I hate to use hyperbole like “best ever” or “worst ever”, but I can safely say that I had the worst restaurant experience of my life today in London. If you are ever in Leicester Square, you won’t be able to miss Chiquito’s Mexican Grill – but you should avoid it at all costs!
Six students, myself, and another professor entered the restaurant at 11:58 am today (Thursday). The place is HUGE but it was darn near empty when we arrived. We were among the first to be seated inside. The waiter was slow to take our order, and slow to deliver our drinks. Many of us ordered two course meals, and the first course came about 12:20 pm. Mine was a salad and it was not bad, even though the service was slower than it should have been in an empty restaurant that appeared to be very well staffed.
At 1 pm we still had not received our meals, so I got up to notify the manager. I was VERY polite when I explained that we had already been waiting over an hour for our food and that by any standard that just was not acceptable. She agreed.
What she should have done next was to check our food, make sure the quality was acceptable before it was delivered, and offered to compensate any meal that was clearly of poor quality. She did not, and the food quality was awful. I could tell when I got my food that it had been sitting under a lamp for probably close to 20 minutes. It was dry and barely warm. I ate as much of it as I could, paid without leaving a tip, and left with the group because we were already late to a museum tour we had planned. If I had been by myself and not with students I would have sent my meal back and refused to pay.
But it never should have come to that. When I complained to the manager she should have taken the initiative to make it right. As it was, she never even apologized for the poor service. She was entirely indifferent to my complaint about the service and obviously did not care enough to check on the quality of our food. Boo!!
Chiquito earned this very public and very harsh appraisal of their business practices. There is SO MUCH choice in London, especially around Leicester Square. If you are ever there, take my advice and do NOT choose Chiquito.
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I think this proves bad service can happen anywhere. It’s so disappointing when you go to a nice place and the staff barely notices you are there. I will be sending a letter to the owner of a restaurant I was just in because the teenager filling my order screwed it up twice. When I brought it up to the manager he response was “You know how kids can be” – really! Enjoy the rest of your time in London.
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
July 9th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
I’ve not traveled that extensively, but my impression is that on the whole, service is better in the US than many other places. This really was not a service issue as much as it was a system failure issue. The guy serving us was VERY considerate and friendly, but the ball was dropped somewhere in the system and no one was aware of it. Thanks, Eric! bret
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You shouldn’t be surprised by this in England. Certainly there are some very fine establishments, but my experience as an expat in this country over the last 5 years is that Service is not something that is valued, prioritized, or as you’ve discovered, delivered. This is equally true for clothing stores, public services and banks.
I was warned of this by a British friend before coming to England. He said “you’ll think people in stores and restaurants to be a little rude. It’s not that they’re trying to be so, it’s just that they have a different expectation of service”. Having travelled some, I can attest to some very large differences between countries such as the US, Canada and Italy on one end of the spectrum and others like England, France and Brazil on the other.
I believe a large part of the cause comes down to the compensation model: In the US, staff work for tips. In Australia they are well paid and these jobs are highly valued and sought after. A friend and café owner here described her challenge in getting good staff: “for minimum wage (around £4/hour), all I can get is a 17 year old who doesn’t really care about this job. Initiative is non-existent…I have trouble getting them to do anything without being told”.
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
July 9th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Welcome, Matthew! I wondered if there was a cultural thing going on but in this case I don’t think so. As I said to Eric, I think this was a system failure. I’ve eaten at several Wagamama restaurants across the UK and I always get great food and good service. But your insight into the wage factor is very valuable. Thanks for sharing! Bret
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