Dale R.
Yelp
Ate O'Clock is an interesting looking venue with both sheltered courtyard, and traditional indoor seating.
Finding Ate O'Clock online, we were enticed by the delicious looking, well presented photographed dishes and mouth watering menu.
Service was welcoming and pleasant from the very beginning, immediately greeting us upon our arrival, then asking preference and showing us to our seats.
Tempted by trying something different, I decided to go for the pigeon for starters. The food arrived in good time, and well presented. My meal was delicious, but it was during the last mouthful that the problem occurred. With my front teeth, I accidentally bit down full force on a metal pellet that had been overlooked from when the pigeon had been shot.
The waitress was very apologetic, so, as painful as it was, I was satisfied that I hadn't chipped or damaged a tooth and put it down to a simple mistake - the meat was game meat after all. We continued with our meal, ordering the main course.
My partner opted for the Sunday roast that she had been craving all day. Once again, arriving in good time and well presented. Unfortunately, our problems hadn't ended, and it was half way through her meal that my partner stopped eating and pulled something from her mouth - a knotted bit of butcher string used to bound the joint together. After what I had found in my meal, we could only laugh, yet it didn't excuse what my partner almost ate.
Once again, we alerted the waitress - who was now clearly embarrassed by a situation that really wasn't her fault. She stated that we wouldn't have to pay for the meals, which was good enough for us, and we asked for the bill.
Rather than have us leave displeased with our experience, the waitress insisted that we stay for complimentary coffee or dessert. As she had been so pleasant throughout the evening, we didn't want to cause offence and took her up on her offer - at no point was it stated that this was in place of the contaminated meals being wavered.
The sticky toffee pudding that we chose was delicious and would have been a pleasant end to an unfortunately eventful evening, however, when we received the bill my partner's main had not been removed. When I queried this, I was informed that because we had accepted the complimentary desserts the meal had not been wavered - this was clearly because the price of the two desserts was considerably cheaper than the main meal itself. Noting this, I said that if that's the case I would much rather pay for the desserts instead. The waitress disappeared to speak with the manager and returned with the bill that I should have been given at the first instance - a bill minus both contaminated meals and desserts.
We paid our bill and left, annoyed at the cheek of them daring to request payment for the contaminated meal. Had it not been for the events that happened, I would have enjoyed my experience at Ate O'Clock, but it's too late to turn back time (pun intended) and change what happened.
