I guess this post belongs in the "letting off steam" category, but just the same....
We went for a casual meal at one of the newer restaurants in our local shopping strip. It was a wintry week night, and there weren't many people about. In fact, when we got to the restaurant, there was only one other table occupied, with two people on it. But where were we seated? On the table immediately adjacent to them, almost shoulder to shoulder! This is a restaurant with perhaps a dozen other tables (I'm guessing), none of which were occupied, but apparently it was felt that the groups of two had to be placed at the tables most suitable for that number (all of the others seemingly seated 4 or more people).
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Lots of restaurants around! |
Perhaps we ought to have said something, but we made the best of the situation. It was the attitude that "got" to me. Why cram people up so that the small groups sit on the smaller tables just to "save" the larger tables for larger groups "in case they arrive" - which needless to say, they didn't.
The food was nice, but running a middle-of-the-range restaurant in our part of the world is a highly competitive business.
Another issue is that we weren't allowed to BYO wine, on the basis that they had a "full bar". Errr.....yes, the bar structure was indeed nice, but there was no wine list, just a couple of choices in each category. Well, that's the restaurant's decision, but in this part of the world, BYO is nearly universal.
I won't mention names but in a strip where restaurants regularly open and close and even some of the more established places seem to have fewer customers, I'm not sure that the people running this one fully appreciate that little things matter when it comes to customer service.