The Begging Bowl

[boswell]

Despite the mixed reviews I was still up for trying this place, not after seeing their tweet "A disgruntled customer who didn't like queuing for a table, sent a letter on Morgan stanley headed paper.Definitely don't come back please !". Shows how poor their customer service is if this is the way they react to someone giving them some feedback.

[stacey-lyn]

boswell Wrote:

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> Despite the mixed reviews I was still up for

> trying this place, not after seeing their tweet "A

> disgruntled customer who didn't like queuing for a

> table, sent a letter on Morgan stanley headed

> paper.Definitely don't come back please !". Shows

> how poor their customer service is if this is the

> way they react to someone giving them some

> feedback.

Really?! Appallingly stupid, churlish & unprofessional. Allowing for teething problems, we too were going to try it. Tonight in fact for an early dinner to avoid the lines despite our next door neighbours also complaining about the costs of their small portions - especially of veg - (though tasty apparently) and the hour plus wait debacles to and fro the pub over the road (which could be quickly resolved with vibrating pagers or succumbing to a booking system). But not now. Wonder if the BB is heading the same way as those other establishments that we dare not mention.

[annabel42]

This is typical of the way in which the Herne responds to legitimate complaints - completely uncaring.

[jimbo1964]

I think BB might be wise to extend the olive branch. I'm still a bit mystified though.. I was there on Friday and the staff were really helpful and friendly.. Also sending a personal complaint on some blue chip company letterheaded paper is a bit silly.. Smacks of self-aggrandisment.

[Jeremy]

jimbo1964 Wrote:

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> sending a personal complaint

> on some blue chip company letterheaded paper is a

> bit silly.. Smacks of self-aggrandisment.

I guess it could be seen that way.

As with other similar threads in the past, it is my guess that we don't quite know the whole story, so we shouldn't paint the BB as the villain. Nevertheless... still not smart to discuss it on twitter.

[zeban]

jimbo1964 Wrote:

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>.. Also sending a personal complaint

> on some blue chip company letterheaded paper is a

> bit silly.. Smacks of self-aggrandisment.

I completely agree with you Jimbo. What exactly are they trying to prove by doing that except that they have money and therefore what, that they shouldn't have been treated that way?! That the company have lost out somehow because they have a lot of money? Be pissed off that you feel you weren't treated well but your wealth, social status or job really doesn't matter when it comes to customer services- all customers deserve the same high level of customer service, so that really wasn't necessary and was really quite silly of them.

Don't get me wrong though, I think it's really quite crap the way BB have handled the situation,and pretty unprofessional to tweet about it. They should definitely have responded to the letter and apologised and offered an olive branch. However, I would question the attitude of the customer and therefore wonder if there is more to this story so I definitely wouldn't personally write ofF BB based on this incident alone.

One thing I was quite disappointed about when looking at the menu was the idea that all the dishes were meant for 2. I like dining alone sometimes so that has kind of put me trying it as the whole concept seems to be around sharing. However, if the portions are small maybe I'll still give it a go- though I don't think I'll be paying ?7.50 for a plate of broccoli just for myself, as lovely as I'm sure it is!

[standswithfist]

Just reading a few of the posts above and has anyone thought to ... Um... You know actually SPEAK to the staff and request a child friendly meal? Or that you would be dining alone so would they be considerate enough to just charge per person?

That's the problem with social media - people are forgetting how to speak to each other!

[zeban]

I did ask standswithfist. I'm not on twitter, I don't know if they're on facebook, and their website isn't up and running so lo and behold I went to the restaurant to have a look and talk to them! so yes, some of us still talk to others!

Not all restaurants can constantly make adjustments for each and every customer and I understand that and certainly don't expect them to. I wasn't moaning about their concept, I was just saying it may not suit me but that's ok because I don't expect it to! And if you take a kid to a Thai restaurant, expect the kid to eat Thai food- and Thai food is way more than pad thai so I say good on them for having a bit more imagination.

[antantant]

Is it normal brocolli or chinese brocolli (kai-lan)?

[jumpinjackflash]

So working for an investment bank automatically makes you wealthy? Hmmm, I was visiting Goldmans this morning...I should have nabbed a couple of reams of their letter head to impress my penpals.

[antantant]

They just tweeted that the Evening Standard are coming to review tomorrow...

[sidll]

In my day, a long time ago, using the firm's writing paper for unauthorised purposes lost you your job. I would find out from this one off poster whether he is writing on behalf of Morgan Stanley.

[annabel42]

If there were another side to the story, surely BB would have tweeted it - not just made a big thing of the business letterhead?

[edcam]

Went tonight. Seated quickly outside, on what may be the last opportunity for al fresco grub this year, the staff were really lovely, attentive and helpful. The food was delicious. Be warned that some of it was VERY hot! The squid, broccoli and fish cakes were fantastic. Service was great but slow. There were 4 of us, having a leisurely catch up, so speed wasn't important. Maybe if there were 2 of us we'd have been a bit frustrated by how long it all took. Mostly delicious but the duck curry was too hot for all of us and the beef salad was tasty but the beef too tough. On the whole the food was hit and miss but mostly hit. Lovely cocktails too. I'd recommend the lemongrass martinis!

