Pride of Paddington (Hotel) — Restaurant in London

I writing a review with a 1-star rating because I experienced what I believe to be racial discrimination. I walked in today for the first time and went to the bar. I asked the bartender if I should order at the bar. She kindly told me if I am ordering food then sit at any table, the menus are on the table, and her colleague will come take my order. I took a table, took my time to look at the menu, then set it down. A woman, whom I thought at first to be the waitress was interacting with a patron who sat two table to my left, about 5 feet away. But she joked and conversed with the patron and I thought maybe that's not the waitress. A young man glanced at my table and stood in front of it, looking toward the TV. I thought he was another patron. Until, he signaled to the woman who was interacting with the patron to my left and alerted her to a couple who sat down after me at a table directly in front of me, about 10 feet away. The woman said, "Oh, sorry," and went to them with her note pad. Turns out she was the waitress. As she went over there, I tried to catch her attention - I smiled and waved. We made eye contact. She proceeded to take their order. I waited. When she finished with them, I tried to catch her attention again, but she went the other away to a party sitting at a booth and took their order. Then she walked past my table to go to the computer station which was next to the patron on my left. As she walked by, I said, "May I order too?" As she walked by, she looked at me again. She kept walking and I said it again a second time, a little louder, thinking that she probably didn't hear me, as it is a pub. The table directly in front of me heard me because the lady sitting there looked at me and gave me a sympathetic smile. While the waitress entered the two orders into the computer, I caught the attention of the young man, who turned out to be a staff who set out the place settings and condiments for customers. He took direction from the waitress. But each time he looked at me, he then looked away. I waited for the waitress to finish entering the orders, looking at her to catch her attention, but she turned around and disappeared. I waited a couple more minutes and I made eye contact again with the young man who had alerted the waitress to the other customers that sat down after me. But he look away and walked away. I concluded that I was not going to be served or acknowledged. I got up and as I walked out, I stopped at the bar to tell the bartender who initially directed me to take a seat that no one took my order. She looked surprised and asked, "No one took your order?" I said no and I've been sitting there the whole time. She looked genuinely disappointed and sorry for me and said, "I'm sorry." I walked out.

The only conclusion I have for this experience is I was the only Asian in the room and everyone else was white. The three parties that the waitress tended to around me were white. I was skipped and others were served. They noticed me sitting there. I wasn't rude to them because I didn't even get to interact with them before I was getting ignored. They were a few feet away from me, stood in front of me, walked by me, and made eye contact with me. But I was not served. And the only difference I could observe between me and the patrons the waitress and the staff helper did serve was I am Asian and the other 3 parties were white. I did not see another Asian in the pub. I was the only one.

I don't normally post negative reviews even if I have a bad experience at a restaurant. But racial discrimination and racism at an establishment has to be called out. Nobody should be treated that way, to be treated as less than others based on ethnicity. I think that is shameful.

I am hopeful that things can change...

We (3 of us) were served by Tanvir and had an experience to forget.

Fairly comfortable seating in a booth. Before we ordered I visited the mens loo. They were unclean. I used the cubicle. There was a crushed roll of loo roll atop the dispenser and a larger roll propped precariously atop the cistern.

Returning to the booth, we browsed the food menu. Spotted in small fine print at the base of it a short sentence explaining the 12.5% service charge. We understood this and proceeded to browse the menu.

At first we were unsure if we needed to approach the bar to order or wait for someone to approach the booth and take our order. There was no sign.

And then Tanvir arrived upon the scene. We quickly decided what we wanted and he took our order and whisked the instructions away. I had the Macaroni and Cheese with Breadcrumb and a large Cola, friend #1 had 9 Buffalo Chicken Wings with a BBQ sauce and a Diet Cola, and friend #2 had the Haddock and Chips with a Coke Zero. Within 5 minutes the drinks had arrived and with 5 minutes of that the food arrived (so 10 minutes from order to serve, make of that what you will). Tanvir first brought out the Buffalo Chickin Wings and the Haddock and Chips order and placed them on the table in front of my friends, then quickly returned to the kitchen to grab my Macaroni and Chees with Crumb and promptly returned with that (and placed it on the table in front of me). He then left our table and began taking an order from another table. I reached around my meal and found myself accidently bringing into contact my arm with the bowl (in place on top of a plate), burning it in the process. Tanvir failed to mention to us (or me) that the bowl my food was served in wasn't just warm, it was scolding hot.

