Vent: Re wetherpoons in the midlands

Idiophreak

Lou67 wrote: »

£12 for the two. Not £12 each. That's £6.00 each, (for the meal AND the drink) which is pretty close to the £5.00 you stated. So like 'goater' you have me confused too.

But that's £5 for a "full" meal, like curry, or burger and chips, or fish and chips etc and a pint of beer.

A pudding, panini and a couple of soft drinks sounds like it should cost less....that's all.

Fire_Fox

Lou67 wrote: »

LOL, thanks. I think I will probably end up doing number 3, but if it occurrs again, I'll complain to the manager straight away. I didn't know that they were not actually a restaurant though: what is the actual difference between an 'eaterie' and a restaurant?

Whether they are a restaurant or not: the service should still be good. I still paid good money for two small-ish meals and two drinks and got a rude waitress who acted as if it was MY fault that THEY made a mistake.

We go about twice a month though (and my daughter goes with her pals twice a month on top of that, and we have never had an issue before...

I'd call Wetherspoons a public house that happens to offer food, their main business is alcohol. It's like I'd call Costa a coffee shop even if I ate a meal or snack there.

IMO normally a restaurant is somewhere whose main business is food service, they have trained chefs that make meals from scratch not just kitchen staff who bung stuff in microwaves and griddles. A restaurant is a more formal environment than a pub and usually you get full table service, anything less is a cafe or eatery or sandwich shop.

But yes: the service should be much better than that, it costs nothing to apologise for such a clear mistake.

Lou67

Idiophreak wrote: »

But that's £5 for a "full" meal, like curry, or burger and chips, or fish and chips etc and a pint of beer.

A pudding, panini and a couple of soft drinks sounds like it should cost less....that's all.

I haven't got the receipt to quote the exact prices. (Courtesy of the stroppy waitress : ) BUT, the panini was about £3.75, the crumble and custard was £3.50 (so about £7.25-£7.50 for the two meals) And about four pounds something for the two drinks; the cappucino was over two pounds. The total bill was over twelve pounds.

But yes, you can get a curry and a beer and a pint for a fiver in some places, and you can get some 'mains' for under a fiver, but not many: most are seven pounds and up.

But the bill for our food and drinks on this occasion, was over twelve pounds.

Lou67

Fire_Fox wrote: »

I'd call Wetherspoons a public house that happens to offer food, their main business is alcohol. It's like I'd call Costa a coffee shop even if I ate a meal or snack there.

IMO normally a restaurant is somewhere whose main business is food service, they have trained chefs that make meals from scratch not just kitchen staff who bung stuff in microwaves and griddles. A restaurant is a more formal environment than a pub and usually you get full table service, anything less is a cafe or eatery or sandwich shop.

But yes: the service should be much better than that, it costs nothing to apologise for such a clear mistake.

Thanks firefox, and thanks to everyone else too. It was good to have a good rant and even better that people seem to agree it *was* pretty unnacceptable service. I know it is not technically a 'restaurant' but still, we did pay for the meal, and were made to feel it was our fault that things went wrong, by this snotty waitress. We deserved better: we were extremely polite.

Idiophreak

Lou67 wrote: »

But the bill for our food and drinks on this occasion, was over twelve pounds.

I'd strongly urge you to go elsewhere in future. Wetherspoons sells food for the same reason Ikea do - they're just trying to keep you there as long as possible to spend as much as possible on their primary business - in this case, drink.

For £12 you could have eaten somewhere that actually cares about both food and service.

(that said, I've always had great food and service at Ikea, at least )

System

Idiophreak wrote: »

I'd strongly urge you to go elsewhere in future. Wetherspoons sells food for the same reason Ikea do - they're just trying to keep you there as long as possible to spend as much as possible on their primary business - in this case, drink.

For £12 you could have eaten somewhere that actually cares about both food and service.

(that said, I've always had great food and service at Ikea, at least )

As a matter of interest where? £6 per person spend is not going to get a much better quality meal than at spoons

Lou67

goater78 wrote: »

As a matter of interest where? £6 per person spend is not going to get a much better quality meal than at spoons

I agree. You're not going to get much better than wetherspoons anywhere for £5 or £6 per person, for the food *and* a drink... Pie and mash or a bowl of curry/chilli con carne with a pint in the local pub is not really a 'high quality meal' is it?

Anyway, the cost of it is not the issue here. I was venting about the waitress and her attitude, so I'm not really sure why the subject of the price (and the quizzing of it) has even been brought up really.

What's more: as I have stated, we have always been more than happy with them up til today, and we go out a LOT for meals between the whole family (with friends and other family,) and it would be a struggle to find the meal cheaper, and it wouldn't be in any 'proper' restaurant. Not for the food *and* drink.

Looksguywalker

Lou67 wrote: »

LOL, thanks. I think I will probably end up doing number 3,...

Please do 1 & 3. If they don't know there's been a problem how can we expect the service to be improved. It's a pet hate of mine being served food 5-10 minutes apart. As you say you went out to have lunch...TOGETHER!

Looksguywalker

goater78 wrote: »

As a matter of interest where? £6 per person spend is not going to get a much better quality meal than at spoons

My local Chinese restaurant! Three course lunch for £6. Soup/main + egg frie rice/dessert or tea/coffee...and its faultless. 200 + visits in the last 20 years. Think it might have been £5.25 at first!

Lou67

Looksguywalker wrote: »

My local Chinese restaurant! Three course lunch for £6. Soup/main + egg frie rice/dessert or tea/coffee...and its faultless. 200 + visits in the last 20 years. Think it might have been £5.25 at first!

That is FREAKISHLY cheap! :eek: Three courses AND the drink! The whole lot for £6.00?! I don't know how they can make it pay. Nowhere I know is as cheap as that; not for all that.