2.5 Yr old Thrown out of beefeater

heavensbug

Very quick explanation which I can expand on at a later date.

In a nut shell.

Turned up at Beefeater and daughter was a bit upset so was crying.
I took her out and calmed her down to return and order our food.
She sat down on my knee and we changed her nappy in the "Dirty" facilities happy enough.
Took her back to the restaurant and she had a bit more of a cry.
At this point manager comes over and ask us to leave as she had received complaints.

We left rather p.o'ed to be chased by manager and put in the corner of the bar. Would not have returned but it was a family birthday we had travelled for.

Food was then served cold, over cooked and they served a full cod with bones to a 2 yr old. H&S?

For this excellent server we were then charged £70 for 6 people to eat cold food and have a 2.5 yr old thrown out.

I have complained to customer services and CEO for a refund but had no response in 3 weeks.

Who do I escalate to? FSA?

There are loads more complaints on H&S which is all detailed in my letter but I am more annoyed at the meal being ruined and my 2.5 yr old being thrown out. I was seriously expecting the bouncers to turn up :rotfl:

Cool_Username

Just to play devil's advocate here - if your child was disrupting other diners' meals and the restaurant was receiving complaints from its customers then I think it's pretty reasonable that the manager/staff as you to move if you're unable to calm the child down.

I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at with the cod having bones in it - was it advertised as not having bones or would you expect the chefs to remove any bones as the meal was intended for a young child? What I'm getting at is that if you ordered the meal as presented on the menu then I'm not sure how else the chef would prepare the meal for your child.

Those points aside, have you been back in touch with customer services to ask them about the outcome of your complaint? This is probably your first port of call before going any further.

sabretoothtigger

Give me fish fingers any day

custardy

Cool_Username wrote: »

Just to play devil's advocate here - if your child was disrupting other diners' meals and the restaurant was receiving complaints from its customers then I think it's pretty reasonable that the manager/staff as you to move if you're unable to calm the child down.

I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at with the cod having bones in it - was it advertised as not having bones or would you expect the chefs to remove any bones as the meal was intended for a young child?

Those points aside, have you been back in touch with customer services to ask them about the outcome of your complaint? This is probably your first port of call before going any further.

cods a very easy fish to fully debone,so i would expect it to be near bone free
as for the child crying,its a tricky one and open to interpretation
in a place like a beefeater it wouldnt really bother me.its the type of place you expect families and as such a few interruptions through that

heavensbug

I appreciate the complaint aspect of it.

She had calmed on two occasions and was just hungry
but it was more the handling and the child on the table next to
us making equally asich noise. Here twin sister was happily
colouring away.

As to the food. The steak was blue. It was asked
for well done.

On their website is the childrens menu we ordered from
with the fish sticks chips free drink and desert.
We ordered one to share for the twins as they do not rat much

they were served a adult cod and oven cjops. No drink as
advertised and no free desert. I was then blocked fro
entering the restaraunt having eaten our food in the bar to even
pay the bill. Was I going to burst into tears?

I have re-contacted customer services as you suggested.

For the record. The food arrived and the. Manager actualy boented how well the girls behaved and ate. Go figure

thanks for the objective view. Much appreciated

heavensbug

Sorry for the typos. Typing on phone. Not easy lol

lucylucky

If the food was not as you ordered it then you had no need to accept it.

That would have been my first thought

Cool_Username

If the food was not as you ordered then you really should have pointed this out when it was brought to your table.

That said you may still get somewhere with customer services - what did they say when you got back in touch with them?

Realistically I'd imagine the best you're gonna get out of all this is some vouchers for a free meal or something.

heavensbug

Normally I would have sent the food back but having already had a run in with manager it was not that kind of situation.

Realistically I only said I wanted the money back. I aunt after compensation I really just don't want other poor parents put through they same humiliating situation when try to deal with an upset child who is only hungry.

coupleuk

If your child was crying then I would have complained too.

There are many pub chains which specifically cater for kids (designated play areas etc) but Beefeater isn't really one of them, though they do provide crayons in an attempt to keep them quiet.

TBH, I wouldn't have eaten there if kids were within 50ft of me anyway. It's not just the noise, it's the total lack of supervision you (usually) get from parents in pubs.

Parents are generally "deaf" to the noise their kids make - they get to that stage where they can "tune out" - sadly, the rest of us can't.

As for the complaints re the toilet. Did you tell them or just add that to your list of gripes after you were asked to take your child away from diners wishing to enjoy their meal in peace. Messy toilets are made messy by customers, not the staff. The customer before you could have made the mess and you could have then given the staff the chance to tidy it for you - no problem.

Bones in fish - well, there's a new one - who'd have thought it. Most menus will state "our fish may contain small bones". If the meal you received was totally wrong, then send it back and get the meal you ordered. It really is simple and can be sorted very easily at the time. The same for the steak.

If you managed to get a meal for 6 costing £70 at Beefeater then you've done pretty well. They are certainly not a cheap place to eat.

Having said all of that, I think Beefeater are one of the worst places to eat anyway. Expensive food and drinks with staff "trained" to the cheapest level possible. If you pay their prices you should expect a good level of service, which you never get.

Whilst on the subject of kids in pubs - Wetherspoon now seem to discourage adults and invite families into every corner of their establishments too. It used to be the case that "family areas" were clearly defined but not any more.

Oh for the days of having a quiet pint (or meal) in a pub.

Hintza

They probably hope you don't come back, sounds as if you have gone on a long rant that will have clouded your major issues. Hence lack of reply.

Should have sorted more of the issues out at the time. Not much you can do now.

Just don't go back.