The Wellington, Strand

I visited this pub with my family on Sunday 19th October 2008 we had spent the day visiting various locations in the area and were looking forward to having a traditional sunday pub lunch and we chose the Wellington because we had visited it earlier in the year and enjoyed the atmosphere and the service. May I say on this occasion we were very dissapointed with the standard of customer service we received, when we arrived we waited about 10mins to be seated which we didn't mind because having been before we new it would be worth the wait when we was seated it became obvious to us that although the upstairs was not full there didn't seem to be enough staff to clear the tables it was 2.35pm when we were seated and after about 10mins we had our order taken we asked for coffee, tea, and a couple of pints only to be told they wasn't serving hot drinks that day, not a problem we said so we ordered soft drinks we ordered 2 steak and ale pies and 2 sunday roasts and began our wait during this time we noticed some customers get up to go and refuse to pay for their meal because it had not arrived at the same time as their company and when it did it was cold we continued to wait still not too worried thinking it was probably a one off, then as more people arrived in couples and got served before us we thought perhaps there was a problem this was by now over 1hr later when a family of 4 who had been seated at the same time as us mentioned to the waitress that they were still waiting for one of their meals, the waitress just told them not to worry and it shouldn't be too much longer another customer seated next to this family said to the waitress this was unacceptable service as the rest of the family had already eaten their meal the waitress dismissed this comment, I did manage to catch the waitresses eye with a wave to ask if our meal was going to be much longer, I asked her very politley and she raised her voice to me and told me quite abrubtly that I had not been waiting very long and dismissed me, by this time we had been in the place 1hr 20mins another waitress came over to me to show me our order receipt with the time we placed the order to try to reasure us and it was not even our receipt I counted that 12 people had been served after we arrived but was told by the waitress that orders for 2 always came before larger orders my family and I decided to leave and as we did the waitress in question aproached me and asked me rather rudely in a very high tone that she did not shout at me in front of other customers, I have worked as a waitress and still work with the public and always remain curtious, I will not be visiting this establishment again and would not reccommend it to anyone else I come across I feel that I took the brunt of the way this waitress was feeling and I believe they were under staffed even the cheff came upstairs while all this was going on a very dissapointed customer.

24 Oct 2008 16:47