German Gymnasium

"They cannot get the service whether its toilets or table right it is very expensive but with a little more effort they could get it right"

"Terrible service from Top to Bottom. Don’t seem To care. The German I was with was excited by the menu. The food was fine nothing more. "

"I used to dine, with colleagues and business partners, quite often at German Gymnasium before the pandemic. Proximity to our office corroborated with a convenient location for commuting made the restaurant a good choice for anything ranging from a brief business lunch/dinner to large corporate events. I returned on 01-Mar-2023, with a group of long-term business partners; the experience was so different than before - and not in a good way. Long story short, we received an unexpectedly poor customer service, which didn't go as far as ruining the evening - but came dangerously close. To round things up, there's no easy way to talk to the restaurant about the customer experience: - there's no Customer Service contact number; the only way to get in touch is dial 020 7287 8000 - where one can choose between "Reservations" and "Events" (!); - when insisting to speak to the restaurant, the operator puts you on hold; then, after 10-15 minutes of listening to musing, the line invariably goes down (!); - when writing to the manager (Ms. Olga Gay) on her business email - there's been no response for 3 weeks (and counting). Throughout the stay, myself and my partners were treated with visible contempt by the Grand Café personnel; like a nuisance to get rid of, as soon as possible, instead of customers. Ranging from - in order of inconvenience perceived: 1) Not giving us a bigger table, when the 7th guest unexpectedly showed up; Fully understand the need to honour existing reservations - yet on a Wednesday night, that early, the café was 80% empty... 2) Ignoring our calls, throughout the dinner; It felt like the waiter & waitress in our area would serve literally anybody else before reluctantly showing up to take our order; 3) Messing up the drinks order, a couple of times; 4) Bringing more side orders than ordered (and more than people at the table!); 5) Constantly interrupting our conversation, with irrelevant questions or annoying reminders (see #8 below); 6) Passing the plates with food to the diners, rather than placing the plates on the table; 7) Requesting the diners to hand over the empty plates and used cutlery, rather than collecting them from the table; Fully understand the space was at a premium - but for no reason within our control 8) Repeatedly telling us we had to vacate by 19.30. Again, everyone fully understood the need to do so - but when told every 5 minutes, starting way before 19.00, it became irritating to say the least... 9) Despite being told - repeatedly - it was a group booking, paid for by myself - the waitress decided to start collecting individual payments from one end of the table. Admittedly, the error started with one of my partners, who had to leave earlier and asked for the bill; but more tact was expected from a professional - e.g. look for options to remediate. Nothing like that - quite the opposite: she looked exclusively interested in collecting the money asap - and getting us all to leave early (!) Again, this could be attributed to high level of stress in a very busy night - not the case on Wed 01-Mar. 10) Issuing a bill for "4 Guest(s)" - when it was 7 of us all along. 11) Charging 15% Service Charge with no mention to it - and (see #9 above) no chance to argue with it as completely unjustified by the customer service received. For all of the above, I retain the customer service received on this occasion was unacceptable; and will launch a formal complaint with The Retail Ombudsman."

"amazing building let down by service, price and food"