One Society — Restaurant in Dublin

Tried the brunch there. We had to wait in the queue to get seated, which is fine if the place was full. But there were 3 empty tables outside (and maybe more inside) and no one was getting seated. Finally we got a table, you could see the staff expressing they're overwhelmed, but also the service was not exactly efficient. Instead of getting menus altogether for the 3 tables that just got seated, the guy was going inside every time to bring a couple more menus. Same for taking the orders which could have been done for all 3, he would go inside then come back 5 min later for taking the next order. Then a long time to get the coffee (served in paper cups) and another 40 min wait to get the food (eggs don't need that long to cook!). No water was served. Taste was ok but not worth all that wait. Finally we went to the till to pay and realized they already mark 10% by default for tips?? I'm happy to tip even more when service is good, but for an almost inexistent service, and they mark it by default on the card machine is not ok. Usually the default is 0 and the client marks the amount. But i guess they assume after all the wait, the client just wants to leave and will click pay without noticing. Anyway, disappointed overall of the experience and...

Have come here before for brunch and it was lovely. However I would not order lunch for takeaway as they will rip you off. I ordered the Gooey Cheese and Nduja Toastie which according to the menu is “An epic toastie, sourdough bread spread generously with Nduja, caramelised onions, gouda, chilli red cheddar & extra mature cheddar toasted to gooey perfection”. I started eating my sandwich and all I could taste was a bit of cheddar cheese. I opened the sandwich to find 2 dots of Nduja and some cheese - see picture. No caramelised onions. So basically I paid €11 for a small cheese toastie which was so tasteless. It tasted like something I could have easily made at home. This is not the first time this has happened to me when ordering lunch here but I put the first time down to “maybe they were just busy today and rushing”. But this is a joke. I don’t know if they think they can get away with this because the customer is walking away with their food and they don’t have to hear them complain but I find it so cheeky and offensive that you waste people’s money and serve up something like this. If you are looking for somewhere for lunch around the area 147 Deli is a much tastier, value for money...

So as a traveller, I’ve been referred to his restaurant by Gardiner Hostel. Although the manager here is well mannered and the food is “okay”, the staff needs more training, especially on how to communicate in English.

The moment I walked in, they explained to me that I had a total of 75 mins to spend in the restaurant and it may take up to 30 mins for food to arrive. It took them 4 attempts to successfully convey that, I kept thinking either it was 30 mins or 75 mins wait time to get a table.

I was seated at a corner table with very limited space, I think the customer sitting next to me could practically hear my breath.

At this point, the server came coming back to ask if I needed the bill while I’m munching on the sandwich. To which I had to loudly utter out “ can I please finish my sandwich”?

So, I understand Europe is not service or tip based industry, but the server SHOULD have some etiquette and decency with dealing with customers; at the very least, be able to effectively communicate in English, because Ireland for...