Ambrette Restaurant Reviews 8

if I have minus 100 then I give this -100.
worst place ever to be, pls avoid this.

I went to eat in the Canterbury restaurant on 23rd January.
1- the mango lassi had spices !!! when asked the uncharge said its normal. ( I was in many Indian restaurants all over the world , never seen mango lassi with spices !)

2- plates were dirty

3- disgusting food

4- finally when bill came I only realised it was the wrong bill when I came back home.

Then the story starts. The restaurant trying their best to act ignorant, act blur as if nothing happened. dragged until now no refund of the overcharge of the wrong bill.

I called same day 23rd jan night they person there told me to email all the details with the bill. The manager/owner dragged this until now. playing as if they dont know anything.

Disgusting food, poor customer service. unprofessional , I won't stop until I complain to the highest. pls avoid.

Very disappointing meal. Starter not cooked, slow service not asked if we wanted more drinks, sides didn’t appear until asked for. Will not return!

Have had 3 experiences with the Ambrette in different restaurants. They are not cheap but you do seem to get a consistently good experience. My last experience was a Thali in Canterbury for a Birthday lunch which I enjoyed.

Best service, wonderful piano player, and amazing food! What a perfect place for our anniversary!

Delicious food. Generous portions and ready on time for collection. Would recommend.

My wife's and my experience at this restaurant turned out to be somewhat of a disaster after a promising start. The gentlemen that greeted us was very professional and within a few minutes he had taken our order, having been very helpful answering our questions about the menu and recommending dishes to us. We did not order starters because my wife is not a big eater. We only ordered mains as we fully intended to have deserts. The drinks were brought to us very promptly by the same gentleman and we were impressed again by his service. But unfortunately after that the problems started!

We waited and waited and, some 40 minutes after we had ordered, a young waitress came to our table and we thought she was about to apologise for the delay. In fact she asked us if we had enjoyed everything and did we need anything else! She clearly wasn’t very observant as the place settings in front of us were still as they had been when we arrived – three knives, three forks a spoon and a serviette in front of both of us. We politely told her that we could not answer her question as we had not been served anything yet. Within a few minutes after that we were each given a “pre-starter” appetizer which was most welcome and was excellent whetting our appetite for the mains which we then expected would shortly arrive. Unfortunately they did not. An hour and a quarter after we had ordered the gentleman who took our order realised that we had not received our food and sent another gentleman, who we assumed to be the manager, to talk to us. He apologised profusely for the delay and asked if we had had our starters? We explained again that we had not ordered any starters as we wanted to leave room for deserts but, given the extreme delays and the late hour, disappointingly deserts would no longer be an option for us. He went to the kitchen and returned saying our mains would only be another few minutes. They did eventually arrive at about 10 minutes later - almost an hour and a half after our arrival at the restaurant! Whilst the food tasted excellent, we could not really enjoy it as we were by then short of time. We ate the mains fairly quickly and asked for the bill and then the next problem started.

The bill was incorrect. It had a bottle of white wine on it whereas we had had a slightly less expensive carafe of red wine. We also pointed out that we had shared a garlic naan which was missing from the bill, not charged for. The £5.00 booking deposit had not been deducted from the total but we assumed that was because the restaurant would be cancelling/crediting this deposit made by a credit card. Another corrected bill was brought to us. We paid by the same card and left disappointed that our evening had not turned out the way we should have expected. We could not fault the quality of the food – if only it had arrived without the 80+ minute delay and there had been time to sample deserts!

We checked our bank card account the following morning and the restaurant had not cancelled/credited the deposit despite having charged the full sum on the revised bill presented the previous evening. Some 3+ weeks later, and after 4 emails requesting the refund and 4 replies with excuses promising it was being processed, we have still not received. Neither have we received any email response from the restaurant managers/owners (despite several email assurances that the General Manager would do so) answering why we received such terrible service with no apology of any sort.

The food is good but the service in the restaurant was not acceptable. And the way we have been treated (not) since is nothing short of scandalous.

This was the worse Indian food I have ever eaten. It was ordered from their Dover outlet for delivery. I had South Indian beef which came as 6 small dried up inedible pieces floating in some oil. The spinach/lentil and chickpea side came in two small pots that were less than 1/3 full and were completely bland and tasteless. It was like cat food and went straight into bin. What a complete joke. It looked more like the leftovers from last weekend. I think this was not only the worst Indian but the worst food I have ever been served.

Please see details of my Tripadvisor review below, their rude response back and also my email directly to the restaurant in response to their rude response. I am shocked and appalled at my treatment in this restaurant and their review back. I have never been treated like this is in a restaurant in my entire life.


AMBRETTE RESTAURANT CANTERBURY

MY REVIEW ON TRIP ADVISOR

This is the WORST customer service I have EVER experienced, SHOCKING!!
I booked a special early Mother’s Day treat for myself and my Mother to go to the theatre and eat here afterwards yesterday evening 16.03.19. Had a wonderful time shopping, then watching Warhorse at the Marlowe, which was outstanding and we were having a great day.

