Bars & Pubs

Just a quick thank you to all the staff at the Plume of Feathers who gave us the most wondeful evening on Saturday following the Great London River Race. Contacted the pub to book for 24 of us to eat there and nothing was too much trouble. Great food, fine wine, friendly service and all at fantastic prices, far more reasonable than where we come from and that is the middle of Wales. Mireille the very classy french manageress made the whole experience effortless from booking to pre ordering to arranging the room and serving the excellent food. What a find and it completed our fantastic day in style, we will definately use again next year if possible and I would recommend to anyone in the Greenwich area - and not a pushchair in sight! Thanks Again - give it a go you won't be disappointed.

don't like people getting shouted at...its not on. one less pushchair in a greenwich pub doesnt strike me as a total disaster tho, i must admit

i don't think anyone is disputing the fact that you shouldn't have been shouted at. i just think people are surprised at the effort you seem to have put into slating the place all over the internet on the basis of one bad experience. People make mistakes and I am sure that manageress would feel awful if she knew how much she'd upset you and your friend. Have you even voiced your concern to the pub itself? I bet they'd apologise profusely and try to make it up to you somehow. That way, you'd get your lovely local back, they'd learn a valuable lesson about handling customers and everyone would be happy. Completely writing a much-loved place off and going all-out to damage its business with a one-woman internet crusade after one bad expereince in (how many?) years doesn't help anyone, as far as I can see.

I would indeed welcome this. It's interesting how eveybody automatically assumes that I am in the wrong. Feel free to contact them and get them to post.

And as everyone else has said, there are two sides to every story and, however in the wrong the Plume might have been (and I doubt anyone would argue that shouting at customers is acceptable), it would be interesting to hear what they had to say about this incident, particularly as you seem to have gone out of your way to publicise your side of it.

As I said, whether or not my friend was in the right, we did not deserve to be shouted at.

I too live near and love the Plume, it's cosy, friendly, remarkably free of the tourist hordes and the food is superb. I agree with Vicky Bateman that rudeness is never acceptable, but then, on the other hand, few busy pubs, however ostensibly 'family friendly', are going to be thrilled about people ignoring their clearly-signed policy on buggies just because they don't want their child woken up. It's a pub, not a creche and I think you have to accept that young kids can only be accommodated up to a certain point. After all, I wouldn't 't visit a playygroup and demand a pint, an ashtray and a packet of crisps.

I am also a local and have been going there for years as previously mentioned. I had a horrible experience this once and it does not warrant such negative replies. I have posted it on other forums because I wanted other people to know about this appalling service. We did not "plonk our pushchair" in the middle of a busy restaurant. It's not a restaurant for a kick-off, but supposedly a family-friendly pub. Secondlyt my friend had never been to the pub before so would not know who is in charge- she merely asked the first person she saw. The people we had to get past were more than happy to get out of the way, the only person with a problem was the rude manageress.
As mentioned in my previous post the alternative was to wake the child up in order to take him in and fold the pushchair which would have led to him crying and ruining other people's meals in this fashion.
Even IF we were in the wrong, it is NEVER acceptable to shout and humiliate customers. I have spoken to the manageress many times before and never been treated in this fashion. I am a polite person so didn't really kick up a fuss, I wish I had just caused a scene. I decided to leave instead. Maybe this is an anomoly and she was having a bad day, it does not mean that I am making this up, or exaggerating. I was disappointed as I had previously LOVED this pub.
I would also like to add that on a previous occasion I visited having booked, and they called to say that they had been really busy and had "run out of" sunday dinners. What's that about? Surely if you have booked that should reserve the food? Also, they are always busy so should not be surprised by this?

I second BombayT's sentiments. The Plume is a fine pub and, while I don't know the particulars of what happened with your friend and her kid, I would suggest that extenuating circumstances on one or both sides must have combined to create an unfortunately unrepresentative experience. And, while rudeness from pub staff is inexcusable (jeez: you'd go to the Trafalgar if you wanted THAT), might I play devils' advocate for a moment and suggest that a) you had already been told not to bring your buggy into the (presumably extremely busy) restaurant and b) had only 'cleared' it with a junior staff member. I am sure if you'd spoken to the manageress first, rather than a waitress, before plonking your pushchair in the middle of a fraught restaurant floor frequently criss-crossed by staff carrying hot food, I dare say the outcome might have been rather happier.

I am absolutley astonished by Vicky Bateman's comments about the Plume and feel duty-bound to stick up for the place, not least because she sees to have posted the same speech on other sites. We are locals and have always found he staff to be exemplary in both bar and restaurrant. The French manageress, in particular, has been unfailingly friendly and obliging, even when confronted with potentially nightmarish whole-family visits (yes, young kids included), the food is second to none in the area and the atmosphere is always warm and inviting. While I sympathise with and am not in a position to excuse what sounds like an unpleasant experience, I hate to see such a consistently excellent pub given such a public drubbing (particularly in respect of the Indenti-pub Inc empire that has ruined so many other once-decent Greenwich pubs and restaurants).