Gave myself a little treat on my return from Scotland and chose to travel First Class, and whilst providing a rather entertaining cabaret act, really did not paint East Coast in a good light.
The service provided by the Host on board before Edinburgh was exemplary. However I'm lead to believe that a change over occurs at Edinburgh, and that a London based crew takes over for the remainder of the service.
The train arrived at Berwick before any of the catering crew appeared. They made their way through with just the hot drink jugs, and were not so much talking to customers as gesturing with the jugs. It later became apparent that they considered this was an appropriate way of asking passengers whether they wanted to purchase items from the At Seat Menu.
They appeared to have no real ordering system or method, and went from seat to seat trying to remember who had ordered what and which seat they were sat in.
A passenger, asked a crew member if he could place an food order as he was getting off the service relatively soon, and the crew had not yet been around. They rather rudely told him that it was not their fault, that their colleague was taking the orders and that if he was unhappy it was not their fault and that he should write to the the company. He quite rightly pointed out that the staff member's "attitude stinks", which they seemed completely bemused by and reiterated, rather abruptly that he should write to the company if he was unhappy.
Next the confusion with orders placed accelerated. As the crew became aware that the had lost track of who had ordered what they proceeded to write orders down on napkins, which promptly became soggy and illegible anyway. This was demonstrated by a ham and cheese panini being served to a vegetarian, and a crew member walking up and down the carriage several times with a Burger having no idea who it was for.
Later a group were served their meals. Once they had started eating, the other member of staff abruptly and rather rudely interrupted and insisted they pay their bill there and then.
At this point a rather agitated man appeared from further north in the carriage asking where his Burger was... This was followed by a mix up with a Steak Sandwich and a burger being served to the wrong passengers, even though the passenger who was served the burger in error specifically questioned whether he had been given the correct order.
At all points through the journey after Edinburgh these two crew members appeared totally lost but also completely oblivious to how lost and disorganised they were. It was clear that the chef was producing really excellent food, they just had no real idea of what they should do, and how they should deliver this.
Sorry for the epic post, I'm just still shocked at quite how chaotic the service was, and do wonder how much worse it'll get when EC start serving complementary food to everyone!! Or have I just seen a bad day?!
The service provided by the Host on board before Edinburgh was exemplary. However I'm lead to believe that a change over occurs at Edinburgh, and that a London based crew takes over for the remainder of the service.
The train arrived at Berwick before any of the catering crew appeared. They made their way through with just the hot drink jugs, and were not so much talking to customers as gesturing with the jugs. It later became apparent that they considered this was an appropriate way of asking passengers whether they wanted to purchase items from the At Seat Menu.
They appeared to have no real ordering system or method, and went from seat to seat trying to remember who had ordered what and which seat they were sat in.
A passenger, asked a crew member if he could place an food order as he was getting off the service relatively soon, and the crew had not yet been around. They rather rudely told him that it was not their fault, that their colleague was taking the orders and that if he was unhappy it was not their fault and that he should write to the the company. He quite rightly pointed out that the staff member's "attitude stinks", which they seemed completely bemused by and reiterated, rather abruptly that he should write to the company if he was unhappy.
Next the confusion with orders placed accelerated. As the crew became aware that the had lost track of who had ordered what they proceeded to write orders down on napkins, which promptly became soggy and illegible anyway. This was demonstrated by a ham and cheese panini being served to a vegetarian, and a crew member walking up and down the carriage several times with a Burger having no idea who it was for.
Later a group were served their meals. Once they had started eating, the other member of staff abruptly and rather rudely interrupted and insisted they pay their bill there and then.
At this point a rather agitated man appeared from further north in the carriage asking where his Burger was... This was followed by a mix up with a Steak Sandwich and a burger being served to the wrong passengers, even though the passenger who was served the burger in error specifically questioned whether he had been given the correct order.
At all points through the journey after Edinburgh these two crew members appeared totally lost but also completely oblivious to how lost and disorganised they were. It was clear that the chef was producing really excellent food, they just had no real idea of what they should do, and how they should deliver this.
Sorry for the epic post, I'm just still shocked at quite how chaotic the service was, and do wonder how much worse it'll get when EC start serving complementary food to everyone!! Or have I just seen a bad day?!
I can relate to this. On one of my (few) journeys in EC 1st class (Highland Chieftain), the service seemed to consist solely of the jug-waving dance and a few grunts. I was quite disappointed given the generally positive reviews on here.