Should I ask for a refund or is this offer sufficient?

[story]

Your mistake was paying for it in the first place. You should've taken it off the bill and paid what was left. If the waiters get upset and there's no manager around, give them your name and contact details and leave.

They've got your money now and getting a refund would be a shitload of hassle for the sake of 17 quid.

Take them up on the 2 freebies.

I decided not to upset or stress out the waitresses. There was blushing and eyes darting between them. Neither was in charge neither seemed able to make a decision. I didn’t want to make the rest of their shift miserable.

 

[Sue]

I didn't know a male Karen was a Darren.

It's weird how people know the female version but not the male eh..?

 

[8ball]

It's weird how people know the female version but not the male eh..?

What's the female version of a Tarquin?

 

[Throbbing Angel]

This is probably what I would do if I had the time the energy and the stomach for it.
And not much else going on in my life
And if there wasn’t a hole in the world down which everything important and good is flowing away

Just tell them you'd prefer a refund and see what happens.

 

[8ball]

I decided not to upset or stress out the waitresses. There was blushing and eyes darting between them. Neither was in charge neither seemed able to make a decision. I didn’t want to make the rest of their shift miserable.

Tbf, the most aggressive I get in such situations is not going back to the place.

 

[Sue]

What's the female version of a Tarquin?

No idea what a Tarquin is so no idea what the female version is either.

(I mean I'm guessing it's referring to someone posh but .)

 

[story]

Just tell them you'd prefer a refund and see what happens.

Had they offered me a single pizza to replace the one I didn’t eat, I’d definitely be asking for the refund. As it is, I’m now in a position where I can invite a friend to join me and we can (possibly) complain about how bad it is while breaking bread together, thereby creating a shared memory.

”Hey, remember that time I got the free pizzas and they were still shit?!!?”

 

[Magnus McGinty]

What's the female version of a Tarquin?

His sister was Tabitha in Modern Parents.

 

[moochedit]

It depends on the nature of the restaurant imo. Like I said, if it was a pizza joint I’d have taken it on the chin. Because they use a lot of superlarives and descriptions and adjectives in the blurb and the pizza was really really not good, I think they weren’t giving me what I was paying for. If that was shoes or anything else, I’d expect a refund.

I'd just give them a 1 star review on tripadvisor (or whatever) or maybe post on nextdoor or one of the local facebook groups about it. Not really worth the hassle of laywers/courts.

 

[spitfire]

I'd go to Naples and work in a pizzeria for 10 years until I became a master, return to London, raise £250k in a crowdfund, describe myself as a founder, set up a small pizza restaurant in a "vibrant" part of town, (not Brixton, too obvious), build up a huge instagram following, start a small chain, open one in Brixton, lower my prices in the Brixton branch until this other bunch go out of business, employ all the staff (apart from the chefs!), and then sell up to some mighty conglomerate and never eat another fucking pizza again.

Or you could email them back and ask them to throw in a bottle of wine just in case the pizzas are still shit.

You choose.

 

[polly]

Sorry to be unhelpful but I really want to know in what way/s the pizza was shit? How do you get a pizza that wrong?

 

[moomoo]

I had a horrible meal recently and when the waitress asked if everything was alright I told her it was revolting (nothing to do with them, I just didn’t know that Cornish mussels were completely different texture wise than normal mussels ). She quite happily fetched me something else. No drama.

 

[planetgeli]

Thread needs poll.

Options

Take the pizza
Ask for refund/money
Either of the above
I'm a weirdo who doesn't like pizza (nogojones option)

I'd just take the pizza. Tell them it's your birthday, you might get a bottle of wine.

 

[Aladdin]

I would be asking for a refund on the original pizza and refusing the 2 freebies. I wouldn't go back there even if they refunded me.
Any pizza place that can't cook a pizza is not worth its salt.
If they refused the refund I would probably just leave a bad review on tripadvisor or whatever and leave it at that.
No point fighting over a bit of dough...

 

[trashpony]

I went for a roast on Sunday at a place where we had a banging roast before and this was shit. The beef was tough and stringy, the yorkie was stale and lukewarm and everything was really salty. We complained, got a different meat and a note to the kitchen not to add salt. We were charged kids portions rather than adult ones and the head waiter was very nice about it.

I won’t write a bad review because they tried to resolve it. Won’t ever go back there again though!

 

[moochedit]

Sorry to be unhelpful but I really want to know in what way/s the pizza was shit? How do you get a pizza that wrong?

anchovies*

*never actually had them myself but they always say that in movies

 

[hash tag]

The Green Room?

They don't only do pizza, but pizza features prominently, with ingredients including 'torn basil' and 'house chorizo'.

Please tell me it wasn't the green room and if it was, you were expecting a decent pizza in a place that does does burgers, fish n chips etc. I have found that pizza's in reasonable Italian restaurants can be very average. The only place for pizza is a pizzeria cooked on a wood fired oven.

