Was I right to walk out of restaurant ?

lunar

lunar

lunar

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18 Jul 2015
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London
My wife, two children and I went to a restaurant in Birmingham. The place was about 3/4 full. We ordered a meal that was going to cost about £20. It was a simple meal, which should take little time to prepare.
After 25 minutes we were still waiting. But what frustrated me was couple of people who arrived after us were served first.I could see their orders were more expensive.
My wife asked them how much longer we would need to wait. Response was 5 minutes.
After 40 minutes I decided to walk out.
As we were leaving the premises the owner asked where we were going. He said the meal was ready and that we would need to pay. I told him to f off and departed. He said he was going to call the police.
We went instead to a fast food restaurant.

Should I have paid up?
 
lunar said:
My wife, two children and I went to a restaurant in Birmingham. The place was about 3/4 full. We ordered a meal that was going to cost about £20. It was a simple meal, which should take little time to prepare.
After 25 minutes we were still waiting. But what frustrated me was couple of people who arrived after us were served first.I could see their orders were more expensive.
My wife asked them how much longer we would need to wait. Response was 5 minutes.
After 40 minutes I decided to walk out.
As we were leaving the premises the owner asked where we were going. He said the meal was ready and that we would need to pay. I told him to f off and departed. He said he was going to call the police.
We went instead to a fast food restaurant.

Should I have paid up?
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I would. In fact, I have a couple of times.
 
No, you have no obligation to pay. Contract law on restaurants regarding when it is formed (offer, acceptance, consideration) is when you have been served the food, taken a bite or two and you always will find a waiter come over and ask “how’s everything?”. That is the point where you say “great!” That’s the cue for acceptance of the contract. Or you can say “this is bad” and send it back.

regardless on how long you need to wait, how “simple” you think your order is, you’d be surprised on that has no relevance on how long it takes compare to how simple you think it is. For example some dishes, that seems more complicated are prepared well in advance or kept in oven, a simple dish can take longer to prepare because less people order it. Or people who order the same thing as another table might get the food together because it’s faster to cook multiple at the same time.
 
Leave a bad review too, threatening to call the police on a customer who's not been served in a timely manner, when they walk out - is pretty terrible.
 
I’ve walked out of Wagamama once after waiting an hour. It was 2pm when I walked in, about 3 other tables out of like 80 so it was practically empty. It took 20mins for my free tea to arrive and then a further 40mins later my order still not turned up I just got up and left. What a waste of time.

The waiters were just standing at the bar chatting, it’s like the whole place was taking a break. I would understand if it were busy but nothing was coming out of the kitchen.
 
Yeah I walk out of places if I'm not getting served quickly enough all the time. Gotta make it cost them or they'll never change.

Went through a phase of abandoning the trolley/basket at supermarkets if the checkout queue was ridic, bet they loved having to sort that out.
 
Screeeech said:
Leave a bad review too, threatening to call the police on a customer who's not been served in a timely manner, when they walk out - is pretty terrible.
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I don't think it is possible to leave a review.
Also, they insist on cash only.
 
throwaway4372 said:
Yeah I walk out of places if I'm not getting served quickly enough all the time. Gotta make it cost them or they'll never change.

Went through a phase of abandoning the trolley/basket at supermarkets if the checkout queue was ridic, bet they loved having to sort that out.
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The latter isn't really the supermarkets fault though is it, if everyone decides to swarm them past their capacity?

What exactly can they do about that?
 
lunar said:
It was only two sheesh kebab and a nan bread at £3.50
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Don’t know what their set up is like in the kitchen and how many staff they have in the kitchen. I’d say if you are the only customer it can take as much as 10-15mins to cook that from fresh. If you imagine heating up the grill, putting it on, plating etc.

now not knowing what else they are cooking and how full their grill were, you said it’s 3/4 full, it’s possible that there were enough orders ahead of you, large enough to take over the grill for 30mins before there is room to begin cooking yours.

I hear “it’s ONLY this and that” all the time, but it’s ONLY this and that PLUS food for 20 other people. So without knowing their set up it’s hard to criticise. What I can say is that you are entitled to leave but you also should know that it is NOT in the restaurant’s best interest to make you wait. It’s in their best interest to give you the food, take your money and kick you out ASAP and the repeat that a hundred times a day. They would want to cook things instantly but if they want to maintain quality then cooking from fresh takes time.

what the staff should have done is be honest with timing so to set the customer’s expectations. It’s much better to be honest and play on the side of caution to say “1 hour way” when knowing it’s closer to 45mins, then it’s up to the customer to decide if it’s worth his time. Sure you will find some who walks away but better than then to try to entice them in saying “5mins” and the pee them off.
 
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Oh I remember when I worked at M&S cafe, and a customer was waiting over 45 mins for spaghetti and I was tasked to deal with it.

Apology with a free drink offered with the meal, plus another pre stamped free drink coupon thingie for the next time they came back.

I believe that was the time when they muttered to each other after I finished doing that 'Wow, at least someone here has a clue'.
 
Honestly 40 minutes isn't an horrendous amount of time to wait if they're busy, you place your order, the waitress/waiter takes 5-10 minutes to put it through to the kitchen (they may have to run drinks, get sauces, clear other tables etc. on the way).

The kitchen might have 10 tickets ahead of you so might not start yours for 5-10 minutes and your food may take 10-20 minutes to cook, then it takes another 3-5 mins to take from the kitchen to the table.

All that sounds completely reasonable for a restaurant that is 3/4 full and may not be fully staffed.

You're well within your rights to leave but you do sound a bit impatient
 
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Raymond Lin said:
Don’t know what their set up is like in the kitchen and how many staff they have in the kitchen. I’d say if you are the only customer it can take as much as 10-15mins to cook that from fresh. If you imagine heating up the grill, putting it on, plating etc.

now not knowing what else they are cooking and how full their grill were, you said it’s 3/4 full, it’s possible that there were enough orders ahead of you, large enough to take over the grill for 30mins before there is room to begin cooking yours.

I hear “it’s ONLY this and that” all the time, but it’s ONLY this and that PLUS food for 20 other people. So without knowing their set up it’s hard to criticise. What I can say is that you are entitled to leave but you also should know that it is NOT in the restaurant’s best interest to make you wait. It’s in their best interest to give you the food, take your money and kick you out ASAP and the repeat that a hundred times a day. They would want to cook things instantly but if they want to maintain quality then cooking from fresh takes time.
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But, everyone had been served. We were the only ones waiting. There were no people waiting for take-aways.
I was beginning to get the impression that because our dish was cheap and they probably preferred us to take it away.
 
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