Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 47 total)
  • Putting up with the second-rate. Why do we do it?
  • MrWoppit
    Free Member

    Popped into a Cafe this morning to kill half an hour and ordered some breakfast – scrambled egges and toast.

    Standard white-sliced packet bread (O.K., I put up with it – should have asked for wholemeal or the like when I ordered) and scrambled eggs that didn't taste of anything. Like eating warm plastic.

    When I complained, the "cook" said "They're just normal eggs, what we've been serving for 30 years", then asked for a fiver plus change.

    Paid for the coffee, left.

    My attitude is, if you can't give me something I could prepare better myself, why should I pay for it? And how dare you serve such rubbish and ask for a 500% mark up?

    Breathe…

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    You were prepared to pay £5 for scrambled eggs on toast at all??????

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    Totally with you. Which is why we take packed lunches everywhere: Lovely food for £3 for 2 people, not £5 each….. 🙂

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    tracknicko
    Free Member

    come to the north mate, its much better.

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    Hmmm. Fish sarnie for lunch!

    Drac
    Full Member

    I agree with MF you went somewhere and were willing to pay £5 for scrambled eggs on toast, are you CaptainFlashHearts love child.

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    £5 for decent food – good portion of eggs, proper bread, coffee. Yes. Seems reasonable to me.

    In the event, didn't pay.

    Shibboleth
    Free Member

    If you ate it, you should have paid for it. If you'd sent it back after tasting it, then you'd have been perfectly within your rights to not pay.

    mr-potatohead
    Free Member

    great british tradition , if people pay for it , they'll be happy to charge for mediocre shite , i still think if it wasn't for the influx of foreigne restaurants we'd be having steakhouse fare and going home at 9.30 cos it suited them .

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    So it wasn't £5 for the egg on toast then? But as has been said – if it wasn't good enough then you should ask for a refund and not eat it.

    Or put some meat on it and have a proper breakfast 😉

    Drac
    Full Member

    So when your thread says "Putting up with the second-rate. Why do we do it?" you didn't, also like others have said you ate it. When I've had crap food I've sent it back there and then not eat it then refuse to pay.

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    £5 for decent food – good portion of eggs, proper bread, coffee. Yes. Seems reasonable to me.

    Agreed, but only if it's good! I have a cracking little greasy spoon up the road that does a smashing egg and pig bun for £3.95. Proper smoked back bacon, cooked to order, two decent fried eggs again cooked to order all wrapped up in crusty white loveliness.

    You just picked a duff caff, of which there are sadly far too many.

    the-muffin-man
    Full Member

    And how dare you serve such rubbish and ask for a 500% mark up?

    Are you basing that figure on just the cost of the eggs and bread, or on the total overheads of the cafe?

    Not sure what you expected scrambled eggs to taste of, but unless you add a something to them they are very bland. Was there not salt and pepper on the table?

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    Drac – Member

    So when your thread says "Putting up with the second-rate. Why do we do it?" you didn't, also like others have said you ate it. When I've had crap food I've sent it back there and then not eat it then refuse to pay.

    "like others have said you ate it" – amazing – are there invisible STW posters hanging around me when I'm (not) eating?

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    Not sure what you expected scrambled eggs to taste of, but unless you add a something to them they are very bland.

    Clearly, you are not used to eating decent food.

    Shibboleth
    Free Member

    I'm with muffin man here – scrambled eggs hardly ooze flavour unless they've been well seasoned with salt and white pepper. Mmmm.

    If you sent it back uneaten, why the hell did you pay?

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    Oh dear. Please re read my posting.

    1: I didn't pay.

    2: Eggs from non-battery hens, cooked properly, are delicious.

    Clearly (at the risk of repeating myself) – you haven't yet tasted any.

    See also: "What is the best chocolate (bar) ever?"

    djglover
    Free Member

    I ask where they get their eggs before ordering

    barnsleymitch
    Free Member

    I love it when I go into cafe's for a full english, and they give you one sausage cut in half down the middle and opened out. What the blue blazes is that all about? Am I supposed to think I'm getting two sausages? You dirty, evil, sausage cutting bas****s.

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    djglover – Member

    I ask where they get their eggs before ordering

    That's a good idea and one I'll adopt in future. 😀

    Shibboleth
    Free Member

    Clearly, (at the risk of contradicting you), I eat eggs laid by my sister's free range hens so I know the difference.

    I think that in future, you should prepare your own scrambled eggs then you'll not have anyting to moan about. 🙄

    Haze
    Full Member

    I love scrambled eggs, but they make me cry whenever I order them 'out'

    GaryLake
    Free Member

    and they give you one sausage cut in half down the middle and opened out

    So it cooks quicker I expect.

