Buchan's

Last Friday for our 4th Wedding anniversary I decided to treat my wife to the same restaurant where we also held our wedding reception. They were offering a 3 course menu for £20 – not the cheapest around by any stretch of the imagination but still fine for what it is. We ordered champagne and then red wine to go with the meal. We both had our starters and mains which were average at best. I didn’t feel like a dessert and my wife ordered hers. I ordered a coffee instead.

When the bill came I was astounded to see that they had charged for one 3 course meal deal and for myself they charged me the full a la carte price (obviously more) and for the coffee. Thinking it must be a mistake I pointed it out to the waitress and politely asked for the bill to be corrected. She instead sent over the manager who told me rudely that as I hadn’t had dessert it wasn’t within the ‘meal deal’ and refused to change the bill! When I suggested to him that if I ordered a dessert and threw it away he would reduce the bill he agreed that he would! I told him that I was not all happy with this – that I had been a customer for many years reminding him that we had even had our wedding reception there and I may have to tell other people not to come, he screamed in front of all the other diners that I was trying to blackmail him! By this time the romantic mood of the evening had been completely killed and he eventually grumpily returned with an amended bill. This is not the sort of service I would expect in one of the restaurants offering deals at less than half of this price. A great comparison with my previous evening dining in the Grill Room at the Dorchester where for £20 / head you receive 5 star service and Michelin star quality of food. Sadly I will never return to Buchan’s again.
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2 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Friday, March 27, 2009