When eating out, how long is too long to wait for your food?

Posted by Other_Exercise@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 31 comments

I'm staying at a Premier Inn for work and my dinner order (a sharing plate - yes, for one) chips and a side salad didn't show up after 1 hour and 15 minutes of waiting. Long story short, I decided to walk out and go to a kebab shop and eat the kebab back at the room. I've never done this before - walking out of a restaurant before the food has showed up - and I'm planning on politely saying tomorrow how I won't be paying for the food. I don't know if I'm being unreasonable, but would you expect to wait 1:15 for some food on a weeknight at a Premier Inn?

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31 Comments

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Suspicious_tuna@reddit

Lucky you found a Premier Inn that's still doing evening meals

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SCATOL92@reddit

I work at premier inn and have some insight on this. Whitbread (parent company) have announced the sale of almost all restaurants. This means a shit load of people will lose their jobs. They do still have the opportunity to transfer to a site that isn't going to be affected by the closures. The decision has been made that Premier Inn is no longer allowed to recruit external people to give restaurant workers a chance to fill positions within the company. However, like everything that whitbread does they have ballsed it up and people aren't transferring as quickly as they thought/ may decide not to transfer. I was a chef in beefeater until the announcement and then I transferred to Premier Inn as a housekeeper. The hours that Premier inn offer for chefs are absolutely shocking. I can't see many transfers happening tbh

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greenfence12@reddit

Why are they selling them all out of interest? Brewers fayre used to be really popular back in the day. Is the demand for chain food down now with price increases?

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SCATOL92@reddit

I think it's a lot of things. Premier inn is more profitable so they want to focus on that side of the business more than restaurants. Plus, the restaurants have become weird. The menus are way too big and try to be all things to all people but don't do any one thing very well anymore. Plus the prices are very high and not competitive in terms of chain restaurants

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CareerMilk@reddit

> The menus are way too big and try to be all things to all people I wouldn't be surprised if they use [this menu](https://www.premierinn.com/content/dam/global/restaurants/THY/main-menu-band1.pdf) for what ever they replace the proper restaurants with (and have front of house staff cooking the meals)

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greenfence12@reddit

Boil in a bag / microwave specialities

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CareerMilk@reddit

Hey, it’s not all ping cuisine. They do chips and pizza in the oven.

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greenfence12@reddit

The merry chef still a thing?

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CareerMilk@reddit

I think some places have a merry chef as they’re on the cleaning sheets, but ours just has a combi oven.

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-myeyeshaveseenyou-@reddit

Does that mean they won’t do breakfasts anymore? Premier inn breakfast is one of my favourite things if I’m staying somewhere cheap I will pick premier inn every time just for breakfast

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SCATOL92@reddit

Breakfasts will continue! The Premier inns that already have the restaurant inside will be uneffected. The ones where you have to go to the restaurant for breakfast (beefeater, brewers fayre etc) will have the restaurant closed and there will be a breakfast room/ restaurant built inside the hotel. Some will have to lose a meeting room or a couple of bedrooms, some will get an extension as far as I know

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-myeyeshaveseenyou-@reddit

Oh thank god!

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CarolDanversFangurl@reddit

Apparently this one isn't

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Diega78@reddit

You did the right thing

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SuccotashCareless934@reddit

40 mins for a course in Six By Nico for my birthday, because they brought four meat dishes, instead of three and a vegetarian like the previous three courses. When they asked "oh there's a vegetarian?" I replied "yes my brother is still vegetarian..." It took 40 minutes for them to rectify. I was starving and grumpy by the time they brought the correct food. Note to self: eat a proper meal before doing a tasting menu in the future. I think 50 minutes in Pizza Hut when I was younger because they forget to put the order in. I've walked out of a restaurant abroad before when nobody came to take my order after 20-25 minutes.

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Intruder313@reddit

I walked out of a Pizza Hut when nobody took an order for 20 full mins As I left someone shouted ‘hope you had a good time’ or similar ..

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Nine_Eye_Ron@reddit

Depends on who I am with. Sitting with just my partner I don’t care how long. Sitting with my child and maybe 15 minutes or however long I can keep making up games after that.

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Darkheart001@reddit

An hour and 15 minutes is way too long particularly without updates, I would have complained way earlier and if it wasn’t swiftly resolved just left.

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Sharzzy_@reddit

Unless specifically stated it’ll take awhile to prepare, I think 20 mins is pushing it

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ProfessionalGrade423@reddit

Did you post this twice because you were getting roasted the first time for sitting there for 75 minutes without checking with your server? Then you finally asked and when told it was coming you left anyway? The server clearly forgot to put your order in but it’s your own fault for sitting there so long without asking.

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PKblaze@reddit

I've cooked a variety of meals at home and both prep and cooking time at most take 50 mins. In a professional kitchen you're going to have far more hands, everything should be prepped and they should be used to busy services. So I give it 30 minutes longest.

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fiendofecology@reddit

We waited 40 mins for food at a Harvester at the seafront last week and I’ve not shut up about it since. 20 mins in I asked about an update on our food (I only ordered sides lol) and the waitress kindly told me it was currently about a 40 minute wait. I just wish they’d have said earlier or we would not have ordered anything but we ordered through the app!

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Common_Lime_6167@reddit

If it's lunchtime, after 30 minutes I tell them I have to be back at work very soon, after 40 minutes I walk out. Absolutely no excuse for making people choose between walking out and being late back to work. Evening I don't really care as much especially if I am with someone else but after about 45 minutes I would ask if it is still coming and should we knock it on the head.

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Claret91@reddit

left TGI fridays when it first opened in my home town. waited 20 minutes for drink order to be taken, then another 20 minutes for food order to be taken (drinks not arrived yet), another 25 minutes still no drinks, so it was obvious food was going to be another eternity, so just left, went to slug and lettuce next door

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Typical_Nebula3227@reddit

Yeah more than an hour is definitely too long.

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Dry_Action1734@reddit

That is far too long. From my memory of watching Bar Rescue (great source, I know…) is it should be 20 mins for a normal place and from my experience that is how long it usually takes. 30-45 mins is when I would start asking about it. If you didn’t ask at all, then it’s also on you. Mistakes happen and you may have fallen through the cracks. But I can’t imagine them charging you for it given the wait. But if it’s on the room and you didn’t tell the restaurant you were walking out, you may have to explain.

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Immorals1@reddit

Depends how the waiting staff handled it. If they warned me before, or kept me updated I'd treat it differently to being told nothing. In Montenegro, my wife and I left after an hour of trying to get the bill.

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Other_Exercise@reddit (OP)

I had complained about the arctic Aircon in the restaurant, so didn't want to look like I was just kicking off about everything. The waiter told me my food was next, but it still hadn't been served a few minutes. By then I was so cold, hungry and miserable I couldn't take it any longer.

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Esoteric_Prurience@reddit

I have walked out of a restaurant after waiting over an hour and three quarters for two starters (I wasn't exceptionally hungry). I did let them know I was leaving though.

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Ravdoggydog@reddit

I’d have asked after 30 mins incase the order was lost.

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