MAGAZINE

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I made the mistake of heading into the city centre on the day of the Great Bristol Run. As far as Sundays go, this one was brimming with potential, so we hopped on the bikes and headed for town completely unaware we were making tracks straight through the eye of the storm…

It was BUSY. After swallowing our regret, we battled our way through the crowd (at one point accidentally joining the race – two very confused ‘competitors’ on wheels!) and were lucky enough to find a table in a cool new spot by the harbourside, the perfect haunt to watch the hordes of people slowly shuffling by. This place has a large internal space with room for plenty of covers, plus six or seven tables outside. A sunny day in Bristol deems any form of outdoor seating an absolute goldmine, and we’d just landed the last available one in this venue. So far, so good.

We sat and waited to be offered a menu. We waited, then waited some more. Three people were ushered over to an outdoor table that had been reserved. They were all given menus. All the while we sat, waiting.

About 15 minutes into our visit, an apologetic waiter finally brought us the menus. We shook it off, said there were no worries and expressed that we could see they were busy. Then, the apologies began to pile up. A ‘sorry’ for only bringing over the steak knife when my husband had pretty much finished (read: hacked to death) his meal, another for leaving our plates on the table for a solid 15 minutes after we’d finished and one more for failing to take our order when we were ready and waiting for another drink. We asked for the bill instead, which took another 10 minutes to arrive. I made my way to the bathroom to get set for the cycle home. And do you know what? Not a single table inside was occupied, and there were no less than five front-of-house staff on shift. Some appeared to be standing around while the others were picking up so much slack, it’s no wonder they were making mistakes. Clearly, some training and team investment is in need (more on this in our guest contribution on p.34), or the business and the staff therein have no chance of reaching their full potential.

It’s worth saying here that the food was great, but the service was so poor, it’s unlikely we’ll be going back – not in a month of Sundays.

Genna Ash-Brown
Editor