I went to the worst restaurant EVER in Greenwich (London) - it was months ago, but I still literally have nightmares about the food. I've never had pepper sauce that tasted like vomit before.

My boyfriend even plucked up the courage to give a polite but honest opinion, which made matters worse. Just awful.

Do you reckon Gordon would pay them a surprise visit? Boy, do they need it!

What a shame. Most of us only get the opportunity to eat at, (if you will pardon the expression), and of course they only give themselves this title of "high class restaurants", once in a while, and usually for some special occasion. Sometimes I think that as they do this day in day out that they forget that most of their clientele are there having saved up for a considerable time for something special, they therefore think that if it is a little, (sometimes, looking at the restaurants featured, more often than not), less than up to par that that is acceptable. Sorry but my hard earned, like most people's hard earned deserves more. There is an expectation, a sort of contract, a customer right that if the reality does not meet the promise there should be some sort of recompence. (see trading standards) Once lost the occasion cannot be regained, it is spoiled. Come on guys you have to realise that it may be an everyday thing to you but to a lot of your customers it is something that, if not once in lifetime, is something that is special and has taken a long time to work towards. Not all customers are priveliged enough to go to your restuarant to eat. I often seems that you dish out your meals without a care for the quality or the price, and to just to pass a bad night off as par for the course. Is not acceptable. The drive has to be towards treating each dish as the first and last opportunity to impress the client, no matter who they are. After all they are all paying the same price, even if that price is, percentage wise higher to some than others, to impress each customer and to make them feel that the meal was made for them and them alone, not some conveyor belt, mass produced item or a one size fits all meal. I know I want to feel special, I know I want quality. What do you want when you visit a restaurant?

quote:

Originally posted by lauren_hynde:
I went to the worst restaurant EVER in Greenwich (London) - it was months ago, but I still literally have nightmares about the food. I've never had pepper sauce that tasted like vomit before.

My boyfriend even plucked up the courage to give a polite but honest opinion, which made matters worse. Just awful.

Do you reckon Gordon would pay them a surprise visit? Boy, do they need it!

A while ago I had the misfortune to eat in a horrible place in Dulwich village (also London). They thought they were the dogs - how wrong they were! The saute potatoes were just lumps of barely cooked spuds dipped in ransid fat. The steak was over cooked and, interestingly, tasted like vomit (maybe the head cook moved between greenwich and dulwich???). It was inedible. When I complained (very subtle and not in front of other customers) they basically told me to F off. I would love to see Gordon lay into them...

There are TOO MANY horrible restaurants that are disgusting it's hard to police them all. I now go into the restaurant and look at what the customer's are eating. I scout about the place see what it is like - in a brief manner. If the place looks decent i might order a drink and pass on the food if the food looks a bit rank but the resturant o.k. My lastest trick is to be casual look around get a feel for the place if theres a buzz about the place and i can smell the cooking i will order. Going on holliday we eat out every night, I for one don't want to spend my money on a really foul meal. Getting a good food is part of living the experience. My partner and I have wasted enough money and there ARE good places to eat. This new process of selection started when we had eaten somewhere bad and seen somewhere fantastic a little further down the road. I will even go as far as waiting out side asking diners what they thought of the meal if the place looks expensive. Since i have started doing this is have become alot more select results have made the groundwork worthwhile - If i don't know the town or country i will always research first. Even then you can be wrong and get a dudd one HA! The whole industry needs to wake up. The public are getting wise. Once i walked into an Indian resturant kitchen as a dare from my fellow diners and Matt lucas style shouted - This place is terrible it's filthy etc. (after a real bad plate of cold,too much garlicy slop) what was a loud rowdy friday night turned to silence t'was a picture -