Cafe Boulevard - very unpleasant experience

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Tarquin

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Hi folks, any opinions on this restaurant (just off Grafton Street)? I had a meal there last night with some colleagues and it was awful, on several aspects. And we were paying for it ourselves.

Service was appalling, the staff were in that fake pleasantness mode 'Hi, Im Damian and Im your server for this evening', yet we had four different waiting staff at our table. We were asked to move from our table twice, to make room for more chairs at a table behind us. We grudging moved the first time but would not budge the second time and the looks they gave us. We tried to order wine twice and both times, after waiting a good while, we were told both bottles were not availabe, so eventually, after 30 minutes, it was third time lucky.

While the food tasted nice enough, the portions were that nouvelle cuisine type, visually ok to look at but tiny portions! Its been a long time since I had to go for a burger after a restaurant meal and I had to, after this one last night!! Tandoori chicken was 2 small skewers of chicken, that was it, the main course of salmon was one small cutlet with small portions of vegetables. The dessert was a small piece of caramel mousse cake. If you were on a diet coming up to Christmas, great, but we were all out for a hearty meal.

When it came to the bill, we were charged for those bottles of wine that they supposedly hadnt in stock! It took ages for the bill to get readjusted (by a fifth member of staff).

Did we complain? I would have but I was in a very mixed group, some of whom would not say anything no matter how unsatisfied they were so I wrote it off as one of those things.

I would not recommend the place whatsoever. The food is nice enough but they charge way too much for the portions they serve. I wasnt aware of the prices until I sat down and looked at the menu (it was only one of our group who had recommended the place and there was silence when we were perusing the menu and the prices, my salmon cutlet was 20e, the steak was something like 32e for a 10oz). And the serving staff were so fake, it was really annoying.
 
Sorry to hear about your experience, I quite like the place. There is one important caveat though: a lot of restaurants will sell their souls and reputations to rake it in for Christmas.
If you didn't want to complain on the night, write them a letter now.
 
That's awful. I've been there for lunch on saturday twice and really enjoyed it. That said, the prices were better for the lunch menu and the service still wasn't 100% but pretty good.
 
Hi Erith, yeah, I know, you're right, I just got that feeling about the place last night, they were definitely trying to pack in as many people as possible. It was my first time there, so it probably wasnt a good tiime of the year to go. I would be curious to go back in the New Year, for lunch, see what its like. I found the service staff awful though, the fakeness and the over politeness and yet being quite rude when insisting that we had to move.
 
I think it's awful that you didn't complain to the manager there and then or give them a chance to make amends, instead you blast them online to everyone.

This is tyrpical of the Irish mentality. We never complain about the service or porduct we receive and then give out about them to anyone who will listen. How are these places supposed to get any better if we don't tell them when they go wrong?
 
I did have a waiter react very badly there when we asked for liquer coffees. He snapped "what do you expect, this is the Boulevard Cafe".
It struck me as little bit pretentious without any justification for the attitude. It's not exactly a gourmet restaurant.
 
I've been quite a few times over the years - I've never had a horrendous experience but it's never been amazing either. It's generally got a good atmosphere and I would think given you've gone the first time over the christmas period, you might give it another chance at a less busy time.

I'd still go back for a group dinner, not so much a dinner for two

M
 
I was thinking about having my birthday party there in the spring, Muffin for what you're saying you think it's a better place to go as a group? Hate to cross this one off my list of possibilities, it looks so fantastic and I've heard only good things up till now!

Thanks,
ad
 
I think it's awful that you didn't complain to the manager there and then
I agree. If the food/service were not acceptable then the time to complain was there and then and not after the fact. By just paying up you have arguably implicitly accepted that things were OK even if this was not actually the case.
 
Sorry for above,I was trying to quote a small proportion of m-haven't yet figured that out
"and we were paying for it ourselves"
who normally pays for your meals!!?
 
Hi JohhnyBoy, I removed that. After hitting the 'Quote' button, just edit out the bits you don't need from between the (quote) tags.
Leo
 
I have eaten there a few times and I have always enjoyed it. It does seem to attract groups which would make it a bit unsuitable for very small parties or couples.

Brendan
 
It reminds me of an incident in Powerscourt restaurant in Enniskerry where rather than walk the long way round to serve at a table the waitress passed over our table plates of food to the table beside us. Very annoying when they attempted to pass over an extra chair to the same table. When I protested the look I got.....
 
I went there once for lunch a couple of years ago and wouldn't go back. The staff were fairly rude and we were very squashed in.
 
Did you complain further about this?
I went there once for lunch a couple of years ago and wouldn't go back. The staff were fairly rude and we were very squashed in.
Did you complain?
 
Surely it's relevant to the discussion in hand? Feel free not to answer though.
 
Hi, up to this point I have never heard anything negative about this place. Have been twice for large Birthday celebrations and found the food lovely and not over-priced for Dublin, the wine was good and priced again about the average, but the main issue was the main celebrant be it B'day Girl / Boy or Hen were given a great night by the Staff, this was at the second sitting of the evening which is recommended.
 
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