We noticed at this point that we had no cutlery (or condiments). "No worries" we all agreed, "maybe instead of bringing these items to our table before bringing our food out, it is normal in this establishment to bring those items over afterwards". So we waited. 2 to 3 minutes passed and yet still no Tanvir. He was still taking orders for another table of roughly 4-6 people a few feet away. We looked around and from where we were sat in the booth we couldn't see an area where we could obtain cutlery. I decided to get up and go looking. I stumbled upon some situated on top of a divide which also had a PC monitor placed next to them, presumably a staff station. I returned to our table with cutlery for 3 and shared it out and quickly mentioned to my friends that indeed, maybe customers obtain there own cutlery. Only to then have my friend sat opposite me to pipe up maybe 3 minutes later and exclaim "we were meant to have cutlery and condiments brought to out table. Another server has just brought those items to the lady sat on that table (in the centre row, parallel to where we were seated)!

The meals can be summarised with the following; Macaroni and Chees with Crumb was more crumb than cheese (dry as a result), Buffalo Wings and BBQ sauce was disappointing. The sauce was missing something, it was neither sweet nor spicy, it was just "sauce". The Haddock and Chips were "lovely".

We finished up out meal and upon Tanvir returning to our table to remove the plates, we requested our bill. He returned with our bill and slapped onto the table the card reader with a value adorning the screen, at which point friend #2 requested the bill be split. He questioned it and friend #2 riterated. He huffed and grabbed the reader and quickly disappeared. He returned maybe 30 secs later and began tallying up each of our orders. Upon paying we were then also subject to a tip request on the machine (is that not what the service charge is for) to which we each declined.

We then quickly left and we won't...

This is my first google review and I have to say that this may be the worst restaurant I have been to, ever.

Positives: Extremely close to Paddington Station. The restaurant has a nice feel - bathrooms were clean.

Negatives: The staff are clearly overworked in a way that compromises customer experience. I had two different people come to my table to take my order. When I re-ordered (almost ten minutes later) the other server said, “He’s new.” I understand training, and having to get people used to the serving sphere, but it was strange that my order didn’t go through the first time.

The restaurant is busy, but not in a ‘everyone is having a good time,’ way. People were sat at dirty tables with previous customer’s pint glasses and plates. Others had to wait upwards of 15 minutes to be recognized by staff. I was sat at a table that was dirty and had to use a personal wet-wipe to clean where I was. When my food arrived, I was given my cutlery and condiment tray with empty condiments. When I placed the empty condiment bottles outside of the tray, the server put them back and placed the tray on another table.

The one server kept coming over to me asking if “I was done,” with food still on my plate. Again, I think this was done as a polite thing, but I felt rushed and uncomfortable.

The food itself is good - I think the issue is the serving part of this restaurant. I ordered a burger (well-done), but it came out medium / medium rare. I ate it, it was good! The fries were great too. The beer was warm, but it being their house Ale, I know they’re probably going through a lot of it. Again, I drank it.

Finally, I was very off put at having my bill served to me before my beer and food came to my table. I no sooner ordered (for the second time) and the bill and card machine was at my table. Strange and off putting. Also, this might be my Canadian ignorance, but there is 12.5% service charge already included in the bill. If this is how restaurants are, then mind my comment. However, 12.5% for service I did not receive is abhorrent. I saw my server when he came over to take my order (a second time), and when he brought my bill right away. The first training server brought my beer and dinner, but no follow-up about if I wanted another pint. Could not find either of them to get new condiments.

I’m sad to write this, because the food really was great (the meat not being cooked to my asked preference, is once again server error). If you’re willing to shuffle through the restaurant and know the service you will be receiving is not great, I still think you’ll be happy with the quality of the food.

I was excited to visit the spot while I’ve been in London, but this visit has been nothing less than...