Would we have been treated better if we weren’t POC?

Special occasion ruined by truly awful waitstaff.

Last night in Europe + reunion with old friend. The ambiance was beautiful and hats off to the kitchen for the gorgeous food!

Our waitress however was nothing short of a nightmare who completely ruined our experience with her awful attitude.

However, we tried to be understanding and know everyone has bad days…but once the negative behaviour is called out we do expect a change in said behaviour. I can assure you, that did not happen.

Our order: 6 oysters, pate, 2 glasses of orange wine, lamb to share and a bottle of Italian red (all outstanding)!

After our starters my friend had to step away from the table…to which the staff without asking brought our main dish. Because we had JUST finished our starters and my friend was not even at the table when they brought the main, I asked the food runner to take the dish back until we were ready…or at least till my friend returned to the table. Our waitress refused and just brought the food back and placed it on the table…again my friend was still away from the table. Ok, fine.

Because the portions were generous, we unfortunately couldn’t finish all the food and asked to take the remaining food home. Which is blasphemy, apparently.

The waitress simply refused to even try to help us find some way to pack up the food which was half a leg of lamb, rice and pate. There was a significant amount of food left and we didn’t want to see it go to waste.

When there is a will, there is a way and finally the waitress decided to help. Her solution was to bring us an entire roll of industrial size tinfoil and drop it on the table next to us and walk away. Photo attached.

After the tinfoil being left on the table we asked to speak to the manager who was slightly more helpful. She did find us a take away container that was dripping wet and comically massive. Again, photo attached.

At the end the waitress half heartedly apologized for “the misunderstanding”. Although we would have loved to stay for dessert and some port the service indicated we should not spend any more money in this establishment. The manager didn’t even offer us any compensation. Finally, when we went to split the bill of roughly 130€ the waitress couldn’t even be bothered to calculate how much was owed between the two of us. We had to bring out or phones to calculate it ourselves.

If you’re booking here for a special occasion I would highly recommend finding somewhere else. Being treated with dignity and respect is truly the bare minimum and that was not met at this establishment.

When we left we couldn’t help but feel because we were women and people of colour that the staff felt confident enough to treat us as sub par. It was not just rude but actually very uncomfortable and embarrassing for us.

I’m not just angry but I’m actually sad that the last day of such a beautiful trip and a 3 year reunion with my dear friend was met with what truly felt like racism and discrimination.