SOHO Cork-nil points
Lunch in Soho Cork was a complete disaster today.
I should start a review site for Sunday lunches in Cork and the shocking experience it generally is.
I was persuaded not to write about a semi suicidal Polish girl who served us up Seafood linguine last Sunday in Cafe Bar Deli with processed crab sticks as the main seafood.
Today was the worst yet
We were strolling past Soho in The Grand Parade and decided to chance it, what a bad decision that was on Fathers Day
When will Irish eating establishments hire people who greet there customers with a smile, we appeared to have a hawk like sour puss manager and an even more soured puss server.
Mrs Phelan asked for a cup of tea, it came with a cup covered in lipstick and coffee stains, it was duly dispatched and came back haven been washed (does SOHO have more than one cup) still covered in stains and soaking wet.
I cleaned it with a serviette but Mrs Phelan was having none of it. I dispatched it back to our young American server and it was returned with a sarcastic “if that’s not good enough for you I don’t know what to do”
Food was very average, cremated burgers with Frozen chips for €18
Soup which appeared to have the contents of a salt cellar within
Mrs Phelan got stir friend beef instead of chicken she ordered soaked in oyster sauce.
All in all a piss poor Sunday lunch.
Sounds dreadful Pat.
Moved back to Ireland 3.5 years ago and quickly learned to avoid Sunday lunch at all costs! Talk about the dregs of the already painfully mediocre!
Did the cup of tea come before anything else? If an eatery gets something small wrong like making sure the crockery is clean and then make out it’s a chore to put it right it’s usually best to leave right then. In general I’ve noticed that the sort of staff that will get those basics wrong will go out of their way to make your visit a bad experience.
I had a cafe bar a while back and noticed my good staff were more miffed than the customers if the messed up, the poor staff were prone to deliberately messing an order or being slow to answer service when a customer had been brought something up. I also found my poor staff were a 100% more likely to get their P45 (sacked) sooner rather than later.
It may be hard work but it isn’t a difficult job and putting mistakes right and excelling actually makes it a more enjoyable way to earn a wage.
Go for it, Pat Phelan, entrepreneur, blogger, scourge of bad restaurants everywhere
I haven’t eaten in Soho, but I’ve heard a few bad things about it.
My girlfriend recently ate lunch there with a couple of friends. They were on lunch break from work so they just had the hour or so to eat but their food was 45 minutes late. They finally got the food, had to rush to eat it and leave.
Luckily, one of them complained and they all got their meals for free.
Haven’t eaten in SOHO, but it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Eating out in Ireland is routinely disappointing, so much so that getting something mediocre makes for a pleasant change.
Practically every time I eat out I end up wishing I’d used the money to buy some decent produce and cooked it myself at home.
Off to France next week with the family, and looking forward to some decent, great value meals.
For the price of meals in Cork the service is shocking. One place I go to alot because of the speed they serve is Market Lane.
when I was there before a waitress that had just started working there brought out soy sauce instead of balsamic vinegar and even though only a tiny bit was poured on the salad, one of the managers noticed she had brought out the wrong thing and insisted on giving us a new salad without us asking.
I think a lot of retail shops and almost every cafe now is forgetting about basic human interaction. When it comes to serving people, a friendy hello and a bit of chat goes a long way and it’s just not there anymore.
@samkidd
got to agree on Market Lane
excellent quality and service
I’ve eaten there a few times and was always relatively happy with the service and food. Your Sunday lunch service, or lack thereof, was a joke. I have had bad experiences in other places in Cork and if they fuck up again a second time they’re off the list. Greene’s and Fenn’s Quay are ones I avoid now.