6th May 2008
Never Judge a Book by its cover
People always say 'Never judge a book by its cover' That was our mistake when we decided to book Rayyan Restaurant Cranbrook Road in Ilford after reading some reviews on a site just like this.
The exterior of the restaurant is amazing it looks clean modern and proffesional everything that we wanted from a restaurant when we booked it for my grandparents 50th Wedding anniversary.
We obviously booked in advance a table for 20, we requested a screen to keep our family dinner private we were assured on both times we rang up to confirm that the screens were fine and the table booked. When we turned up at the restaurant however there was no screen and the table was shoved to one side of the restaurant mosquitos, flys and all!!
When we queried with the 'manager' it was apparently against there insurance policy and we werent allowed to have a screen, which the incompetent staff of Rayyan failed to tell us over the phone TWICE!! we decided we didnt want to spoil our evening so nothing more was said, we ordered our meals and waited....... and waited....... and waited...... fair enough there were 20 of us but the table was booked in advance, 3 weeks to be precise, the kids were getting impatient and so were we!
eventually a waitress turned up with plates, she stood at the top of the table and handed out plates to the front two people and told them to pass it down to the rest of the table!!!! what a joke
The food eventually turned up over an hour if not more later, the service was disgusting and food was randomly scattered around the table, piping hot pots placed next to the kids! no smiles no skills no english!
As the Food came out we were expecting it to match up to the exterior of Rayyan, after all we did wait over an hour for it! it looked vile from what we could see in the tiny liittle wooden pots the food was presented in, lamb karahi which tasted vile and was black with huge chunks of uncooked meat, the chicken biryani which was overseasoned with jaffran and overdone with too many chicken pieces, the sheekh was raw as was the chicken steak, pink from the inside! We were so dissapointed nevertheless we bit our tounges and carried on with the evening. After our meal which took about 10mins as more than half of it remained uneaten, we asked for the waiters to clear the table as we had bought along a cake to celebrate, we were ignored and noone came to our table until i had to get up and ask a second time, when they did decide to start clearing 1 waiter was sent over who took..... wait for it.... 30 mins to clear HALF the table, while the other two had a conversation behind the till! we eventually got so annoyed we moved all the remaining dishes to one end of the table ourselves!
After the cake cutting, i decided on ordering some tea for the elders, 4 cups, i went over to the waiters myself as i knew if i were to wait for any service id be there another hour! anyway i spoke to what looked like the head waiter, and ordered 4 cups of tea, i was shocked and disgusted as to his reply 'sorry we are too busy' here we were in a restaurant where customer service is supposed to be number one priority and i was being told they were to busy to make 4 cups of tea!!!! He mustve notice the look of shear disgust on my face as he later turned around and said reluctantly 'oh ok but if you can wait about 20-30 mins! FOR 4 CUPS OF TEA!! i told him to forget it and call for the manager, i had had enough this really took the mick! especially when the bill came along with the total of £177 and service charge of £17! what service?? we had served ourselves! wat a cheek, and the food wasnt worth £10 let alone £177!!
He told me that the manager was on holiday conveniently, i had apparently just spoken to the 'manager' a few hours earlier!! he was quick to change his story and corrected me that he was infact 'the boss'
anyway, the boss refused to come downstairs to deal with the problem and we were left with the incompetent head waiter who could only say im sorry and reccomended we just didnt pay the service charge on our bill!
Our night was a shambles the service was disgusting, the food was disgusting, the interior was disgusting and the cleanliness was disgusting, we would never agian use Rayyan ever and i wouldnt even reccomend to my worst enemy.
The only way this business could do better is if it was under new management with different waiters and a different chef!
Never Judge Rayyan by its exterior
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