How not to treat your customers...

Two Bulls Steakhouse, Hastings Old Town

Successful restaurants make you feel they care, and that you're important to them. We all know the old trick of the doorman saying "Nice to see you again, sir", flattering the ego. If, on the other hand, you get the impression that they don't really care at all, the reaction is to turn away and shake their dust from your feet. Which is, I'm afraid, precisely what we have done with the Two Bulls Steakhouse.

We discovered the Two Bulls two months ago.  The steaks we had were excellent.  The manageress was charming.  We went back a couple of weeks later.  This time we had a table not far from the door.  There was a strong draught coming through, which slightly spoilt the evening: but it didn't deter us from going back a third time, two weeks ago.  I was told  that the only table available was close to the door.  "However," the lady at the end of the phone said when I made my booking, "it'll have warmed up by the time you come in."

Wrong.  Call me a wimp if you like, but I emerged from that evening with a frozen back as if I hadn't been wearing any clothes at all - in spite of my customary three layers.  The cold back became a streaming cold, which Paul then caught. 

The food at the Two Bulls is good, and the service pleasant.  So yesterday afternoon I called to make another reservation, for the evening.  I explained our previous experience.  I was told there were only two tables available - one upstairs, and one by the waitress' station, in the middle of the restaurant.  Upstairs is soulless and draughty, as well as being a passage to the loos, so I asked for the one by the waitress' station.  I gave them my phone number.

Last night an Arctic wind was blowing from the east.  When we arrived at the Two Bulls, we were offered the table upstairs that I had refused.  I told them about the phone conversation when we'd booked, but was told that they'd "had to rearrange" things.  Sorry, ladies: not good enough.  We sacrificed our health before for your food, and don't want to do so again.  So we took our custom elsewhere, and had an excellent meal in the comfort of the Dragon round the corner.  I'm not sure when we'll be returning to the Two Bulls.  June, perhaps?

Antony Mair