The worst night out on LL (Liquorish)

[MadWorld74]

I felt the urge to share my disgust with you all about the time Mr MW74 and I went to Liquorish for some food last week.

I know it's been talked about on here before....but it was the first time we'd gone in and it will be the last.

We ordered some food, as you do. I asked if the Mezze could be altered to accommodate the fact I'm a veggie. After some um-ing and ah-ing the chef said he'd provide me with a 'surprise' and replace the italian meats with something special. Right. Lovely I think to myself.

A platter arrives. Three tiny pots of gunk ( meant to be guacomole, hummous and something else!) the smallest portion of olives, some dried and stale pitta bread and wait for it.....the special dish to replace the expensive italian meats....a pot of coleslaw and some cold, fried, mushrooms.

I was mortified. I sent it back. P*ss taking buggers.

Literally 2 minutes later!! the SAME PLATE was put down infront of me, all that had been done was the bread had been RE-ARRANGED, and some more coleslaw added on the side. Mr MW74 dived for cover as I saw red.

The waitress asked me what I expected her to do, and took the plate away for the second time.

Again a few minutes later the same bloody plate came back to me with some jacobs cream crackers, a lump of chedder and one piece of artichoke slammed on the side!!!!!!!!

I said I wasn't hungry and that the 'food' should be taken back to the kitchen and re-used for someone else's meal!

I was furious. The same plate brough back to me three times with various bits and peices added and taken away.

The final insult was when we came to pay the bill. They's charged us for the 'meal' I didn't even eat. When we told the waitress she very reluctantly took it off the bill.

What a bloody nightmare. What's wrong with these people? Anyone else get treated like that in Liquorish?

[SeanMacGabhann]

Ouch MW - that was a shocker

The new manager posted on here about 6 weeks ago to apologise for recent shambles, but apparantly the situation is as bad as it has been

I really worried about this place when Nathan had to leave last year (?) and my worries have come to pass (might have to review my pub list as well now)

I've not had an experience THAT bad, but "the vibe" it used to have is definitely AWOL

[MadWorld74]

Yeah ouch. Coleslaw, chedder and Jacobs cream crackers. Mezze?

[georgia]

Have never eaten there but am surprised they do not do any veggie options? Still shocking.

Mind you as a veggie you do get this sort of thing a lot. Was once at a conference in Paris (the Hilton no less) and said I was veggie well in advance as the French are not really known for their vegetarian food. I got a main course eventually - broccoli, rice and pineapple. Mmm.. how yummy....

[MadWorld74]

Oh migod Georgia! That's brilliant. I got upset because I'm sick of people thinking "Oh she's a veggie, just give her the left over scraps she won't mind". When actually I'm a real food lover and bloody well do mind.

[georgia]

I know, I agree, and providing veggie food is not really that difficult I wouldn't have thought...

[Louisa]

No offence but what do you expect from a small place in ED? It really annoys me when people go into a place and expect the menu to be altered at the drop of a hat just to suit their needs. Maybe you should have read the menu before you went in, and looked for some decent vegetarian options on the menu? If you were going into some high end expensive restuarant in Covent Garden i'd expect the menu to be altered to suit your needs, but you're not exactly paying an awful lot of money. Dont get me wrong, I do complain if something isnt cooked properly or if the meal was not what I was expecting, but I think you asked an awful lot of the chef at the drop of a hat, and therefore I do not have any sympathy for you. Sending it back three times is a bit over the top too. I always worry if you piss the chef off, you'll end up with more on your plate than you were expecting (and not in a nice way!).

[Ted Max]

Ummm, please don't flame me here but you chose a non-veggie meal and asked for a veggie (EDIT) version. Now, obviously this was beyond their competence, but it wasn't as if you ordered something calling itself veggie mezze and then received the crackers etc

Were there no actual pre-arranged veggie options on the menu?

[mockney piers]

I take both your points (Louisa and Ted), but if a vegetarian meal is beyond your ken, then say so, don't trick the customer into staying. I'd respect honesty and be inclined to return more than if I received a half-arsed effort after umming and aahing.

[Ted Max]

Yes, the chef should have just said, "No can do". I agree.

[Louisa]

I agree the chef should have said no. However, would people who were turned away still come onto a forum such as this, and complain that they were turned away because the chef at such and such a place was not prepared to accomodate their needs?

[SeanMacGabhann]

I think the kicker was the way it was handled and then trying to charge the customer.... The lack of veggie options is a seperate issue in a way...

