Went out for a meal with family & friends tonight to celebrate an anniversary. There was a group of us, about 12, so we booked ahead and pre-ordered our meals a few days beforehand.

I had nipped out to the loo when the food started to arrive; when I got back they brought out 'mine' - I'd ordered a medium-rare steak but they brought well-done (this had been double checked on arrival as I'd omitted to tell them what size).

The waiter - I think he was the owner - claimed another guy at the table (Mark) had mistakenly taken mine, as I hadn't been there when it came. Then (I totally couldn't believe this!) he suggested that as Mark hadn't yet touched his steak, it could be taken off his plate, swapped over and given to me Now I know that's what he said and there were 9 witnesses, we were gobsmacked.

I quite rightly refused and so they had to go and cook another steak for me, but then insisted Mark had to pay for the extra 'well done' one that he should have had! not just the steak but the whole meal, chips, peas, mushrooms etc as well. Not only that but when Mark did start on his steak it wasn't medium rare but well done, and if it had been served to me I'd not have been happy. Mine when it eventually came (I was the last to be served due to this) was just perfect, thankfully.

Eventually Mark agreed to pay just an extra £4.50 for the steak, but we were totally in amazement, as it could easily have been the kitchen's fault, not ours.

This used to be a pub with a very good reputation for food, but not only was the general quality not as good, I still can't believe what they tried to do. It spoilt a special occasion.

I heard the place has recently changed hands.... none of us will be going back there that's for sure!

Should I complain to Trading Standards?

Personally I would not have paid the extra..what could they have done as the bill normally comes at the end of the meal.
If there are places for you to write a review, I would cos this will do more damage I would think than trading standards plus you wont go again.

I had this with a very nice pub which my mother & I visited for her birthday treat a year or so ago. It had gone downhill drastically & there had been a change of hands & I would never visit again & I warn others off too.

The fact that there were 12 of you, i'd have thought they would have gone out of their way to accommodate you all. A fair bit of money would have gone into the tills, tips etc. What a shambles, what were they thinking of? When i go out for meal, if it isn't up to par i would worry about saying anything in case they took it back and replaced it with something that may have been tampered with. If the experience was awful i just wouldn't go again and write a review on tripadvisor perhaps, like lexy has said. 
Don't have much experience with trading standards other than a shed i bought online with a major diy company. The size advetised wasn't what was delivered. The diy shop basiclly said tough i had read the advert wrong!!!:-o Blooming cheek! I contacted trading standards and they told me what my rights were and specific terminology to use. It came under the misdiscriptions act or something. Anyway after a long winded affair, AHEM i got a full refund and kept the shed as the gesture of goodwill and all the ag it had caused!!!!

Thank you - can you recommend any review places to try?

We left NO tips (no surprise there then). What really incensed me is the guy who has supposedly taken the wrong steak is - trying to be politically correct here - borderline learning disabled. Actually no, he is LD, but would have been embarrassed if I'd waded in, in his defence. At my end of the table, maybe after the waiter heard us muttering 'trading standards' etc we got treated a lot better but they still made Mark pay for that extra steak. Just so horrible, I have never seen anyone treated like that in my life.

> can you recommend any review places to try?
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You could google the name of the pub & see what comes up, it may have a website of its own which you can comment on. Thats what I have done when looking for pubs to visit.

Your not going to like this but looking at it from a different viewpoint.

You all made your order, the waiter brought out the 12 meals (the fact that you were missing is irrelevant really) and obviously as they do with steaks they ask who ordered which steak, the man concerned said it was his and was given yours, what did the restaurant do wrong, someone else took your meal? Why should it cost them to make another steak?

If the meals were untouched really and truly you should have just swopped plates and had your correct meals, it wasn't wrong to suggest that, when in a large group and everyone is chatting it is very easy for even the wrong meals to be put in front of people, easily done when people are not paying proper attention, it's so easy just to swop over.

A steak meal for £4.50 is very cheap so it is obviously not a restaurant with a high profit margin and relies on high turnover to make a living, giving away free meals when it is not their fault wouldn't be something they would rush to do, I can understand that.

