November 7, 2012
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Denn (don’t go there)! HAH!
I convinced my friend last Monday night after our Spanish class to have dinner at Denn (113 High St, Northcote).
We ordered the following:
-a Vegetarian platter( Wild olives – Stuffed vine leaves – Spring rolls -Crispy crust haloumi)
-2 pizzas: Artichoke (Lebanese egg plant- roasted peppers- Buffalo mozzarella – spinach leaves & pine nut) and Mushroom (haloumi- pine nuts- spinach & pesto)
This was our second time having the Vegetarian platter (it was better the second time around, I didn’t like the stuffed vine leaves the first time around and I couldn’t bring myself to have another piece. The haloumi was a definite winner!)
And then we waited for our pizzas..and waited.. and waited
Basically an hour later after our platter had been served, and ONLY after we had asked the cook on when the pizzas were coming did it actually arrive 5 minutes later.
The most annoying thing about it was the waiters were not only incompetent but when we asked (two different people, mind you), they kept telling us that it was “coming” but never ever bothered to check (you can see the kitchen) with the kitchen staff, So how on earth these waiter/ress knew that our food was indeed coming soon was beyond me. Yes, it was coming but not as quickly as we liked.
It pissed me off to no end when other diners arriving later than us had received their dishes before us (and leaving before us too)… seriously wtf!?
By the time the pizzas came around, we were beyond starving, so much so that we couldn’t even eat anymore. We had passed the point of starvation and into “just cant be bothered” that after eating something that took 1hr to arrive, we were done in less than 10 minutes. Except the pain hadn’t stopped.
Having only eaten half a pizza, there were plenty left so we figured we’d “doggy bag” it. The pizza box we asked never arrived. We sat around for 10minutes and only when I got out of my seat and went to the counter (where another staff assumed I just only wanted to pay) did the box eventually arrived.
The MOST insulting thing of the night was when the same staff who got us the box and took my payment advising me that their boss was offering us “2 free coffees”. Seriously our time is worth more than just 2 free coffees, and who knew exactly when these coffees would come about considering it took them an 1 to get us pizza. It would have been quicker had we called Domino’s and had them delivered to the restaurant then to have Denn’s make them. It was the cheapest way of apologizing and we deserved a LOT more than that. Oh and I did give them grief (yes I went ballistic)
Denn seriously has the capacity to be a GREAT restaurant because the food served is lovely (when it does arrive)Front of house staff are beyond disbelief. The slow and lack of service has become such a put off that we would never ever wander back in again not unless we’re not too hungry and willing to wait which defeats the purpose of dining out in the first place.