We then walked to this restaurant for our meal. When we arrived, it was very quiet and soulless in there. The staff were still removing their coats, and generally looked annoyed to receive customers. We were directed to a table in the window, which was nice. My Mother sat down, then strangely the waiter then decided to start rearranging the blind straight behind her, invading her personal space, which was really bad manners.

We were given menus, then ignored for probably about ten minutes and not offered a drink, even though there were only about three other occupied tables in there and the staff continually had their backs to us.

In the end, I had to ask to the same waiter if we could order our drinks, I had to call him across the restaurant as he was at the bar with his back towards us.

My Mother order a Gordons Gin & Tonic, and the same waiter moodily said ‘we don’t do that one’ without giving other options. It reminded me of the ‘Computer says No’ sketch from the programme Little Britain. We then ordered a different option. In the mean-time I asked a young waitress if we could order some food and she advised that someone will be there in a minute. Nobody came to take our food order.

The drinks took another ten minutes to come and the same space invading waiter brought them over. When he arrived at our table, he accidentally tipped over her bottle of tonic water, spilling half on the floor, and then just proceeded to serve it to us without changing it or offering a replacement. It was like something off Fawlty Towers!

I then asked if he could take our food order, he rudely said, that he was serving our drinks at the moment and had to clean up the drink he spilt then he would take our order.

I said to my Mother that we have asked twice for our food order to be taken, and the waiter repeated what I said back to himself, sarcastically and taking the p*ss out of me. I could not believe what I was hearing!!

With that I got up and told him that we would not be eating there and I would pay for the drinks, but we were not eating there, and I have never experienced such rude customer service. You get better service in McDonalds.

I have eaten in many restaurants both mid-range and expensive fine dining establishments and I have never experienced service like that in my entire life.
The space invading waiter clearly had a low opinion of women and I will not put up with treatment like that. It was like a scene from Fawlty Towers. We eventually found a better restaurant to eat it in Canterbury and had a wonderful meal with great service.

I would just say to anyone thinking of eating here, avoid at all costs. The customer service is SHOCKING! I did not even finish my drink that I had ordered because I was so cross. Avoid Avoid Avoid!!!


And to top it off, showing the terrible customer from the manager, this is the response I got back on Tripadvisor, basically trying to imply that I am a liar and hoping that other customers see through me as a reviewer!!! No apology.
SHOCKING!!!


..."Dev biswal, Guest Relations Manager at The Ambrette Canterbury, responded to this review
Responded yesterday
You arrived at the restaurant at 17:20 but we open at 17:30. Even though we were still doing our last minute set up for the evening service we were kind enough to accommodated you.
Our waiters pull the blinds down every day before service as part of the restaurant set up and they kindly did request for your permission before doing so next to your table.
With regards to the drinks situation, as already mentioned, we were still setting up and not open to the public.
This member of staff who served you has been commended numerous times on Trip Advisor for exemplary service and we do not believe that he was rude to you. As a policy, we must always repeat customer's orders to make sure that there was no mistake in the food order. Our staff do not have a low opinion of women and we have people from all genders and nationalities working in our restaurant.
Our customers rate us quite highly for our food and service, therefore we are certain that most people would see through this review and reviewer very clearly and make their own judgement"...

This last paragraph is priceless and basically calling me a liar!!

I cannot respond to this for a month, due to the terms and conditions on Trip Advisor so I have sent a direct email to the restaurant as follows:

Thank you for your rude response below to my Trip Advisor review. To be honest, I am not surprised by your response and I did not expect anything less from your establishment.

Point one, there were customers in your restaurant already at 17.20 when we arrived. If you are not ready to accept customers 10 minutes before their table booking, then you should lock the door! Your comments, about you being "kind enough to accommodate us", ten minutes before our reservation are just damn right rude. Were you doing us a favour allowing us to enter your establishment then???

Point two, the waiter did not say excuse me, for space invading my Mother and I also refer back to point one, if you are not ready to accept customers, then don't open the door!

Point three, the drinks situation, I go back to point one yet again. Also, you did not respond to the fact that the drink was spilt and no replacement offered. It was like something out of Fawlty Towers.

Point four, you will not accept that the waiter was rude and actually mocked me sarcastically and do not apologise for this, all you can say is that he has had good reviews. Maybe you should check your CCTV or send some female mystery shoppers to review service. This is a poor response from you indeed. Especially considering that the couple sat at the table on the right of us also thought he was rude. He obviously has picked up his manners from yourself.


Point five, you obviously did not read my review properly as I mentioned nothing about him repeating food orders??!! Shows how much care you take when reading customer feedback.

As for your comment at the end

..."We are certain that most people would see through this review and reviewer very clearly and make their own judgement"...

Are you trying to imply that I made the whole thing up, are you calling me a liar? This comment is unbelievable. I was just going to leave one bad review on Tripadvisor and leave it at that but now due to this response, I will at EVERY opportunity tell everyone who is thinking of visiting you about the terrible service at your restaurant and from your Management. Any websites online where I can tell people about my experience, I will. As soon as I can put a response on Trip Advisor to your super rude comments I will as well.