Your friend with LD made the initial mistake (easy to mishear) but you also refused to swop. (Understandable if he had started on the veg or other things on the plate, I wouldn't want it either, but it is not the restaurants fault)

However, in the end after your friend saw his steak was not medium rare anyway as he was being asked to pay for it you should have all called the waiter/owner over and said your not paying for it anyway as it was overdone and would have been declined by you anyway.

If you did not point it out then you have nothing to complain about, the restaurant was not at fault in what they did. Soz but it wasn't. :-)

If you did point it out, your friend is entitled to a refund.

Whilst Carrington may or may not be correct, ultimately the pub is in a 'service industry' and relies on customers, therefore the customer should be King ;-) The reputation and lost sales once the 12 people have all told 10 other people locally was foolishly lost for a £4.50 gain .........

Trip advisor and any 'local' review web sites plus twitter..........

> Your friend with LD made the initial mistake (easy to mishear) but you also refused to swop. (Understandable if he had started on the veg or other things on the plate, I wouldn't want it either, but it is not the restaurants fault)

Yes he had started... which is why everyone was suprised at the suggestion. Sorry but to me, taking an item off someone's plate, at table, in front of everyone, and replacing it in sight, isn't on.

They originally tried to charge him the full £12.50 for the extra meal... the £4.50 was what they backed down to (charge for just steak) when we complained.

When he finally started on the steak it was no way Med-Rare; yes we should have pointed it out.... but we were trying to enjoy ourselves despite the issues. I still think it was a mistake by the kitchen which was dumped on us. In any case, the quality of the food and the service was well below what it used to be a year ago (I have eaten there before, and my mother goes there at least 4 times a year). It's changed hands, apparently... (It's not a chain)... can't wait for it to change back again. I've never had that kind of attitude EVER before anywhere, and if you'd been there you'd have been upset too.

Gonna get on those review sites :)

to me, taking an item off someone's plate, at table, in front of everyone, and replacing it in sight, isn't on.

Your right that is very distasteful, swopping plates is one thing but moving steaks around is quite another. You wouldn't get that in a Gordon Ramsay restaurant. :-D

Ahh........ so they tried to charge £12.50 that makes more sense £4.50 for a steak dinner did seem sooooo..... cheap.

If it was all done with a bad attitude that is not on at all. We very recently had something similar happen but not so bad, the waitress and us all thought it was funny. Ours was a party of 20 and over a chocolate fudge cake, one of our friends had ordered a second desert on his way to the gents then gone for a wander, when it arrived we all looked blank as no-one claimed it, the waitress looked puzzled so in the end one of us decided to eat it (not me :-D) our friend then arrived back asking if his desert had arrived and so we just ordered another one, our friend quipped that he hoped he would not be charged for it and the waitress laughed and said we certainly would be.

We all just added in for it as it was our mistake, if it had been another bottle of wine or a steak, we would have done the same. I do feel for the poor man with you who had to pay out for an extra steak I think maybe all twelve of you should have just put a few pence in each to cover for it, so that no-one was left feeling 'picked on.' (You may have done that)

I still don't feel it was the restaurants fault so trading standards would not be interested, but in no way should they have made you feel upset, as already said not a good way to do business, you can get people to pay for things without a bad attitude, I wouldn't go back anywhere if I felt like that either, mind you not leaving a tip should have sent a clear message anyway.

Hopefully you will find somewhere with a great service for next time. :-)

> Hopefully you will find somewhere with a great service for next time. :-)

Thank you - yes I hope so too, but this is a very small town (officially a very large village) with not many places to eat out. I think word will get out about last night without me going on any review sites! Also limited as some family and friends are disabled and can't travel very far, i.e. out of town.

We have a good pub eatery just a couple of doors down but because this other place was always thought to be better, that's where we went for the celebration.

This time of year there are quite a few eating outs coming up, I am sure we'll be OK with the one along the road next week for Mum's birthday.

I always check restaurants , holidays, hotels on Trip Advisor, if I have had a good experience I leave them a positive review, if not they get a justified bad review.