The Green Man of Grantchester, Grantchester

In a similar vein to the previous two statements I would like to add my utter contempt and disgust at the treatment my friends and I received in The Green Man.

Having bitten our tongues with good grace for about half an hour at a) the chipped china b) lack of napkins c) slow service d) cold plates e) cold food f) absence of certain ordered beverages g) complete absence of teaspoons and h) the rather perfunctory and reluctant attitude of the waiter, one of our party thought to mention these not insignificant collection of issues in a perfectly reasonable and rational manner.

What followed was an immediate tyrade of abuse from the landlady, who sarcastically repeated our statements concerning the inadequate temperature of the food and plates, insinuating that these issues were not sufficiently important and that furthermore my friend was "a pretentious weirdo" for suggesting as much.

I feel staggered that one can be treated in such a way by anyone, merely for pointing out the absence of basic conventional restaurant etiquette - which is before one even brings up oft-forgotten mantra "the customer is always right".

The incident visibly shook us all and restorative alcoholic measures were needed for certain of our party as we took our custom across the way to The Red Lion.

I hope I shall never again have to experience such reprehensible behaviour, which would be unacceptable in any scenario, let alone one where a level of service is supposedly matched by an equivalent financial compensation.

2 Dec 2008 20:23