**Very disappointing service
**Very disappointing service – not even the basics**
We visited Thyme Poulton for lunch on Saturday 22 August. I booked a table for two at around 9am for 1pm and we arrived on time.
Unfortunately, the experience was extremely disappointing from a service perspective.
We both ordered salads, although the vegetarian choice was quite limited. My salad arrived after around 10 minutes. My partner's did not. We waited and waited, with no return visit from the waitress to check whether everything was OK or to ask why only one person on a table for two had been served.
After around 40 minutes, I eventually went to the front desk myself to ask where my partner's meal was. I was told that the second salad had **not been requested**. I disputed this—we had clearly explained what we both wanted when ordering. Quite apart from that, did nobody think it strange that a table booked for two at lunchtime had apparently ordered food for only one person?
My partner's salad eventually arrived more than 45 minutes after we had sat down.
I had also ordered fries. These didn't arrive either. After waiting approximately another 20 minutes, I returned to the front desk. The fries weren't even showing on the itemised order on their screen.
The restaurant was only around a quarter full, so this cannot reasonably be explained by an exceptionally busy service.
What disappointed me most was how the situation was handled afterwards. When I went to the front desk at the end of the meal, there was **no meaningful apology, no acknowledgement that the service had fallen short and no offer of even a modest reduction from the bill**. Instead, my account of what had happened was disputed.
We don't eat out particularly often and, when we do, we aren't expecting exceptional or flawless service. We simply expect a reasonable standard: take the order correctly, bring two people's meals at roughly the same time, check on the table, and deal courteously with a customer when something goes wrong.
Unfortunately, on this occasion Thyme Poulton failed to provide even that basic standard.
The economic climate is difficult enough for restaurants at present. Good customer service costs very little, and businesses really don't need to add to their own difficulties by leaving customers feeling that their concerns simply don't matter.
A very disappointing experience.