Terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE experience - AVOID.

Two of us visited today (Sunday afternoon/evening). Initially, we ordered a cup of tea and sparkling water at the bar, having an hour to spare before an appointment. They said they only had soda water and told us they would bring the tea to the table. All of the empty tables were dirty, so we chose the one with the least amount of food on it, but couldn’t rest our hands on its surface given the amount of spilled liquid present. Thirty-five minutes passed before the tea came (the soda water tasted awful) - and we had to remind the waitress because she’d forgotten. When she eventually came, she arrived without apology, and spilled a significant amount of the tea onto the table. I looked at her, not thrilled at only narrowly avoiding a boiling water burn, and she laughed, said, ‘oops’, and left, again without apology or without offering to wipe the table, leaving us to stare at the unhygienic, hot, liquid mess.

Nonetheless, we thought that perhaps they were too busy, as it was Sunday, and wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. We liked the beautiful interior and the place was near somewhere we were visiting, so thought we’d try again for dinner service - BIG MISTAKE.

We returned just before 7 p. m. and were promptly seated by a friendly member of staff - possibly the manager. In our half of the restaurant, maybe three or four tables including ours were taken, and we spotted at least three waitresses working there, so there were clearly enough staff for the amount of people present. However, it still took at least twenty minutes before someone came to our table - the same waitress as we’d seen earlier in the day - and we had to get her attention (again) beforehand.

We started by ordering one orange juice and asked if they offered a Virgin Mary (a spicy tomato juice with no alcohol - a basic, standard mocktail). The waitress said, ‘no, we don’t really do cocktails’. Someone clearly wasn’t paying attention because, first, that’s not a cocktail and, second, lists of cocktails were advertised everywhere - a menu at the table, at the bar and some even listed on a board…! I explained that a V. M. was essentially a tomato juice and asked if she could check if they sold that. She said, ‘yeah’ and immediately left without asking about the rest of our order, taking drinks orders from other tables as she exited.

Some time later, she returned with drinks for other tables, ignoring us, and then went to the computer to check more diners in. We waved to her, jokingly but pointedly saying, ‘we thought you’d forgotten about us’, as she slouched over. Yet again, she offered no apology, just saying, ‘yeah, they don’t do it’. I said I’d have water instead, to which she replied, ‘right…’, and we earnestly told her we were ready to order food as well, given that she obviously wasn’t going to ask. Predictably at this point, she vacuously said, ‘yeah, right’, followed by, ‘oh…my battery just died’ (referring to the electronic machine she used to take orders). She started fiddling with the device and at that point we got up, saying that we’d leave. She looked shocked and the member of staff who’d checked us in noticed, stopping what she was doing but not getting herself involved while we were there. We left with no offer of apology or explanation from anyone.

I used to work as a waitress and never spoke so impolitely to customers, and certainly didn’t leave a table mid-order…!!! It’s not clear how much of this woman’s don’t-care attitude came from her and how much of it was poor training…given that there have been several other negative reviews left on this platform over the past couple of weeks and they’ve all received the same, ‘we’re sorry, this is not our usual standard, etc.’, response, I’m not holding my breath for an explanation here, but hopefully this review will prevent at least one person from wasting their time and money at this place.