"I am posting this review now, just an hour after leaving because I am absolutely furious! I attended the restaurant with my husband, 17yr old daughter and 19 yr old son for a family meal. As we ordered drinks, my son was asked for id. As this has never, ever happened before in all of the pubs and restaurants in which we have eaten, he hadn 't brought it with him so the waitress (who turned out to be the duty manager refused to serve him. She said it was their policy. Although we were not impressed by this, we accepted it and proceeded to order soft drinks. My husband ordered the beer that he had been looking forward to. Shortly after the drinks arrived, my husband offered my son a sip of his drink because he was disappointed that he couldn 't have one himself. The waitress/ duty manager saw him and decided to come to the table and publicly humiliate my son. Speaking loudly for all to hear, directly at him, in the most condescending tone imaginable, she told him that he was not allowed to do that and if he did it again, she was going to take it off him. Initially, I was too gobsmacked to retaliate. That anyone in her position thought it was appropriate to speak to a paying customer like that is beyond me! We cancelled the food via a different manager, paid for the drinks and left. I will never go there again. I 'm sure that she will defend herself by pointing out that it was policy, but there is absolutely no excuse for speaking to anyone like that and publicly humiliating him. And we all know the definition of a jobsworth don 't we? I have now read Chris ' response and as expected, it was policy. However, I think he may have missed the point. There is absolutely no excuse for the way that she spoke to my son. I 'm interested in the comment that he spoke to multiple people who witnessed what happened. I didn 't really notice multiple staff members in our immediate vicinity so the fact that so many of them were apparently able to hear what she said in a noisy, busy pub, simply illustrates how loud and inappropriate her manner was. She could very easily have discreetly explained the situation to us but she chose to shout, point and draw attention to him in front of everyone. (And apparently in front of multiple members of staff. If she didn 't intend to humiliate him, why did she make that choice? I now see that the owner has replaced his original response with a new one that appears to suggest that my actions were not in accordance with protecting the public and business from harm . I 'm afraid that I really struggle to see how an adult taking a sip of beer in a pub may put anyone in harm 's way! I 'm also not appreciative of the lack of a sincere apology. we MAY have approached and IF you found I 'll be clear. You DID approach dealing with it very badly and I DID find that being shouted at and pointed at in public was unequivocally offensive. May I also add, in response to the manager 's third comment, that the situation was not embarrassing for me. My son is almost 20 and definitely doesn 't look under 16. There was no reason for him not to be served other than over zealous enforcement of policy (jobsworthiness . There was even less reason for a loud and very public (as admitted by the manager humiliation of an adult, sipping beer in a restaurant. Just to be clear: I was not embarrassed. I was angry and disgusted that a waitress/duty manager thought it was acceptable to shout at a customer in front of a busy room full of people and threaten to take the drink (which was my husband 's away from him. This was totally inappropriate. What makes it worse is that the manager doesn 't seem to be able to understand this to the extent that he is not able to offer a sincere apology and seeks only to blame me for her inappropriate behaviour. Shocking."
Mushroom Soup