I have been a champion of this place in the past but I fear this kind of encounter is not limited to someone ordering a veggie snack off-piste

It is a small place in ED but it goes (or went) out of it's way to advertise and it's food (Head chef named at bottom of the menu etc) so it shouldn't be beyond it's ken

Hopefully the new manager will read and respond??

[Brendan]

The problem here is that you decided to eat at liquorish in the first place. I go there now and then for a drink as my friends like the place but I really don?t like it at all. It is the way it is set out. It?s too long and narrow. The fing shooie is all wrong. Can?t be helped it?s just the shape of the building. Nothing good can come out of a place set out like that.

I know this is the equivalent of saying you don?t like someone because they have say a ?funny shaped head? but there you go.

[MadWorld74]

Louisa,

If the head chef said he couldn't so a veggie mezze then I'd say fair enough, but would question why he was called a chef in the first place. When a chef can't make an alteration to a very simple, cold dish, I question what is it he's 'chefing' up in his kitchen?

He should not have said he'd do me 'somthing special' if all he meant was coleslaw. It's not rocket science. If other small places in ED can cater for the sudden and off kilter demands of a veggie then Liqourish should be able to aswell.

I've worked in many a kitchen in my years. Across the board from the more basic home cooked foods right up to very famous restuarants offering highly priced and highly saught after cuisine. Never have I seen a chef send out food like the stuff I received. If I was a waitress taking that out to a customer I'd be very embarrassed.

[Brendan]

lol. "Rocket Science" :))

geddit.

[MadWorld74]

yes, (tu)thank you Brendan.....

[Keef]

The real shock here as far as I'm concerned is that Louisa is sticking up for a place like this! ;-) Soz L, couldn't resist.

I've never liked the place, it's tacky, and for some reason reminds me of the boozer that turned in to the pink bar in Brush Strokes. (classic 80's TV!) :-S

[MadWorld74]

I like the concrete flooring and the lights in the place. Thats'about it. Shame. I was all up for having a nice night.

[Louisa]

But what you're failing to appreciate is that we live in ED, we live in Britain, we do not expect high quality customer service in the UK! They did one of two things. They either genuinely thought this would be a well appreciated alternative, bearing in mind the short notice which they had. Or perhaps they were opportunistic about it, and thought they would look good if they changed or altered the dish which would hopefully attract you back again in the future. On average in the UK we do not expect high quality customer service, especially in the restaurant or food/catering industry. You obviously have high expectations, and maybe these should be lowered unless you consider eating at the Ivory every other day. I do agree he should have said no, but he didnt for the above reasons, and because of low expectations in the UK, he was probably as mortified as you and probably the waitress about how you could be disappointed when he went out of his way to give you something 'special'.

[MadWorld74]

sorry I don't know where the 'Ivory' is? ....does it do a good mezze?

[Annasfield]

I used to be a chef in a fine dining restaurant. The head chef was a bit (understatement) of an @rse, which is one of the reasons I'm no longer a chef. Anyway, he never had any time for veggie dishes on our TDH menu. I remember one week he had some concoction of beetroot, pasta and potato. I never fully understood that one?

Basically, there would always be one vegetarian option on the menu, which I personally don't think was enough. Therefore, I always made sure we had plenty of back up options in case our customers didn't like the menu choices. This wasn't difficult; it just involved a little imagination using the prepared food that we already had in place.

I should also add that I'm not a vegetarian.

[MadWorld74]

We are a far way removed from the tripe and spam days of the 50's. Are you saying that because we're British we should put up with crap food and crap service? How odd!

We have some of the best chefs in the world working out of this country at the moment, and to say that the mere consumer on his/her highstreet shouldn't expect to much, just seems bloody daft!

[Louisa]

Keef, I wouldnt choose to visit the place if it was the last eatery on earth and I had to eat from rubbish bins, however, I think it's asking a lot of a British business of the restaurant variety to alter a menu, and perhaps a foodie should have recognised this and steered clear. It's like asking for a Big Mac without the gherkins, it just wont happen in the UK.

[*Bob*]

Liquorish is a weird one.

It seems to have the right ingredients to work on LL

Trendy Name / Signage - CHECK

Funky Fittings / interior - CHECK

Outside-y decking bit - CHECK

Playing choons - CHECK

(And even) Customers - CHECK

But there's something about it that's not quite right. I can't quite put my finger on it. It just feels a bit.. wrong.

RE Food debacle.. If the 'chef' can't put together a decent veggie option then he should say so. It might still get a complaint / negative feedback but at least no-one's been mislead.

[macroban]

Nothing wrong with spam fritters.

They were a real treat when they came up for school dinners.