Served meat in a vegetarian meal at the Brewers fayre !

Cat72

Hi
A new brewers fayre has opened beside me and we decided to make use of the nectar points offer and get a meal. I am a vegetarian, have been for 26 years but my partner is not. I orderd the vegetarian recommend nut roast and we waited for our meal.
When it arrived the waitress popped it down to us both and walked away. I took one look at my plate and nearly screamed. right in the centre of it ,snuggled between my nut roast was three small sausages- yip meat ones. We looked around and eventualy shouted the nearest waiter over and he took one look at it and nearily collapesed. He said " not want you really want in a vegetarian dish is it ? ". I agreed it wasnt and asked to speak to the manager. A few minutes later he returned. Meantime my partners dinner is starting toget cold.
When he returned, on his own and without any sniff of a manger he offerded his aplogys and said the manager said to order something else. We pointed out this was not great as we had already waited 40 minutes on this meal and my partners meal was sitting in front of him. We had planned to dine together, not taking turns. The young waiter was very nice but as the manger was refusing to come over we both felt it was unfair to take the matter, or our upset out on him. Needless to say when my meal arrived my partner had well and truely digested his meal . I felt unable to really eat my replacement .
In all my years of being a vegetarian I have NEVER ordered a vegetarian meal and had meat in it- and cant belive that this could happen in such a large chain. Unfortunately for me If I eat food that either is meat or been near meat I become very ill as I have an intolerance to meat.I laso could have been foolish enough to mistake it as a meat substitute. What also disgusts me is the managers treatment of us- we paid £30 fpr a useless meal that left us both feeling disgusted and sickened.
I hope no one else has the same experience and I have wrote a letter to head office to complain.Not that it will probably get anwhere but I would hate for others to have the same experience- maybe some of you have. Its my first complaint letter to a restaurant so not sure exactily what I should say but here is hoping.

beara

You should write to whitbread customer service (they own the chain) giving the account above. you made an effort to resolve the situation there and then and they failed to deal appropriately. You would have been within your rights to leave at the point that your evening is ruined without paying as they have failed to supply the required service. I would be asking them to fully refund and compensate for a ruined night.

In my experience, their customer service is very good and you will get a positive result. I've had instances where they didn't offer a child's menu, but when I went to pay for the 4 adult meals they were hidden there. The manager didn't want to know, so I wrote to customer service and got £50 in vouchers.

Good luck

KEATERGREYHOUND_2

Why wouldnt they serve one of your boys?

RoCas

Disgusting service - I'd send them one of these:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=230540

(Acknowlegements to original OP, hb1444)

Casual

ts_aly2000 wrote:

The best place we've found EVER, is a place called "Jack's Cafe," in Ipswich near the Hadleigh Road Sainsburys. It's been there for about 40-years, they have copies of the Sun, old blokes smoke in it, they do big greasy fry ups and juicy Sunday roasts. It's like stepping back 50-years in time. But the point is, they're friendly, they do what you ask, everyone is just there to have a nice time. And if you don't like someone smoking on the next table, you don't complain, you just know not to go there. But this place is amazing if ever you're out that way. They'd do you a nut roast and get it right!

Ah, Jack's Cafe! That brought the memories back! Yeah, cracking place, I miss that kind of thing now that I don't live in Ipswich anymore.

My other favourite haunt in Reading was Church's restaurant - is that still there?

skintchick

I also would have walked out without paying.

If I'd paid already (although i don;t usually eat at places that make me pay upfront) then I'd have insisted they get the manager, to the point of making a very big fuss! I do enjoy a fuss!

Scarlett1

thats happened to me before (not at brewers fayre) but I was served mince meat instead of a veggie alternative in a meal and actually ate a mouthful :eek: I was gagging afterward and that night I had a nightmare of pigs and pork

sockpuppetuk

ts_aly2000 wrote:

The best place we've found EVER, is a place called "Jack's Cafe," in Ipswich near the Hadleigh Road Sainsburys. It's been there for about 40-years, they have copies of the Sun, old blokes smoke in it, they do big greasy fry ups and juicy Sunday roasts. It's like stepping back 50-years in time. But the point is, they're friendly, they do what you ask, everyone is just there to have a nice time. And if you don't like someone smoking on the next table, you don't complain, you just know not to go there. But this place is amazing if ever you're out that way. They'd do you a nut roast and get it right!

So you take your kids into a greasy dive where they could possibly get cancer from passive smoking just so you can get a decent vegetarian nut roast?
People make me smile sometimes

Ellie2758

The OP couldnt walk out without paying - at Brewers Fayre you pay when you order.

I am very surprised at the attitude of the manager. I havent eaten in one for years but the last time we did the cost of our meal was refunded by a very apologetic manager. We had waited for an hour and when the food arrived it was cold!

Cat72

thats happened to me before (not at brewers fayre) but I was served mince meat instead of a veggie alternative in a meal and actually ate a mouthful

Omg :eek: its a wonder you didnt get food poisioning ! I will have nightmares now too.
I am writing a letter to Whitbread as advised I never thought of asking for all my money back but will do that as you have pointed out our money was wasted and we paid for a service we never got. I asked for the manager and if they couldnt be bothered coming over I was not in the mood nor seen the neccesity to do their job for them .So I prefer to take the tatical route of letting head offfice know what kind of management is running their newly expensively refurnished restaurant. As someone else said we had paid for our food .Also the other waiting staff and the poor boy who dealt with the complaint were very good and I did not want him to get caught up in the crossfire.
Sometimes having a barny with the manager doesnt do a lot of good , people just stare and the manager just sweeps it under the carpet when you leave. (I used to work for a huge chain if shops and the manager used to rip up complaint letters and bin them, they never saw head office ) .Plus I have M.E ( well in remission kind off ) and if I start to lose my temper and argue I use up all my energy and I am ill for days.
Hopefully if the company are any decent they will take note and get something done about it. I hate brewers fayres usually anyway,but their are not a lot of places to eat near me and heck they are pratically on every street corner.
Thanks for your advice , views and your own experiences.
I kind of imagine in the kitchen it was like the opening cartoon scene to grange hill, with a fat lad plonking a sausage on someones plate .
However we probably would hate to see what happens in most restaurants kitchens .......

mishkanorman

I had a family meal at a brewers fayre, when they brought out my SILs meal it had nuts all over the top of it, she pointed out that no where did it state it would have nuts on it, and when she asked the person that took the order they confirmed no nuts ( it was something random like salmon with creamed potatoes off the special board)
The waitress very kindly offered to scrape said nuts off. To which my sister-in-law replied "sure no problem", reached into her hand back and pulled out a 4 inch syringe and said " when i start to froth at the mouth, stab me in the heart with this"

I have never seen someone leave a table so quickly, we got different waitress in the end, surprisingly no apology though. my MIL swapped meals with her, there was no point taking a replacement, as like the OP, we waited ages and the rest of us all had started.


mishka