LETTERS Rude restaurateurs
Sir: Regarding rude restaurateurs, Josephine Quintavalle (Letters, 5 August) at least had the consolation of being ejected by Mr Pierre White unbilled. Last Saturday a group of five friends (including a Spectator columnist no less) and myself chose to dine at Le Mazarin, another much feted establishment. As two of the party are vegetarian I made a great effort to ensure that the restaurant was able to prepare something suitable.
Arriving at the restaurant on a blazing hot night we were 'greeted' by the instruc- tion to 'wear jackets next time', even though no one else we could see actually had one on. Having been hustled to order, one of the waiters, when told that he had given a soup spoon to someone by mistake, refused to believe us and kept asking were we sure? The so-called vegetarian dishes, mean portions of the same vegetables the rest of us were having, were of course sent back.
Came the bill, we found that we had been charged for the full six set menus (at £25 each) plus a vegetarian supplement of £10! A query replaced the six menus with four, but boosted the supplement to £20, even though all the hapless vegetarians had had were two starters. A refusal to pay more than £10 for them brought threats of the police, but eventually the head waiter found a 'compromise' of calling the two vegetarian cover charges two starters in- stead!
Eventually, and with the full support of our neighbouring table, we insisted on either leaving £10 less (that is £200 versus £210 in all), or nothing at all. The res- taurant then called the police, I imagine making out that we were a bunch of drunken louts.
Needless to say, with a bill plastered with Tippex the police saw our point of view, and told the restaurant off for time-wasting. Incidentally, unlike Nico's, the food is not that great.
Chris Carter
20 Wakehurst Road, London SW11
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