1. kandd on Sunday, March 07, 2010
Food Quality
We've been twice in the past month - the first time the food was really good but went last night and it was terrible
Menu Choice
Good choice of dishes although every time you go there are plenty of dishes unavailable. Last night the "signature" dish was off the menu and no rump steaks - pretty poor for a Saturday night
Service
On the first visit, we were "shown" to our table by the waitress pointing to the other side of the room and saying "its that one over there". Last night we had to send a dish back and the torrent of abuse from the kitchen was heard by everyone within a hundred yard radius! The waiter was rude and unhelpful and overall the staff last night were shocking. Customer is far from king at Harts
Facilities
Toilet facilities in need of update
We've been to Harts twice in the past month. The first occasion the food was wonderful but the service very hit and miss. Hit, because every time the waitress walked past my chair she nearly knocked me off it! We were also greeted by "its that table over there" rather than being shown to our table. However, like I said, the food was really good so last night we took our daughter there for a meal. What a mistake!!!
There was only one waiter on duty and he politely showed us to the table. We were given menus and he took our orders - so far so good.
The starters came and they were lovely. My daughter wanted some extra chilli sauce which was promptly provided. The dishes were cleared away and the waiter apologised for the slow service - we said we weren't rushing so it was fine. Mistake number 2!!
An hour later our main course arrived. Now after all this time, you'd expect it to be right, or am I being unreasonable?? The main my husband had ordered was off the a la carte menu and was "supposed" to be seared tuna, with a pepper crust. He asked for the tuna to be cooked "pink", ie rare. What he got was not tuna, but swordfish in a lime mash and was a dish off the specials board. He pointed this out and the waiter took the dish back to the kitchen. The whole restaurant heard the torrent of abuse which was hurled and the plate was returned to my husband telling him that it WAS what he ordered.
My husband's dish was inedible - it was overcooked, bland and above all, not what he ordered - he left the whole lot. With the mood the kitchen staff were in, we didn't want to risk anything else!!
Our vegetables (served seperately) were cold and the potatoes were rock hard - they had had enough time to cook them so this was a bit much. After the reception the first complaint got we didn't even bother to mention this fact, again, we just left them.
We asked for the bill and refused to pay for the "tuna". We were met by a further torrent from the waiter this time, who moaned at us that he was 2 staff down and that we shouldn't be "having a go" at him. He told us not to bother paying for anything and to just go but we insisted on paying for what we had actually eaten. He was still insisting that the meal was the correct one we had ordered. We pointed out again that the meal we had ordered was off the a la carte menu and not the specials board and he said "well there was a tuna dish on the specials board last week"! This confirmed to us that we had indeed been given the wrong dish but no-one would accept responsibility.
Three other tables were also complaining about cold food, not getting what they ordered, tough steaks and poor service.
We had to ask for some salt and pepper as there wasn't any set on our table - a minor complaint soon sorted. We weren't given steak knives with our steaks (fillet steak which had a lot of tough bits in the middle) and we weren't offered black pepper with our main course as the waiter was too busy.
All in all, it was a disaster. The customer is clearly not always right at Harts. If the staff carry on in this manner, the customer will soon be extinct.
We certainly won't be going there again and will be telling all our friends about this bad experience.