Excellent food ruined by atrocious customer service

Molo Lounge has a sophisticated yet chilled out atmosphere with quality food. Unfortunately a recent family visit for Sunday brunch was marred by an incident with the manager that was not just poor customer service but was downright bizarre.

My daughter and I ordered the same main with the same side. When the food came out, it was missing one of the main parts of the dish. I told our server and she informed us that the kitchen was out of the necessary ingredients. These things happen, but we should have been informed when we placed our order - had I known this wasn’t available I would have gotten a different dish. The server was apologetic and offered to get us each a side on the house, but because we had already ordered sides I asked to be refunded the cost of those sides. She agreed.

A few minutes later, we experienced some of the most hostile customer service of our lives. The manager strides up and informs us that she will not refund both sides because it is not her fault that the ingredients were not in stock. I asked her if she was aware of the situation: that we ordered two dishes but were not served what we ordered because the kitchen was out of it, and that we were not made aware of this until the food showed up at the table. I further explained that we had been offered free sides, and that the sides we had previously ordered should count as those sides. But she was not in the mood for discussion, and dismissively said she would only refund one side. I even checked with her whether she was willing to get a poor review simply to avoid paying £1.50 that had already been agreed to be paid by another member of staff (not to mention we paid full price for a dish which was only partially served to us).

Tldr we were not informed that a main component of a dish was unavailable when we ordered it and were subsequently served only a partial meal, and then the manager took back compensation that had been offered by our server. The worst part was the manager’s hostile attitude.