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    I think that in future, you should prepare your own scrambled eggs then you'll not have anyting to moan about.

    Pretty difficult to do in a Cafe…

    swamp_boy
    Full Member

    Asking where eggs come from might get you a literal answer.

    I'd avoid cafe scrambled eggs but I also avoid big chain places like the plague. Down here in That London there are loads of little independent places doing good quick food at reasonable prices if you look round a bit. Turkish and Portugese run ones are usually pretty good.

    I'm sure the An*us steak houses round Leicester Square are only kept going by people from out of town coming in to see shows, though they are a reminder of how cr@p eating out used to be in the 70s.

    simonfbarnes
    Free Member

    I do feel the original poster should have specified "second rate eggs"…

    oldfart
    Full Member

    T'other week i found myself at the mercy of motorway service stations .Between £3 and £4 for the most unappetising sandwiches you could imagine .Thanks but i'll go hungry .
    On the Mendips the weekend had an al day breakfast .2 eggs , 2 sausages ,loads of excellent bacon,saute potatoes,beans ,toast and a mug of tea for £5.95 .Gert lush it were !

    joolsburger
    Free Member

    If anyone is ever in Dorking, Harleys Cafe do a fantastic bit of tucker.

    Very good sausages!

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    The best Cafe breakfasts I ever had were in a bar in Wanaka, NZ. They called it the "All Day Beast" (lol).

    Saute potatoes, eggs, mushrooms, bacon, beans, proper fresh bread and butter, 1/2 pint FRESH orange juice and as much real coffee as you wanted.

    Bliss.

    Plus, when you left the place, you were in New Zealand… 8)

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    joolsburger – Member

    If anyone is ever in Dorking, Harleys Cafe do a fantastic bit of tucker.

    Very good sausages!

    Is that where the old Harley Davidson showroom used to be, jools?

    Marge
    Free Member

    sorry if I am missing a post but did you eat all the scrambled eggs on toast or just taste & return them?

    If you ate it all up & then didn't pay (regardless of how lacking in taste they were) then I think that's bit cheeky….

    TheSouthernYeti
    Free Member

    Morrisons breakfast £3.95 for sausage, bacon x2, eggs, mushrooms, tomato, fried bread, hash browns, 70p for 2 slices of toast, and another 70 for some black pudding, enough to keep me on the bike all day! Bargain.

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    PS: All Day Beast here…

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    Is that on the front overlooking the sandy beach and the island? With a car park somewhere just of shot to the left of the picture?

    Or is that somewhere else I am thinking of? Does it overlook the Tasman sea?

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    mastiles_fanylion – Member

    Is that on the front overlooking the sandy beach and the island? With a car park somewhere just of shot to the left of the picture?

    Stand by…

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    joemarshall
    Free Member

    Best café breakfast I have had is I think at La Note, which is a French café in Berkeley, California.

    Very good scrambled eggs, homefries, a ludicrous quantity of roasted garlic in there (I think I counted 10 cloves or something), and pancakes & maple syrup on the side. Oh and with a fresh citron pressé on the side.

    Cost £8 including the drink, but it did mean I didn't need lunch really, and the quality was very very good. Haven't had anything so good anywhere else. Americans do some of the best breakfasts, and fancy Americans trying to pretend to be French (so not so fatty and using good ingredients) are even better.

    I agree with the general point – like bloody coffee places that do terrible coffee or worse, you can get a teabag that has been put into milk, then had tepid water put on top of it (and it costs you £2 for the privilege), yet everyone still seems to go into them. And Starbucks cakes, they look quite fancy, but I can't believe any bugger actually likes those disgusting pieces of junk.

    Oh and bad, but shiny looking restaurants, particularly outside London they're everywhere, it is so blimmin expensive to eat out when you are outside London, and such a lottery, so much worse on average than London eating, and more expensive which is pretty stupid.

    Joe

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    My description doesn't match the images but it was a long time ago I went, but yep!

    I loved NZ. Not as much as Kenya, but it was amazing. Also had the bestestest ever shell-on tiger prawns in salt and pepper in Queenstown. Nom.

    Nom.

    Nom.

    kimbers
    Full Member

    hothouse cafe in chiswick, best full english for miles around

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    Well, M-F, there's a sandy beach… and what could be an island (it's actually a peninsula, though)…

    Wanaka is on the edge of Lake Wanaka.

    It's where Queenstowners go to when they want a break!

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 47 total)

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