Last Sunday I was served up a really crap Feb. I complained and was offered 2 free breakfasts when I go back ( I was not looking for a refund, just making the point to save others from the same fate). I have no wish to go back and suggested they donate the food to a food bank or homeless charity.

Ps. If you want to try for a high end pizza, try Over's in borough or 50 Kalo in Northumberland AVE. I have tried both and they do not serve the best pizzas ever in London. Over's is certainly very poncy, 50's more comfortable.

 

[Jimmy Don't]

How awful would a pizza need to be, to just eat it and not go back? That's probably what I'd do, all things considered.

 

[Sue]

The Green Room?

They don't only do pizza, but pizza features prominently, with ingredients including 'torn basil' and 'house chorizo'.

Oh, I had pizza issues there quite recently. I mean the pizza was okay but the base was practically uncuttable. (No idea what they'd done to it as it tasted okay, it just took loads and loads of sawing to get through the bloody thing. And that was with a sharp knife too. Which meant the pizza was really cold by the time you actually had a bit to eat.) Everyone seemed to be having the same problem.

 

[ouirdeaux]

Has it been confirmed that the place in question is the Green Room?

The highest price pizza on their menu seems to be £16.50, so I don't know if the OP was rounding up, or it was somewhere else.

I don't know the place, but there is a pizza on the menu with maple syrup. That alone puts me off.

I'd be wary of accepting the free pizzas, because of the stories of what people in the kitchen do to food when a customer is disliked.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Has it been confirmed that the place in question is the Green Room?

No, it was my attempt at an example of high end pizza. Very lucky guess if that's where story went. Same city.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Oh, I had pizza issues there quite recently. I mean the pizza was okay but the base was practically uncuttable. (No idea what they'd done to it as it tasted okay, it just took loads and loads of sawing to get through the bloody thing. And that was with a sharp knife too. Which meant the pizza was really cold by the time you actually had a bit to eat.) Everyone seemed to be having the same problem.

Was the basil well torn?

 

[Sue]

Was the basil well torn?

If there was any basil, it would certainly have been well sawed by the time I'd finished with it...

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I had a horrible meal recently and when the waitress asked if everything was alright I told her it was revolting (nothing to do with them, I just didn’t know that Cornish mussels were completely different texture wise than normal mussels ). She quite happily fetched me something else. No drama.

Oh I didn't know that. How are they different?

But this is the reaction of any decent restaurant.

 

[ouirdeaux]

But how do you know that they don't do something horrid but not necessarily detectable to the replacement dish? I don't know how common it is, but people who've worked in kitchens have said this sort of thing happens. Maybe it's relatively rare, but the point is, you wouldn't know.

 

[hash tag]

But how do you know that they don't do something horrid but not necessarily detectable to the replacement dish? I don't know how common it is, but people who've worked in kitchens have said this sort of thing happens. Maybe it's relatively rare, but the point is, you wouldn't know.

Once bitten and all that.

 

[spitfire]

But how do you know that they don't do something horrid but not necessarily detectable to the replacement dish? I don't know how common it is, but people who've worked in kitchens have said this sort of thing happens. Maybe it's relatively rare, but the point is, you wouldn't know.

Just had a consultation with Mlle Fire about this.

She’s worked in catering/hospitality for 30+ years and whilst things do/have happened it is vanishingly rare and usually only happened to very rude people. A long time ago. General consensus is that the industry is a lot more regulated and grown up now.

Or she is…

But I also just learnt that customers being arseholes in cocktail bars do get extra angostura bitters which gives you the shits.

So yeah. Send stuff back. Be polite and all will be fine.

 

[spitfire]

I went to a restaurant in Dublin a few weeks back. Ordered the wrong wings, way too spicy, asked for some replacements that were regular bbq and offered to pay for the wrong wings.

They replaced them no extra charge despite it being entirely my fault. Excellent customer service.

 

[tommers]

They're offering you the two free in the hopes of enticing you back and get some drinks, starters etc. There's no incentive to give a refund to somebody who is never going to use their restaurant again, except for avoiding a bad review or a scathing thread on a Brixton based message board.

I'm also interested about what could go so wrong with a pizza that makes it this bad? Tough base is weird. Pizza dough is really easy to make.

 

[Epona]

I don't hold with the "we served you a crap pizza, have 2 crap pizzas that you don't want by way of recompense"

They should have offered you something else or deducted it from your bill right there on the spot.

Ask for a refund - explain that the staff were lovely and as helpful as they could be, but didn't have the authority to remove the charge from your bill at the time.

A restaurant serving up food you don't like and then not able to deal with it on the spot is not right - it is not the fault of the staff, but the restaurant policy and/or training and/or lack of someone able to deal with it being on shift.

None of this ought to be your problem.