a Facebook appointment request 2 hours before open. You’re not the first and wont be the last trying that one."

Justin: You have a "Book Now" feature active on your Facebook page, which you denied all knowledge off until I showed you. You would have had to add that widget. Now you're saying others have tried it, so you are confirming you lied. And I sent it at 2:49, I have the image, which is closer to 3hrs before you open but that doesn't suit your narrative to round it up. I also tried calling at 2:45 but there was no answer (as closed which is fine) or ability to leave a voicemail. I then called 6 times between 5:02 5:45 to check, but again no answer. This was just before you open, so no customers but no doubt there doing prep, and just as you opened, in case you only answer within business hours.

"Your friend and yourself were very rude when arriving without a booking."

Justin: another lie from you. I was totally respectful but you had clearly buckled under the pressure of a business service. You even said you'd had staff issues. Maybe check what events are on around & have back-up plans for staffing issues.

Justin: I tried to call to confirm the FB booking went through as I got the green tick after the 'book now' but it just said "request sent to Couch Potato" so i was unsure if it was confirmed/booked. That's not uncommon if something isn't clear.

Justin: so you're happy to serve sub-par food and even admit when busy you 'polish off' dishes. Not great practice. You knew I'd leave a honest review as your processes had holes &/or are broken, and you were looking for someone to blame (lack of staff, too many customers) but in reality - you need to look at yourself. You attitiude is not cut out for front of house service.

Justin: we wasn't there to cause a drama, just eat. We also didn't have time to complain, and your attitude prior (& here now) confirms you wouldn't have taken too kindly to complaints. You couldn't handle calm facts, so imagine how you would have reacted with food complaints. And if you're doubting the temperature issue - just look at other 1* reviews here, someone even says they had the same dish (American platter) and had the same issue - so it's not a 'me' thing. It's a common theme.

Justin: do better? I tried to use 2 of the 3 methods to book without luck (phone & FB). You even put a FB post out last night apologising and that you can do better, so I think what I'm saying is correct - you do better. And asking me to respect capacity, you'd literally let the 4 people behind us walk past & seated them. Think about that. And in terms of other establishments, I respect them all, & they did it far better. You just don't like when the errors are down to you not being that good.

Justin: I was thankful & said thank you, as that's the person I am. But as above, you'd just let 4 people without a booking sit down. Cheers..... 'mate'.

You're lucky I didn't mention the...

My partner and I booked a table for 8pm, we ordered our food at precisely 8:14pm and after 45 minutes I, as the customer, had to go up to the staff to ask for an update on my partner and I's food. We had ordered fries in our order which would be considered a "starter food" for most places but we didn't even receive that so my partner and I had nothing to at least satisfy us while we waited for our food. Not sure what the long wait was for since it did not look as busy as the night we had previously dined on Sept 29 where it was much busier than tonight. When I went up to the bar to ask staff (I specifically spoke to a female staff member) I said "Hi, it's been 45 minutes since I ordered and I was just wondering if there's any updates on our food?" to which I heard another male staff in the background say "Ooooh" in a manner indicating the staff messed up in bringing food out to customers efficiently. Later on, when I got back to my table after speaking to the female staff, my partner told me that another female staff member who was standing next to said male staff made a face to him as soon as I turned around to walk away from the bar back to my table. My partner told me that this was a "wide eyes" sort of face, either expressing that I as a customer was being overly dramatic for politely asking about my food, or expressing that once again staff messed up in bringing food out to customers efficiently. I can acknowledge that making food takes a while but when there is a lack of customer service in making sure your customers are satisfied with at least some starter food while they wait for their mains, it becomes a frustrating issue for customers. I also do not appreciate the remarks/facial expressions that the staff members made - again displaying lack of appropriate customer service. My partner and I finally received our food right AFTER asking about our orders, meaning the food was probably already sitting waiting to be taken out for a bit. When the female staff member that I spoke to directly handed us our food, I told her "thank you" yet my partner and I received no apologies at all for the wait. The tacos we ordered were cold, again indicating that they were just sitting there in the kitchen waiting, and our burgers were dry to the point they hurt our mouths, particularly the sharp overcooked bacon on the burgers. We didn't even bother going up to complain because at that point the kitchen had closed (9pm). We were then told 15 minutes later that the doors would close at 9:30pm - all in all, only giving us 30 minutes to eat our food. Honestly, how do you really expect customers to eat in such little time as if it is their fault that the food came out much longer than anticipated? Long story short, there was a lack of customer service and apologies for longer wait times, staff were making fun of customers for asking about order updates, and food served was no longer...