An Edinburgh restaurant has hit back at a diner's furious TripAdvisor review after claiming they received "appalling" service and were denied drinks.
The Miller and Carter Steakhouse on Frederick Street were quick to respond to the customer's comments online, with the venue usually receiving five-star reviews.
Explaining they had dined out for a birthday in March, 2022, the customer fumed that they had been "refused a bottle of wine" due to them being "too happy", and had left before they even got their main courses.
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Arguing that their complaints had not been followed up by Miller and Carter, the customer wrote:
"We visited here for my husbands birthday celebrations which had been planned with friends as a surprise for a couple of months.
"We were refused a bottle of wine with our meal and the reason being, according to the waitress was that my husband was ‘too happy’ but she was happy to serve me and my friend (females in the group) but not the males within the group.
"We asked to speak to the manager and during this interaction overheard a member of the bar staff referring to us as ‘English pigs’. We left our meal, begrudgingly paying for the starters we had shared between us. Absolutely appalling customer service with no follow up on the complaints I’ve already made."
However, the customer service team at Miller and Carter quickly responded on TripAdvisor to state they had been looking into the incident, and completely denied the allegations made.
Hitting back at the claims, the restaurant said their decision to deny further alcohol had been the "correct one", adding:
"This delay was down to getting information back from various team members involved, so I could look into what were some quite serious allegations. Anyway, sorry to hear that you felt your treatment on the day was disgraceful.
"I understand from the manager you spoke to on the day that your server felt that two of the party had had too much to drink. I have spoken to her regarding how she should put this across moving forward – it was her second shift with us and she could definitely have been clearer in her language.
"I also understand that the manager in question was willing to give the gentlemen the benefit of the doubt regarding this, until one of them decided to take matters into his own hands.
"After his colourful language and behaviour towards our manager, this decision was then revoked. Based on this and the behaviour of the gentlemen at the bar at the end of your visit, the decision to deny the alcohol was the correct one.
"We will not be issuing a refund as it was your decision to leave, and you were charged for the items you ate/drank on the day, and a couple of sides which didn’t even cover the cost price of the four main meals which were unpaid for.
"The police were mentioned to one of the guests as he told our manager he would walk out without paying. Again, further evidence to us that the correct decision was made regarding the service of alcohol.
"I have spoken to the bar team working on the day – two of whom are English - in regard to the allegation that one of our bar team used the term ‘English pigs’ to refer to your party. Neither they or the management team are aware of this incident occurring, and would not tolerate it from their work colleagues should this have been the case.
"I understand your frustrations that your birthday celebrations were impacted, but I am afraid that the blame for this does not rest on the shoulders of our team."
