CAFE BLEURGH

I'm not in the habit of ranting or complaining, but I must say that a trip to Bath's Cafe Rouge is highly NOT recommended!

Last night L and I headed out for dinner, and were lured into Cafe Rouge in Milsom Street - having been to the same chain in Westbourne, in Bournemouth and loving it.

I appreciate that the Bath branch can't have been open long (I'm sure it was a Bella Pasta before I left for my hols?) But the number of inadequacies that occurred was surreal. (I thought we MUST have been part of an episode of "Candid Camera" or part of a psychological experiment into the English psyche.)

Waitress One was clearly nervous pouring us each a glass of water, and nearly went into some sort of spasm of fear when one of the ice cubes threatened to escape from the jug into the glass. She then started to remove our wine glasses and asked if we were ready to order - I said we were waiting for a bottle of wine, and she ran off. She ran off in no particular direction. She certainly didn't head for the bar, and our wine.

Waitress Two then brought the said bottle of wine over, failed to show us the label and proceeded to veeeeeery tortuous and uncomfortable battle with the bottle as she tried to open it. Disaster was waiting to strike, and once the cork did come out, so did most of the wine - onto our table. Then Waitress Two ran off. Yup - she also ran off - leaving us to test the wine and pour ourselves a glass. (By this time the wine was purely medicinal and not recreational.)

Waitress Three sighed loudly and shouted over to Waitress Two when my medium-rare steak arrived as a crisp, burned mass.

There IS more (but I shall spare you the details) and not one genuine apology was made.

Managers One through Four (yes, there were four of them) never moved a muscle, and left Waitresses One through Three to it.

I've never been so disappointed with a restaurant, and have never been happier to leave.

Rant over. Think I'll stick to the fantastically lekker Java.