Extremely Disappointed!!!
My fiend and I have always dined in Coppinger Row every time we are in Dublin.
We have visited and dined here for approx 6yrs with every time being a wonderful experience with the most attentive and cheerful staff, so much so, that...we used to go for a late lunch and end up sitting right through until closing at night time, catching up over lunch, dinner and a couple of bottles of wine.
Last year when we were there we thought the staff were just having an off day and left it at that.
We did notice the usual chatty staff we had came to recognise weren’t there.
Last night we visited to celebrate my friends birthday, but more so, to celebrate her finishing her chemo before she starts her radiotherapy.
It was a very cold night, but because of how she is at the moment after treatment, she gets very hot, plus, we always have had a habit of sitting outside and people watching.
We sat for ages and nobody even came near us. I ended up having to go inside to order some soft drinks and ask for a menu.
The dark haired waitress ( never seen her before )was quite blasé when she finally came out.
We then waited again for prob 20/25mins if not longer, waiting to actually order. I watched the waitress walking around inside, not always doing something, the waiter was actually setting a table at the other side of the window from were we were sitting but didn’t acknowledge us either.
The waitress served many more customers who came in after us that went inside the restaurant, but for whatever reason, probably because it was colder outside, didn’t want to have to come out to us.
When she did finally come to take our order, she didn’t ask if we wanted to order wine, no wine list was even offered so we just thought sod them, we won’t order any, we can go elsewhere where our presence is actually important to the members of staff, whom we are keeping in employment.
I begrudgingly ordered our meal ( hoping it would get better for the sake of my friend, her circumstances and what was meant to be a celebration, I didn’t want to upset her by saying something to the staff )
We asked the waitress if she could put the outside heaters on, these are usually on in the evenings as they do be for the patrons of pyg across the street, she could see, as could anyone, my friend has cancer, she has no hair, no eyebrows, no eyelashes, it’s pretty obvious!! My chum, who is usually hot had a blanket wrapped round her shoulders but they didn’t even think to ask if she needed anything.
Again, it seemed an inconvenience, saying oh I thought they were on!
The starter was quite average, but to be fair, the rib eye steak was fantastic. ( well done to the chef! )
I actually asked the waiter ( as the waitress stopped serving us ) if we could have the bill when he brought our mains out as I didn’t want to have to sit waiting for ages to get it. He said no sure I’ll bring it out in a bit, I promise.
We ate, he came out, we paid and left. I did say to him that I noticed the staff had changed and that the service wasn’t good, he said sorry they haven’t replaced the staff that have left - the sad thing is, the staff that have left were fantastic.
I can truly say, that after years of patronage we will never be back.More