The Green Dragon, Barnet

We visited The Green Dragon yesterday for a meal and from the moment we walked through the door, a comedy of errors ensued:

We were told to wait in the bar for a table but when we were collected, our waiter dashed off without telling us which table we were supposed to sit down at. So we picked a free table in the conservatory area but the same man suddenly materialised out of nowhere to tell us that we weren't allowed to sit there.

When the meals arrived, one roast dinner was cold and the salmon had a hair in it (to be fair, the acting manageress offered a hair-free replacement, no charge, and the cold roast was reheated).

However from that point onward, the staff flatly ignored us. No one came over to see if the rest of the food was satisfactory, no one offered us anything to drink and a request for cutlery fell on deaf ears (we ended up poaching knives from the next table). It got to a point where we were laughing out loud at the 'avoid eye contact' attitude of the staff. No one cleared our table or offered us dessert or coffee, yet the waiters were strangely industrious when it came to setting the empty tables around us.

After waiting for an age, we requested the bill and the young woman who brought it to us simply mumbled, "Here's your bill" and then, "Here's your card" (not "Thank you" or "Please come again").

We complained to the acting manageress about this, who merely said, "Yes, I saw you sitting over there, waiting.....���.�...." (And you didn�t come over yourself, why exactly?)

When we told her that this wasn�t the only problem we�d experienced, she said, �But we were very busy� (they weren't - we were one of three occupied tables in the entire conservatory area). However she agreed that the service (or lack thereof) was unacceptable and vowed to sort it out.

But we won�t be returning to the Fawlty Towers of Barnet to see if things have improved.

22 Mar 2010 15:40