"it was my daughter’s 17th birthday and we gave her the choice of where to go for a meal. We’re a vegan family that live in mid Cornwall, but she really wanted to go to Plymouth and this was her first choice. Her dad called the restaurant a few times to try to book for later that evening but no one answered we didn’t want to leave a message asking for a booking and waiting for a reply as if it was already booked up we would need to book somewhere else and it would be too late, not knowing if/when we would get a call back in time. We decided to just take our chances and took her to Plymouth shopping, where her dad tried again to call when we arrived in Plymouth but to no avail. We arrived at the restaurant around 6pm and were relieved to see only one other small group eating and a delivery courier waiting. There was no staff around and we wasn’t sure if we just took a seat or not so we walked down a bit to find someone when a waitress walked out from the kitchen area. There was no smile, no greeting and my partner said hello asked if we just take a seat and we were met with being told to go back to the seating area next to the door and wait. It didn’t feel nice and we looked at each other but waited why she dealt with the courier (it was only then, I noticed a sign behind me, so wouldn’t have seen as walking in, saying to please take a seat in waiting area). When the waitress came to us, we asked if we could have a table for 3 we were met with a very long winded message and felt like we were being told off! I managed to interrupt when she got to the part about how we should have called ahead to book and explained we had tried a few times but she said we should have left a message and continued her speech. My partner then stopped her and said, ‘wait, so can we eat here or not?’ and she continued her speech again and said she would have to check the bookings, so my other half said, ‘ so can you do that then?’ we were literally baffled by now as couldn’t believe the reception we were getting and my daughter was really uncomfortable we stayed calm as it was her birthday, otherwise I would have told her off for the way she was dealing with us. The woman went off to check the book and as she was flicking through I turned to my family and said, ‘I’m not happy with the way she’s talking to us, I don’t want to eat here now.’ It was embarrassing as we were stood near the one other group who were hearing us effectively being told off for coming to the restaurant. Anyway, we decided to just leave. We ended up eating elsewhere, where we were immediately welcomed, despite it being very busy. The difference was unbelievable, I’m so glad we didn’t stay and my daughter was cheered up. Samphires need some staff training, but we won’t be back anyway."
