Dear Sir/Madam
I derive no pleasure from having to write a letter of this nature at the beginning of my Bank Holiday weekend.
Yesterday my partner and I travelled into central London to meet with family and friends to celebrate a special occasion. Prior to meeting them we both decided to eat in the London Bridge branch of your restaurant.
We were promptly shown a seat and our order for a starter, drinks and two main courses were taken. We were served our starter and drinks without delay, and were very satisfied with the quality. However, we then waited and waited for our main courses to arrive. Eventually the waiter, having noticed that we still hadn’t received our mains for almost 30 minutes, went to the kitchen to chase our order, and returned with both our main courses.
There were a number of issues regarding the quality of both our dishes. My partner had ordered the Quiche Lorraine (ironically from the Plats Rapides part of the menu) with fries and celeriac remoulade. The quiche, at best, was lukewarm and had clearly just been reheated. The fries were also only warm. I had ordered the Tarte aux Epinards from the speciality menu, with the option of a side salad. My tart was also only just warm, and the cheese, having been melted whilst cooking, had now solidified to form a leathery topping which I found very unpleasant to eat, and which I had to leave on the side. The side salad was a small handful of warm wilted leaves that had lost all crunch and freshness.
When the waiter asked if we were enjoying our meals we mentioned that we were not particularly satisfied with the main courses, upon which he offered to have them reheated (which would not have resolved some of the aforementioned issues). We explained that we were pushed for time, having waited so long for the main course to arrive, and said we would rather finish what we could and get the bill. Five minutes later the manager arrived to ask us what the problem was, which we explained again in full. He also offered to reheat our dishes. We would normally have sent the dishes back, but by this point we were now running slightly late to meet with our friends. I explained to the manager that it seemed to me that our dishes may have been cooked on time, but that there was a delay in transferring then from the kitchen to our table, which would explain why they were warm and not hot, and why my salad was also warm and wilted. He assured me the dishes were fresh from the kitchen, which, if true, suggests there are further issues regarding the quality of the food served and the speed of the service provided.
The manager offered us two coffees on the house, which we had to decline as we had to leave as soon as possible.
The final insult to this disappointing meal was noted after we had paid, as we were in a hurry, when we realised that a 10% service charge had been added to our bill, with a small note at the bottom of the receipt stating that it was optional. This was not particularly clear at the time, and neither of us had time to go back to the restaurant to request it back.
We have both eaten at your restaurant before, at branches in Haywards Heath and Dorking and have always been satisfied with the quality and speed of service. We were both surprised and disappointed to experience such a poor quality level of service from a central London branch, which I imagine is usually busier than either of the two other branches we have been to. We are now left to consider whether we would choose to eat in one of your restaurants in the future.
I hope you will be able to feed back our concerns to the London Bridge branch, and use this letter as a tool to address the issues of quality raised above in order to improve the level of service to future customers.
Yours sincerely
Matthew Price
