A Slice Of What?
I mentioned in a previous post that our experiences when eating at the ‘Slice’ restaurant at the Premier Travel Inn, Euston, were less than positive and promised to provide details.
Well, here they are…
The first night we ate at this restaurant, a meal of two courses took 90 minutes – primarily because we had to wait at least 30 minutes after ordering and between courses. This was despite the fact that the restaurant was less than half full. However, we figured that we might have caught them on a bad night and given that we were so shattered after our London Science Museum trip, decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and try a second visit.
In hindsight, our first visit had been on a good night!
We ordered drinks (two glasses of orange juice, one glass of red wine and one child’s fruit drink) and these arrived relatively promptly. However, we were suprised to receive two pints of orange juice when we had only been given half-pints the previous night. Later investigations suggested that we were over-charged the first night!
We then ordered a combined starter for two adults, 1 adult main course for N, a pasta dish with salad from the child’s menu for K and one side dish of garlic bread. After the obligatory 30 minute wait, the combined starter arrived along with a second starter that we hadn’t ordered. It tooks us a few munutes to carefully explain to the waitress that “No – we didn’t order this starter” using a number of different approaches before the penny finally dropped and she wandered off with the unwanted starter.
No sign, however, of N or K’s meals or the garlic bread. After another 10 minutes, we asked where the other meals were…
“Are you table 8”?
“We have no idea. There’s no table numbers. But we would like the rest of the food we ordered.”
“But are you table 8?”
“We don’t know!”
“What did you order?”
We repeat the order…
“Oh – you wanted them altogether?”
“Well, yes – since that’s all we ordered”
The waitress, who seemed less than clueful, went off to consult with her colleague who then informed us that there had been ‘a mistake in the kitchen’.
Another 20 minutes passed before N and K’s meal arrived – K’s without the salad we’d ordered that was included in his ‘child’s meal’. By now, K (who is 6) had been forced to wait an hour for his meal. Anyone who has ever taken a 6 year old into a restaurant will tell you that getting a hungry child to wait patiently for that long is no easy matter!
N’s meal – which has been listed as a ‘special’ consisting of “skewers of chicken wrapped around cheese served with seasonal vegetables” turned out to be a skewer (singular) of chicken and cheese served with about half a pound of peas and exactly two small sprigs of broccoli. Great if you loved peas. Especially cold peas as it was served on a cold plate.
The garlic bread side menu also arrived – although we’d finished our starter 15 minutes earlier. Is stone cold garlic bread considered a delicacy in some parts? Personally, I’ve always thought it should be served following at least a passing relationship with an oven. Needless to say, it didn’t get eaten. At this point, R also asked to see the menu with a view to ordering a main course. No menu was provided and no one asked to take his order.
By now, we getting thoroughly annoyed as there was no reason that we could see for such awful service. The restaurant was less than half full and, apparently, well staffed. Ok – maybe that’s an assumption. Let’s just say there were enough staff hanging around. So much so that they could afford to use two staff to clear two bowls and one dish from a neighbouring table. Whether they were appropriately trained is another matter entirely.
So we asked to speak to the manager and explained the whole fiasco to him and he promised to make recompense. At this point I noticed that the guy behind us had been waiting for his meal for about 45 minutes and that just about every person in the room looked irritated, fed up, annoyed or all three.
Eventually, R’s main course order was taken and the rest of us ordered dessert. We waited for…you guessed it…another 30 minutes before anything arrived. How long does it take to put two scoops of ice cream into a bowl? When R’s main course (pasta) arrived, it was, again, served on a cold plate, so his meal rapidly went cold and he left half of it uneaten.
When we did pay the final bill, we weren’t charged for desserts but the entire excuse for a meal had taken over 2 hours – most of it spent waiting. The guy behind us – who decided to limit his meal to a single course (and who could blame him) – also complained and told the manager that he would never eat in this restaurant again. All this for a chain that advertises its restaurants with the slogan “Unwind over a great meal”. How about an alternativer slogan of “Get stressed out over a barely adequate meal”?
So, if you happen to stay at the Premier Travel Inn, Euston, do not eat at the restaurant. Get a pizza from one of the local takeways instead. Funnily enough, they seem to do a roaring trade with Premier Inn guests…
