Tinseltown (Great Portland St)

Food was rubbish. It left me thinking "actually, Burger King is not that bad...". Pricey. What are these guys thinking? Avoid!!!
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Arturo
1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Please be warned, the manager at this restaurant is a prize bully of his waitresses, and you may see this in action if you visit this restaurant. Don't support him by going there. The other branches are good, and there are other restaurants in this area which won't give you this experience.

Last night a large group of us went there for dinner. The waitresses managed our order very well, which was difficult because we arrived at different times, and with large groups it it often difficult. At the end of the evening, we were preparing to leave and were paying the bill. As a large group we were all paying our respective amounts. Suddenly (and there had been no prior warning of this, neither at the time of pre-booking or as we sat down) the manager started saying we could not pay by card. This was not because there was no card facility available, but simply because he felt it would be easier for him. It was a bitterly cold night. What was he expecting us to do? Go out into the cold to the cash point? What kind of service is that when it is possible to pay by card in the restaurant? The waitresses remained polite, and given that there had been no prior warning of the need to pay cash if coming in a large group, accommodated those of us who did not carry enough cash to be able to pay in this way. However, the manager kept coming up to them whilst they were doing this with us, telling them that they should not be accepting money in this way from us. I found this completely unprofessional. The waitresses were doing their best between pressure from us and pressure from him. But for us to see that shows very poor management practice and is appalling for the customer experience. It is not good where the waitresses are left apologizing to the customer for their manager's behaviour.

I've scored a 3 for service because of the waitresses. Whatever good atmosphere there was was soured by the hideous manager. An experience like that is something I should be paid for, not pay to have, so if there were negative numbers for value for money, they'd be scored that way. The food is fine, same as other branches and good value for money, but I left with a bad taste in my mouth because of this manager... I'm still angry the next day....
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Catherine
3 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Saturday, February 11, 2012