Thai Marina — Restaurant in Eastbourne

I am a regular customer of the Thai Marina (we visit every Saturday for a girls catch up) and usually we have the best experience. There is a brilliant waiter that always makes the experience and the food is top notch. Not sure what happened today however but there seems to be a few new members of staff that clearly have no idea what customer service is. We had a brilliant server who was friendly and attentive, after paying our bill and leaving a hefty tip we left the restaurant. To be screamed at in front of everyone sat out the front ‘excuse meeeeeee!!!!’ At first we assumed we had left personal belongings on the table. Until the server followed the screaming up with ‘YOU HAVEN'T PAID YOUR BILL’. Not only was this incredibly disrespectful and embarrassing but completely out of line. We said yes we have paid our bill and they went back into the restaurant however on deliberation we decided to go back in as well with our receipt in tow. After telling the waitress we had in fact paid and left a good tip, we showed the receipt and she tried to brush us off. You do not get to treat genuine and returning customers in such a way. To be screamed at on a busy Saturday outside of the restaurant was absolutely disgusting and we will never return again. A massive shame as like previously mentioned, we are continuously visiting the restaurant however looking on recent reviews it seems we won’t be the only loyal customers that have lost faith in...

The staff were friendly, however, the woman who greeted us at the door and went to check our table was ready was open coughing into her hand the whole night. I watched to see if she would clean her hands or use hand sanitiser, but she went straight onto another task. It made me feel really grossed out, especially when she bought over our drinks and was touching the glasses and everything. We had to ask another server to bring clean cups. Unfortunately, there's no comfortable way to bring it up to the server at the time and I didn't want to be mean, but it completely ruined the night and I barely ate anything because it made me feel grossed out. She continued coughing right onto her palm the whole night whilst walking around and serving tables. I don't know why her colleagues didn't say anything to her (especially when we told one of them why we wanted different glasses), but I'm even more surprised why someone would think it's okay to cough directly into their hand? And then not immediately wash them? It just felt like there was a little lack of hygiene and I was uncomfortable eating there. I've worked in restaurants for 6+ years and I'm always conscious whenever I sneeze or cough (always into my elbow) and I still make sure I wash my hands straight away. I think maybe just a bit more self-awareness and self-observation is needed regarding it, and perhaps better encouragement to sanitise hands frequently...

The food was delicious and the table service was good and polite. There was 4 of us having an evening meal and wanted separate bills as we were there with work and needed it to claim back. The waitress was polite and said yes to accommodate our request before ordering. Food wasn't long and very tasty. The problem came when it came to pay, management became angry and aggressive when it came to splitting the bill. I asked for a menu to show what I had only to be snapped at "just tell me!" Well, I couldn't remember the names of the starter and main! Anyway, I described the meal and paid, whilst my colleagues experienced the same and during this time, one male was angry and aggressive towards the waitress and every so often the woman serving us at the till joined in. It's a shame because this experience tainted the whole overall experience and let down the great meal we had. It was a simple request we had asked and many places had no issue with it, so I can't understand why this was difficult in this case! It was not very busy there on that evening and certainly no one behind us waiting to pay. My female colleague was that upset and disturbed by the interaction and seeing them having a go at the young waitress, that she had to leave the building before us. The rating is high for the food, waitress service was great but the customer service at the end is...