The Fresher And Firkin Is Not Any Good

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(From an email conversation.)

`The Graduate'? Is that another name for `The Old Spring'? I'm curious now -- how bad could it be?

No-- it's what used to be the Fresher[?] and Firkin -- you know, the one that always claimed to have five real ales on tap, but in fact only served pissy lager and nasty mass-market beer, if you are lucky. We did originally go to the Old Spring, but apparently their cook `had lost his keys', and in consequence no food was being served.

So we went to the Graduate, where it took an inordinately long time to order anything (about 1/2 hour); at one point the sole barperson went and served some other people who had just arrived, in the middle of taking our orders. (While I can see the logic of trying to avoid having two groups of annoyed people at the bar, this didn't impress me.) Then I waited 50 minutes for food; when I asked what had happened, I was informed that my food would be along soon. But that it wouldn't be the food I had ordered (a Yorkshire pudding with beef), but instead a chicken burger. I asked why I was only now being made aware of this, and it turned out that the barperson had come to our table and informed Rick that there wasn't any beef; he interpreted this as referring to the burger he had ordered, and so asked for a chicken burger as a substitute.

Naturally at this stage I thought `sod this' and asked for a refund, on the basis that buying food at the supermarket, going home and cooking it was likely to be quicker and more satisfying than waiting for anything resembling the food I'd ordered to arrive. I was then told that in order to get a refund on my credit card, I would have to wait ten minutes for the sole other employee to come and operate the credit card machine; logically enough, the only person with authority to issue CC refunds is the cook, who was obviously slaving away in the kitchen ensuring that nobody's food arrived within an hour of being ordered. So I accepted a cash refund and left.

It all sucked, pretty much.


Copyright (c) 2002 Chris Lightfoot. All rights reserved.