I feel ripped off. On Monday night I went to the Butcher Shop and Grill In Sandton. Off to a good start. A cross eyed but lucid and well trained waiter, talked me into a T-bone steak. So far so good. I ordered the Scallops as a starter. I can never resist scallops and at R45 for marinated scalops I bought into the special. Said waiter, asked whether sir wouldn’t consider the Surf and Turf with three prawns. Ah I thought a little snack to go with my meal. Ok I said all innocently. All was fine. The scallops were not good. Fridge cold, with little flavour other than the marinade and all the texture of well boiled carrot. oops, My mistake I guess. the shredded carrot and cucumber the tree scallops were placed on were better. Mains came. Solid steak as ever. Three nice sized but not intimidating praswns which were firm and well textured if a little tasteless. Like many restaurants, they were relying on the :trio of garlic Butters” provided, for flavour. All fine though until the bill. I allways know roughly what to expect at bill time. When my bill was a little more than expected I had a look. Now the T-bone is around R120-130, all shellfish on the menu and Surf and Turf are SQ. I was, shall we say, a little surprised when my charrge for the surf and turf was R330! I queried this with the waiter only to be told the prawns were R75 each! not giants of the sea mind you, just prawns! I had a discusion about needing to be given a quote if the charge, such as in this case, was to be unusual and merely got a shrug. No manager was called, even though my continued displeasure was obvious. My real regret is leaving a tip. Butcher Shop and Grill: keep your quality up, charge what you like, but inform while doing the smarmy upsell thing, and maybe we will keep loving you. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
I discussed this on my Radio show Tuesday night.
Exactly
Agree that egregious costs should be brought to our attention. Avoiding such awkwardness is surely more important than making a few rand more, and a happy diner will always come back to spend. Simple manners.
Obviously one has to compare apples with apples, I assume we're talking about ordering a filter coffee or espresso or flat white or something like that. Not a double chocochino with organic milk, extra cream and double flake topping.
Coffee in a smart restaurant will probably cost more than coffee from a coffee shop, but even so, ending a meal off with a coffee shouldn't add more than R20 the the bill otherwise you might as well order the cheescake for R30.
That's not upselling, that's robbery.
On a similar note, ordering a glass of the house wine has become a dangerous exercise. I ordered a glass of red at The Loading Bay the other night, R46 when the bill came. Now I don't have a problem with paying R46 for a glass of wine, I do so at Balducci's regularly, but I have a list of wines to choose from and I'm usually spoiling myself with something particularly nice.
To serve a glass of wine for causal consumption and charge those prices is robbery. These places must enjoy the few extra Rands they make for now, because in the long run it's going to cost them patronage. And don't tell me I should ask the price, I should be told the price if it's unusual (past the R30 mark).
Hi Dax
Agreed. By the way, at what price point do you believe a quote should be given on a cup of coffee?
My cappuccino at Queen of Tarts was R15 and my double meia de leite at Vida is similarly priced. Depending on what I'm ordering, I would like to be informed if I'm going to be paying R20 or more.
By the way, the shop in question has not replied, even though I sent them an e-mail with a heads up!
Hi Dax
R20 seems to be the cut-off at the moment?
Hi Dax, please see this message thread: http://tinyurl.com/5h2feqat Rossouw's
Hi. Not totally agree with you, but you just gave me an idea for a new eBook regarding \”m feeling ripped off by The Butcher Shop & Grill | The thing about common sense…\”. It is related to history of nerds candy. Thanks.