Al Forno, Wimbledon

We went along to Al Forno yesterday evening for a friend's birthday. I had just already been when before, years ago, along with never returned despite becoming local - which I guess speaks volumes about this very first knowledge.

We had beenn't an enormous team yesterday evening - only five of us - and now we had a pleasing sufficient time - although simply how much of the was down to the restaurant and just how much had been due to the general conviviality of a team of pals celebrating a birthday celebration is hard to state. While the service wasn't downright rude, it certainly wasn't overtly friendly, therefore the meals ended up being OK - nothing much more nor significantly less than you would anticipate from an Italian for the reason that cost bracket. And though i love songs whilst i am eating, having 2 limitless blasting out over dinner doesn't develop atmosphere.

We stayed later, and in reality had been the past people when you look at the restaurant, therefore whether this agitated all of them in some way, I'm not sure, but we had been talking and laughing and because no body also asked us if we wished the balance we didn't feel under any force to maneuver.

As soon as the costs came we separated it and paid our 3 charge cards somewhat absent-mindedly, however involved with our conversation. It had been only when one of our team requested if we'd examined it we realised anything was awry. Searching down the hand scrawled web page we discovered something entitled Club at the bottom that they were charging us the grand amount of £123. Now, this obviously included 5 desserts (at £5 each) and products, but this was not a heavy evening: 1 wine and 5 beers between us. Once we requested some explanation the supervisor arrived over along with his calculator and tried each and every method he could to make the figures add up - saying bar slips were lacking, we'd had more alcohol, even more wine, but eventually he'd to concede our club costs was in fact just about doubled. A complete costs of over £200 ended up being abruptly and dramatically paid off to around £130. There was no explanation and, a lot even worse, no apology. Our repayments had currently undergone and so they declined outright to refund us all individually and re-process the complete transaction, or to refund what we had overpaid in money to ensure that we're able to split it between us. Rather they refunded one card entirely and informed united states we'd need type it out ourselves. They then demanded the £10 balance in money.

I'm not a cynic. I like to see the finest in folks. Instinct informs me, but which had this already been an authentic error, the manager would have been ashamed, not to say mortified, to possess therefore significantly overcharged clients. Alternatively, the surly and unapologetic method by which this was taken care of ended up being the mindset of somebody which must begrudgingly take they own been caught red-handed wanting to tear someone off.

Needless to say, i will not be returning. If the meals had been amazing, I might have cautiously came back, but since it's maybe not, I won't. I don't require the hassle of going through my costs with a toothcomb at the end of dinner.