"My friend’s and I all went for a curry last night and we waited 40 minutes for someone to come and take our food order. We then had to wait another 55 minutes for our starter to come out, after ordering. I didn’t order a starter for myself as I know I get very full with just the curry, although I was regretting this now as we waited over an hour and a half for any food to come to the table. 2 hours in, I finally received my first bit of food, which from past dining experience, I’d expect to be leaving the restaurant in that time. I do understand that it was a busy Saturday night, so although I was annoyed, I wasn’t going to make a fuss over. My friend’s and I all paid separately, so when it came to my turn to pay, I kindly asked if the service charge could be taken off, as I didn’t think it was fair to pay this, having waited 2 hours to eat anything. The waiter then told me that everyone has to pay it, I couldn’t take it off, and if I wanted to not pay it, he would just add it onto my friend’s total. He also said the reason it felt like a longer wait, was because we didn’t have poppadoms and starters. My other friend’s did in fact have starters which took an hour and a half to come out and I don’t believe if we don’t order poppadoms, then we should still have to wait the same amount of time as if we were to have them. Although the other waiter’s were nice and we were a table of 7, I don’t believe it was fair to add on a £28 service charge, when the food took that long to come and we had to keep calling people over to take our drinks order. As stated previously, I understand it was a busy Saturday night so I wasn’t going to make a fuss but the fact that we couldn’t then remove the service charge is what has annoyed me. I hope in the future you do allow customers to remove the service charge if they aren’t satisfied with the service, as this is the law. Thanks"
