A comedy of errors

We ventured to Chester today for a family meal. The location was nice but what an absolute shambles from start to finish.
Sometimes, you’ve got to laugh and make the best of a bad situation but it got to the point where it really wasn’t funny.

Four of us arrived (out of our group of 10), to find our seats for the meal were on the bar tables, despite the restaurant being empty apart from a couple who were seated on one of the tables where we were meant to be sitting!

We said I couldn’t sit there as it would have been too uncomfortable to hoist myself up onto a bar stool for the duration of a meal. The waiter (aged 12 at the most), said ‘well you didn’t tell us that when you booked’. Goodness knows what they would have said had I gone in my wheelchair (which I kinda wished I had). Both Mr A and Laura had a bit of a go at him (I’d nipped to the loo), so the manager ended up getting involved.
I flashed my leg to prove we weren’t just being awkward.
We were offered 2 back to back booths, but we wouldn’t have been able to see the rest of the family, so we finally got moved to a proper table for four, with another table of 6 nearby for the rest of the gang.

We’d just sat down when the waiter came to take our food order; we said we were still waiting for 6 other people!

Our orders went completely to pot.
Something as simple as Laura’s lime and soda came as a pint of lime cordial and a pint of soda.
She asked for beans with her fish and chips which Mr A teased her about and even joked with the manager (who came to deal with us) about her food choices and said fish and chips has to have mushy peas, not beans. When the food came out, both plates had beans.

Mama A ordered 3 tapas style dishes as a main course, but they brought them out as starters, even though not everyone was having a starter.

I ordered a starter as a main but asked for dressing on the side. It did actually come out of the kitchen at the right time, but was covered in dressing. This was soy based, so as salty as anything (hence me asking for it to come separately).

We didn’t dare risk dessert and I wasn’t too convinced about coffee either, especially as we drink decaf. Mr A ordered a decaf and was served one, which she said was decaf. Then the manager brought another decaf out of the kitchen. Turns out, Mr A had been given his brothers coffee which was fully caffeinated and he’d already drunk half of it.

Mama A always stresses at us for complaining in restaurants, but if something isn’t right, then it needs sorting.

The only plus side for us was that they (true to form) messed up the final bill (in our favour), so we paid and left.

In fairness, there was a sign up saying there was new management; hopefully things will get better once they’ve settled in, but safe to say we won’t be going back. :-0

DQ x