Background: We are a pretty fancy restaurant. Think very highly priced food and extra sweet and accommodating service to help justify the figures at the end of the bill. The kid's menu has about three things on it and sound much more fancy than they are (chicken nuggets are "chicken goujons"), we don't have a children's dessert menu, although we claim to offer children's ice cream, it's just one scoop of any of the adult-focused ice cream menu rather than three.
So anyway, yesterday lunchtime shift, we had a table of 20 booked. I was checking the details...it's a kid's party. 14 kids, 6 adults. (In my head I was thinking "A kid's party? Who in their right might would organise a party for children HERE? Why not just take them to McDonalds and a playpark?") My supervisor comes over and allocates me this section of the restaurant to look after. Great. They turn up, the adults are nice people, luckily the kids find their way outside and run around the garden. What made them sucky was the fact that they pre-ordered, and then couldn't remember who had ordered what, so my poor helpers and I were stood around for 5 minutes while the adults argued over who had what. Then trying to take their desert order for their children, I was stood there for a whole 15 minutes while they changed their order over and over and over, and then once more for good luck, and kept asking for things that I had told them weren't on the menu. (Like I said, we're a posh restaurant, so our ice creams are like, Honey, Green Apple, Guinness, Lemon Curd. ) I had to tell one guy 4 times, "I'm sorry, but we don't have chocolate ice cream, we have *reels off list*.
Finally they leave, and the clean up begins. Somehow, the kids have managed to fill a wine glass with Gravy and Peas. One half pint glass has actually been turned upside down and had a pile of peas smushed onto the top. All the other glasses that had been the kid's glasses or near the kids have a mixture of peas, sausages, mashed potato, unidentifiable bits of chewed meat....you get the picture...in them. The table is smeared in mashed potato and crushed peas. We are forced to get a dustpan and brush out for the things that have been dropped on the floor (and smushed into the carpet) and are actually too big to be hoovered up...
Ok, I know it's my job to clean up, and I shouldn't moan about it, but our furniture, our menu, even our gardens, aren't exactly made for children. I have BIG RESPECT for those who deal with children's messes all the time.
As nice and apologetic as the main lady was afterwards, she was friends with my manager, already knew what kind of restaurant we were, and still decided it was the best place to bring kids. A group of under-6s are NOT going to want to come to a fancy restaurant for their birthday. If I'm honest, I think it was more for the adults than the kids.
So anyway, yesterday lunchtime shift, we had a table of 20 booked. I was checking the details...it's a kid's party. 14 kids, 6 adults. (In my head I was thinking "A kid's party? Who in their right might would organise a party for children HERE? Why not just take them to McDonalds and a playpark?") My supervisor comes over and allocates me this section of the restaurant to look after. Great. They turn up, the adults are nice people, luckily the kids find their way outside and run around the garden. What made them sucky was the fact that they pre-ordered, and then couldn't remember who had ordered what, so my poor helpers and I were stood around for 5 minutes while the adults argued over who had what. Then trying to take their desert order for their children, I was stood there for a whole 15 minutes while they changed their order over and over and over, and then once more for good luck, and kept asking for things that I had told them weren't on the menu. (Like I said, we're a posh restaurant, so our ice creams are like, Honey, Green Apple, Guinness, Lemon Curd. ) I had to tell one guy 4 times, "I'm sorry, but we don't have chocolate ice cream, we have *reels off list*.
Finally they leave, and the clean up begins. Somehow, the kids have managed to fill a wine glass with Gravy and Peas. One half pint glass has actually been turned upside down and had a pile of peas smushed onto the top. All the other glasses that had been the kid's glasses or near the kids have a mixture of peas, sausages, mashed potato, unidentifiable bits of chewed meat....you get the picture...in them. The table is smeared in mashed potato and crushed peas. We are forced to get a dustpan and brush out for the things that have been dropped on the floor (and smushed into the carpet) and are actually too big to be hoovered up...
Ok, I know it's my job to clean up, and I shouldn't moan about it, but our furniture, our menu, even our gardens, aren't exactly made for children. I have BIG RESPECT for those who deal with children's messes all the time.
As nice and apologetic as the main lady was afterwards, she was friends with my manager, already knew what kind of restaurant we were, and still decided it was the best place to bring kids. A group of under-6s are NOT going to want to come to a fancy restaurant for their birthday. If I'm honest, I think it was more for the adults than the kids.
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