Caught up with a friend on Saturday and landed on The Queens Head in Shoreditch, short walk north from Liverpool St station as had decent reviews and was showing sport.

All started off lovely, Guinness was well poured and tasted great and we both opted for the beef roast, with a side of cauliflower cheese to share. I asked how the beef is cooked and the waitress said medium rare. Lovely, all pretty standard stuff.

Food comes out in good time but this is where it starts to go wrong. All the trimmings and gravy were great, however the beef itself couldn’t even be cut properly it was that tough, let alone chewed once you finally got a piece off. It was overdone and a terrible cut. I don’t usually complain about food let alone write about it online, however I had to say something about this, it was truly inedible. I waited for 5 minutes and no one checked in with us, and by this time everything else was going cold so finished the rest off and left 90% of the beef on the plate. Still no one came over and I didn’t really feel like it was my duty to get up and go and find someone to tell. When the plates come to get cleared, I mention to the waitress that the beef genuinely couldn’t be eaten, hence why both plates had most of it left on them. We got a “sorry about that” and nothing else.

When it comes to pay for the bill, I asked if something can be done, and just for one of the meals to be taken off the total, or the drinks or something just to make up for the beef. She went to ask the manager, who came over and I explained that no one checked in on us during the whole meal. He then went back to ask someone else but the reply, after another 10 minute wait was that as everything else had been eaten, we couldn’t “asses” it at the time and can offer you another Guinness, but not take anything off the bill. At this point I just wanted to leave so said don’t worry about it and bring the bill. We split the bill in half and my friend paid first and tapped without really looking and noticed the machine had said £45 meaning the overall bill was coming to £90, (we didn’t get a paper bill just the waitress with an iPad and nothing itemised). I start to calculate in my head and asked if a service charge had been added to which the reply was yes. This is were it gets really frustrating and I asked them to take it off, which patrons absolutely have the right to do. She goes away again and comes back and says that service charge is mandatory for table service.. I know this for a fact not to be true, we weren’t told this at the start and also doesn’t say on any of the menus.. they ended up taking it off my half of the bill, but wouldn’t refund my friend (so it is possible then?)

I understand that I could have maybe made more of a fuss about the beef at the beginning and sent it back, but I just don’t really understand the stubbornness of venue managers to not accommodate someone who’s clearly had a bad experience, if they’d have taken the drinks off or something, I would go back in a heart beat and try again anytime.. however when they come up with the mandatory service charge nonsense then that crosses the line. I feel like that could be escalated too, trading standard? And before anyone says, I wasn’t rude or demeaning of people and approached everything firmly but politely..

Anyone else experience this before?