Will definitely go again.

[Gidget]

sidll Wrote:

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> In my day, a long time ago, using the firm's

> writing paper for unauthorised purposes lost you

> your job. I would find out from this one off

> poster whether he is writing on behalf of Morgan

> Stanley.

Why, what's it to you? I don't see that has any relevance to the treatment they had at the Begging Bowl.

[trizza]

Ate there recently. I thought it was decent, but the food is completely overpriced. ?7 for some brocolli. ?7 (or perhaps ?9 if I recall correctly?!) for four small chunks of beef with lettuce.

[Gidget]

antantant Wrote:

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> They just tweeted that the Evening Standard are

> coming to review tomorrow...

Aren't those reviews supposed to be anonymous? Otherwise it gives an unfair advantage. They sound like idiots to be even tweeting that; they can hardly then say that the review was impartial when it comes out.

[Ted Max]

The review is anonymous. The photographer comes around after the fact and takes some snaps.

Calm down.

[taper]

The Tweets refer to the photographer coming. This was pre-arranged; the review has already happened anonymously.

[Gidget]

The review won't be anonymous if the reviewers are recognised. People like Fay Maschler and Charles Campion have their mugs all over the place.

[Gidget]

Does anyone else find the name Begging Bowl peculiar? When I first heard it, I thought of people living on the street begging. I now think of it to mean they are asking customers to come in and beg to be treated like crap by making them wait for hours in line instead of allowing some reservations and some walk-ins. It also makes me think of customers holding up bowls begging to be served a bowl of broccoli for ?7.

I follow Vincent Ayre's of Ayre's Bakery twitter account and he has stated many times that he would never go to a restaurant that made him queue. It was on his Twitter account that I found the Begging Bowl's tweet about the customer complaint letter.

[m&m fairy]

I went in a group of 5 to the begging bowl - all in the food industry and as a group this is what we thought.

We met at The Victoria and my partner ran accross to ask for a table and within 10 minutes we had a call on our mobile to say you had one. Big thumbs up as we had the outside table. We could see you guys were busy and we would of been happy to wait up to an hour and we all agreed that first come first serve without bookings is cool. We all love street food so queuing isn't a problem for us at all.

Loved the restaurant, the decor, the atmosphere, the glasses, the crockery, the table layout, the lighting. We all agreed when we sat down that we felt we were on our jollys going out for dinner! It was a warm evening so that helped ;o)

Staff were amazing. Described the menu with passion and experience in tasting the dishes came across. Friendly, fun and attentive.

We didn't like the light, slight and robust dishes. I'll be honest and say (sorry) that it is overpriced, especially the slight dishes - if the portions were bigger, then it would be spot on!

Some of the dishes we had were;

The betal leaves - The flavours burst in my mouth, loved it. Sweet, sour n saltiness spot on! If i had closed my eyes whilst chowing down i could of been back in Bangkok.

The fish cakes - 50/50 everyone agreed the flavours were zesty but the texture wasn't squidgy/squeaky enough, i personally didn't like the mashed potato consistency. But thats your take on it!

The tofu dish - was excellent and the greens salty and mourish! Yum.

Salmon - This was the one dish that we were all dissapointed with, it was tiny :O( I would love to see this as a robust dish with lots of salmon on or just give a little more for your money.

Squid - Tender

Rabbit - Thumbs up, loved your take on it, the addition of authentic ingredients ie pea aubergines!

Pork - The pork was extremely fatty, compared with the previous night. i know dingley dells have a higher proportion of fat but this dish also lacked depth of flavour. It wasn't a winner with anyone.

Unfortunately you had run out of the fish, our own fault we should of got there earlier!

We all agreed that we would LOVE to see the following on the menu ...

1. SOM TAM!!!!!!!! Always a winner. We would be there every week if you had this on the menu.

2. Pad Thai - i know everyone does it, but a classic done bloody well is always a winner and god there are so many poor ones about. There were no noodle dishes on the menu which was a bit odd.

3. Mussaman as a special ;o)

3. Bigger portions, better value for money. We could of all eaten more but didn't want to spend anymore on a school night.

They were so busy, it was a great atmosphere.

Thanks for a good night.

[Peckhamrye]

So Gidget you would also have seen Vincent's advice to the Begging Bowl people not to get involved in silly arguments on EDF.....

[Gidget]

Yes, I did Peckhamrye. Wonder if he has read this thread. Vince used to post on this forum. Shame he still doesn't. But from what he has said he won't be turning up at the Begging Bowl. Apparently Begging Bowl are using Twitter to sound silly instead of the forum.

[taper]

Gidgit

Why don't you pop along to the place sometime then you can comment based on your experience. Your self-righteousness by proxy is a little odd.