resturants - "No Room" but loads of empty seats
Discussion
Curious if this is a new thing or I've only just noticed - is restaurants seat availability increasingly driven by the maximum throughput of the kitchen rather than actual seats at tables?
We've just come back from Centre Parcs and it seemed endemic, and it also happened last time I went home to plymouth.
At CP (elveston), it was quite funny - the cafe rouge was enormous - and there were tons of empty seats, but we were turned away as the kitchen apparently had no capacity, this also happened at a couple of the other places there.
in Plymouth - the same thing happened - walked into las iguanas, no room, said we'd sit and have a drink, they point blank refused to give us anything to eat (even some tortilla chips) - as the kitchen was 'overloaded'
wondered if it's a new phenomenon - specifically that the size of the venue is much larger than the kitchen can actually cope with!, or I've just never noticed.
-ace
We've just come back from Centre Parcs and it seemed endemic, and it also happened last time I went home to plymouth.
At CP (elveston), it was quite funny - the cafe rouge was enormous - and there were tons of empty seats, but we were turned away as the kitchen apparently had no capacity, this also happened at a couple of the other places there.
in Plymouth - the same thing happened - walked into las iguanas, no room, said we'd sit and have a drink, they point blank refused to give us anything to eat (even some tortilla chips) - as the kitchen was 'overloaded'
wondered if it's a new phenomenon - specifically that the size of the venue is much larger than the kitchen can actually cope with!, or I've just never noticed.
-ace
I hope I can enlighten you,
Restaurants like many other businesses are cutting costs every where they can, so in slower hours they cut staff to bare minimum, a kitchen with just one part timer can only cope with so many people, especially as they are usually having to prep as well.
Serving hours are being cut as well, in order to limit staff costs.
It is far better to provide a good service to a limited number of customers than try to cater to larger numbers without the staff.
Also, the increased exposure of sites such as tripadvisor, and the increased demand for perfection by customers ( not always a bad thing) mean that a place would rather not serve anyone food than have even the possibility of a bad review.
Restaurants like many other businesses are cutting costs every where they can, so in slower hours they cut staff to bare minimum, a kitchen with just one part timer can only cope with so many people, especially as they are usually having to prep as well.
Serving hours are being cut as well, in order to limit staff costs.
It is far better to provide a good service to a limited number of customers than try to cater to larger numbers without the staff.
Also, the increased exposure of sites such as tripadvisor, and the increased demand for perfection by customers ( not always a bad thing) mean that a place would rather not serve anyone food than have even the possibility of a bad review.
DocArbathnot said:
I would far rather (any) business was honest with me. Indian restaurants tend to be the worst, they just won't turn people away it can spoil the experience.
Agree. It's quite off putting when there's 20-30 hungry people at the cramped bar trying to stare you into rushing your food and leaving.Even when you've finished its impossible to relax for five minutes as everyone wants you gone.
Thanks for the responses and insights. I guess I was just surprised that during half term at CP that they would be at anything other than full capacity. You could have blamed it on sickness or whatever, but it seemed to be every restaurant we tried.
Dave200 said:
phatmanace said:
We've just come back from Centre Parcs
I've spotted your problem.Thank me later.
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