So here's what happened: it's Saturday afternoon, it's raining and I'm having lunch with a few friends.
The restaurant, in the west end of Glasgow (I won't name and shame), is in the throes of its lunch service. It's busy-ish, though I'd guess about half of the tables in here are unoccupied.
It starts well. We're taken to our seats, the waiter gives us some menus and walks away. So far, so normal.
We chat, catch up quickly and predictably forget to look at the menus for the first 15 minutes we're sitting there. This irritates the waiter, we all apologise, he seems to accept. We quickly make decisions and order. Some tapas, bread and wine.
Less than three minutes later (honestly it really is that quick) the food comes. At least, a couple of the tapas small plates arrive. However it's clear just by glancing at one of them that all is not well. The portion of calamari one of my friends ordered looks anaemic, dry and is (surprisingly) cold. Understandably my friend sends the plate back.
The waiter, largely unapologetic "that's just the way they are", takes the food away and offers a replacement.
We finish our food (well most of it – the confit duck was cold too and was therefore left uneaten) and to show there's no ill feeling order another bottle of wine. It comes, my friends drink it and then we ask for the bill, which we then pay with a tip.
Then this: two minutes later we are asked to leave. Leave, when the restaurant is now two-thirds empty and our glasses are not. Leave, for no apparent reason. "You have 10 minutes," says one member of staff. We don't wait that long.
Mediocre food I can deal with, a lack of customer respect I cannot.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article