Crown and Sceptre Food Poisoning

Whatever you do, don't ever eat at Wetherspoon's Crown and Sceptre pub on the borders of Brixton and Streatham (A23/A205).

We have been dissatisfied for a while. Portions getting smaller, chips getting crappier. A couple of weeks ago Jimmy sent back the Fish Pie because it was still frozen in the middle.

Tonight, he ordered a beefburger, I ordered a veggie burger. His beefburger was still pink in the middle. Which would be fine if it really were beef, but even their menu states that you can have a 'beef'burger for an extra pound.

The menu says the burgers come with salad. Practically a breach of the Trades Description Ac, as the so-called salad was inserted into the bun (which, for both of us was coloured black). The burgers were served on cold plates. I had to beg for cutlery. In consequence, the food was stone-cold by the time I came to eat it. And the portion of chips was insulting. Frankly, we could have got better VFM at McDs over the road. And that is saying something...

Being a fool, I then ordered a chocolate chip cheesecake.

It came.

On a hot plate.

I touched it. The pudding was cold. I sent it back, demanding a refund.

Never ever ask for a replacement. The kitchen staff will, generally, spit on it. Instead, they'll stick it in the fridge, and serve it to the next unsuspecting customer tomorrow. Having been touched by my hands, no doubt at least averagely dirty. An I probably put my hands in my hair, letting whatever's in there fall onto the cheesecake. And Jimmy has a cold which he may well have breathed over the cheesecake.

This was only after I had requested a spoon with which to eat my pudding. Sorry, fork isn't good enough.

If a place can get simple things wrong like serving hot food on cold plates, and cold food on hot plates, I really do not have any confidence in their basic food hygiene standards. I am never going to eat there again. I would seriously advise anybody else never to eat there.

Meanwhile, they have a magazine circulating where Tim Sanctimonious Martin, their CEO boasts of improving the menus in their groundbreaking no-smoking pubs.

Well, Martin, let me say this. the Crown and Sceptre was an early success for Wetherspoons. If this is the standards tolerated there, I can only assume that Food Poisoning is Company Policy at Wetherspoons

But I am never going to eat there again. You have neglected the core customer base, about whom you clearly don't give a shit. Too much preaching, not enough attention to detail.

Sorry, but there are more pubs than churches round here. And even more restaurants. I've been going in there 14 years.

Never, ever again.

Total shit, total disdain for the customers. Utter neglect for Food Hygiene. And they allow drug-dealing and -taking. Get a grip, the place has gone to the dogs.

Not taking me with it.

Bye bye and good riddance to Crown and Sceptre, Streatham Hill/Brixton Hill/Streatham Place. South Circular.

Fucking con merchants.

So up their arses with their no-smoking, they feel happy poisoning people with their so-called 'food'.

Can't even do their chips right...

I know the power of Google...

Comments

[Adrian]

I've never been in a Weatherspoons I like, and avoid as much as possible these days. They seem to go more Chav every time I walk past tehm anyway.

[Scaryduck]

If it really was that bad, you might wish to suggest to the local council that the establishment is long overdue for an inspection...

[Blue Witch]

I was going to suggest what Scaryduck did.

Phone call to Environmental Health should pay dividends. Or at least make them think.

[Dave]

Do Ratcatchers, sorry Environmental Health Officers, still have to give joints 24 hours notice prior to inspection? Never understood the point of that rule ...

Wetherspoons are now about as far away from Orwell's ideal British, or more accurately English, Pub "Moon under Water" or whatever it was as can be imagined.
http://www.whitebeertravels.co.uk/images/muw_big.jpg

The reason they introduced the total smoking ban wasn't so much to ride the politically correct wave, though that was how they spun it, as to negate their reputation for pulling in the scum of the streets from 11am on as a result of their aggressive pricing policies. They needed to do this to boost their reputation in order to apply for the new 24 hour licenses coming in in new year because Wetherspoons pubs were rapidly becoming disaster areas.

I, personally, have been avoiding them like the plague for the past 3 years or so (though now the buggers are cunningly dropping the name wetherspoons in favour of 'Lloyds' & suchlike so it's becoming more tricky).

It's not only the general leeriness owing to the dirt cheap prices I despise, but also the blandness. They are the MacDonalds of pubs ... sadly, just like MacieD's I suspect they will carry on thriving without our custom!

[Gert]

I might well get onto EH.

I have quite a long musing on Wetherspoons in general in draft, inspired by Dave's comment. I might polish it off late tonight or tomorrow morning and leave it for the weekend.