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Newport - Friars Walk - Joshua Thorley Review
How Helpful?:
Number of Visits:
2-5
How Busy?:
25+ minute wait - come on Nando's!
Date of Last Visit:
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Time of Day:
Mid-afternoon or late evening
Comments - Stand out in our monthly competition! What did you eat? Unique aspects? Parking/transport tips?:
I ordered a takeaway, arriving exactly at the arranged pick up time; the restaurant was a third full at most. I have ordered from here twice previously and each time they have missed something from the order. Additionally, it is now 2 out of 3 orders that have taken longer than half an hour after arriving for collection.
I entered the restaurant and made them aware of my arrival. I was semi-acknowledged with a mumble and distinct lack of friendliness or eye contact, but I'm not one to get uptight over nothing so I sat down and waited without any concerns. There were two members of waiting staff, one of which did very little other than meander around dropping things over the floor and left dirty plates on the main counter at one point. Around 15 minutes passed and another customer, also waiting for a takeaway asked where her order was - I was a little concerned about mine too, but the other customer was told that they just had a short backup on sides so I decided to wait it out a little longer before saying anything.
25 minutes had passed and I tried to get the attention of the manager twice. She didn't seem to notice me the first time however, in the second instance she purposely averted her eyes and quickly darted in a different direction.
Eventually after 30 minutes I got up and stood near the pass, making constant eye contact with the manager in the hope that she would eventually have to confront me. She did, and informed me that our food would be ready right away, although she offered no apology. Another 5 minutes passed and I finally got my food. She apologised (I was still only offered a lacklustre "sorry for the wait, here's your order") and informed me that she had checked the order and could guarantee that everything was there. By this time I was distinctly hungry and annoyed, so decided to take her word for it.
Predicatably, on arriving home (2 minutes away) the food is all cold and 2 sides are missing. I'm a reasonable person and my family own a cafe so I totally appreciate things can go wrong behind the scenes and always adopt a stance of empathy for kitchen and waiting staff, but when a manager can't even communicate with customers when errors are made or muster an apology, there is a serious problem.
Gave this branch enough chances and won't be returning. Unfortunately, the Spytty Newport branch isn't much better.
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