PORTERS BAR - NEVER AGAIN

I am writing to highlight the appalling treatment I, my partner and a friend, as well as two other customers, were subjected to by staff in Porters Bar, Old Town Hastings on Saturday 21 February 2009.We have been mini-regulars at Porters Bar, having enjoyed a relaxing bottle of wine there on many occasions and on this crisp evening, our expectations were no different. We arrived promptly at 6:55pm and eagerly awaited the bar's opening at 7:00pm. We and about 5 other customers entered and as others seated themselves at tables, I happened to be first person at the bar. In the meantime, my partner and friend located themselves in a small window seat with a round table underneath the window. All seemed well as the barmaid asked me what I would like and I clearly ordered a bottle of house white with 3 glasses, which she repeated to ensure she had heard correctly. Four and a half minutes later, 4 glasses and bottle of house white were unceremoniously dumped in front of me with the polite demand of £12. I politely informed her that I had only asked for 3 glasses and handed one back to her. That, however, did not bother me quite so much as the four and half minutes it took for her to obtain them. It may have been something to do with the fact that she seemed more interested in conversing with another customer about how she knew a friend of a friend of a friend than she was about giving her me her attention. Nevertheless, smiling gratefully yet inwardly seething, I let the matter pass and retreated to the table under the window.While we gently sipped our wine and enjoyed Saturday evening discourse, the punters kept coming in. I noted two girls who came in. They asked if there were any tables free. They were told that they were all busy but that one might be free in about an hour. One girl asked if she could reserve a table, to which the startling reply was "you can if there is about six of you....but not for two". About six? Does this mean you could get a table if you were five giants? Or maybe the seven dwarves would have been lucky that night? But what about normal couples who want to enjoy a later meal in Porters? Their custom was clearly not welcome on Saturday evening. The girls left looking rather bemused.But that was not the end of our interesting evening. We finished the bottle of wine and decided to order a second, and final, bottle - it was Saturday after all! When my friend ordered it the barmaid asked if we were eating. We had considered ordering a portion of garlic bread or plate of chips to gently munch on, but as we had yet to decide which gastronomic delight to choose, we politely declined at this time. The response this time however was even more startling than that to the innocent couple wanting to reserve a table. She simply said, "If you're not eating we will need to take the table away soon".Rather aghast at this treatment of our custom, we decided to forego the bottle of wine and hastily left Porters Bar - vowing never to return. Even while we were donning our coats and shuffling round the table, rather than apologising for her rudeness, the barmaid turned to two customers at the bar and told them that our table was now free.Not to be down-hearted, we headed up the road to FILO, where our custom was greeted with friendly smiles, a cheaper bottle of wine and two packets of crisps to munch on. Not a table-snatcher in sight there.

A User - 11/02/2009 | report this review