{"id":173,"date":"2007-12-02T09:50:34","date_gmt":"2007-12-02T09:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/post-restaurant-and-brasserie-banstead-surrey-a-review\/"},"modified":"2007-12-02T09:51:39","modified_gmt":"2007-12-02T09:51:39","slug":"post-restaurant-and-brasserie-banstead-surrey-a-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/post-restaurant-and-brasserie-banstead-surrey-a-review\/","title":{"rendered":"POST Restaurant and Brasserie, Banstead, Surrey – a Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

POST – the restaurant, brasserie, bar and coffee shop from celebrity chef, Tony Tobin, in Banstead Village Surrey receives a less than glowing review from Andre Dang<\/strong><\/p>\n

We had a lovely evening at Pizza Express.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, you have read that correctly. Let me explain: 2 weeks ago, my father
\nbooked Tony Tobin @ Post for my mother’s birthday, having read a
\nfavourable review in a magazine.<\/p>\n

So, this evening, we drove to the restaurant, looking forward to a family
\ncelebration. When we got upstairs, we gave our name, and were met by a
\nslight look of alarm.<\/p>\n

After 5 mins, the gentleman who appeared to be in charge said that they
\ncouldn’t find our reservation, but not to worry, and asked his colleague
\nto seat us. We never saw him again.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had to ask if she would be able to take our coats, after standing there
\nholding it in my hand for another 5 mins. As we started to settle into
\nour seats, the same lady then said that if we wished we could sit at the
\ntable in the corner, since the table we were sat at was preset for a party
\nof 6 that was due to arrive.<\/p>\n

So, we decanted to the other table. Menus arrived, bread was offered, and
\nwe started talking while perusing the menu.<\/p>\n

It was at that point that my father remarked he hoped everything was
\nalright, because the French lady he’d spoken to on the phone had seemed a
\nlittle vague, and he hadn’t had anyone confirm the reservation, so he had
\nleft a message on the booking line this morning. Since nobody had called,
\nhe had assumed all was well.
\n
\nIt wasn’t.<\/strong><\/p>\n

No sooner than the words were out of his mouth, than the same lady who had
\nmoved us came back to the table to say that there was a problem and that
\nthey couldn’t find any record of a reservation in the entire
\nbuilding (brasserie, bar, deli or restaurant), but it wasn’t going to be a
\nproblem, as we could still have dinner: the only proviso being that we
\nwould have to have coffee and desserts downstairs in the brasserie.<\/p>\n

At which point, we enquired exactly how much time we would have to eat
\ndinner, and were told “1 hour”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having eaten at a fair few restaurants, I am used to being told when
\nmaking a booking that they will need a table back by a certain time,
\nhowever to turn up for a birthday dinner, be told that they didn’t have
\nany record of us at all, and then be told that we could eat, pay full
\nprice and then give the table back within the hour “..as it would
\ninconvenience the guests who have got a proper booking” was really rubbing
\nsalt in the wound.<\/p>\n

So we decided to leave, but not before I asked for the manager’s contact
\ndetails. I was presented with the restaurant’s standard card, with a GM’s
\nname on it. I was also told that “We don’t give out direct contact
\ndetails. Just phone in and leave a message. He’ll get it”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Given our success with the booking system, I’m sure you can understand my
\nlack of faith.<\/p>\n

And so, we asked for our coats, where said lady asked us to follow her.<\/p>\n

By this time, we appeared to be the floor show for the evening, and most
\ntables in the (at the time) half empty restaurant were taking a very
\nunhealthy interest in our plight – with much nudging and looks of
\ndisdain – most likely based on the assumption that we were being thrown
\nout.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, we got downstairs to the closet to collect out coats, whereupon
\nthe extremely helpful lady flung open the doors and said “Help yourself”.<\/p>\n

Although she offered a half hearted apology, her excuse was that “we don’t
\ntake the bookings directly here. It’s done through a call centre, and the
\nlady who has been acting as the receptionist has recently left”<\/p>\n

At that point, we left. As I turned back, I caught a glimpse of our
\nhostess having a gossip and laugh with a blonde manageress. Clearly at our
\nexpense.<\/p>\n

But the evening wasn’t a complete wash out, as we were well served by
\ncharming and attentive staff at the pizza express a few doors down. Which
\njust goes to show that as long as the company and the food is good, it
\nreally doesn’t matter about the environment.<\/p>\n

I wish I could say the same about Post. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
Editors Note: This really is very surprising feedback – we appreciate all restaurants have bad days or things dont go quite according to plan – so if other users of the POST RESTAURANT or indeed the management of the POST RESTAURANT wish to reply – then we would be very happy to receive it either in comments below or by email to dine@dine-online.co.uk <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

POST – the restaurant, brasserie, bar and coffee shop from celebrity chef, Tony Tobin, in Banstead Village Surrey receives a less than glowing review from Andre Dang We had a lovely evening at Pizza Express. Yes, you have read that correctly. Let me explain: 2 weeks ago, my father booked Tony Tobin @ Post for read more …<\/span><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dine-online.co.uk\/foodie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}