I am writing on behalf of myself and my party of nine, to complain about the absolutely horrendous ‘service’ we received at ‘Café Romantica’ – 52 Lygon Street Brunswick.
On March 21st 2009, myself and two members of my party entered ‘Café Romantica’ and ordered some food and a bottle of wine both for take away.
After the food and wine was ordered the three of us sat down and waited at a table of their choice, right in front of them at an otherwise empty restaurant. We left the other members of our party outside, because they had been drinking, and we thought we were being responsible in doing this.
We noticed the visible employees, one man and two women, giving us dirty looks and speaking amongst themselves. We think it was because of the very flamboyant, dressed up outfits we were wearing on a Friday night out in the city.
After waiting 20 minutes my friend, who was one of the three to come inside to order, asked one woman in a completely acceptable manner how much longer our food would be. Absolutely unbelievably and out of nowhere the man stormed up to us at the counter and screamed in her and our faces, “THAT’S IT! YOU’RE ALL TOO DRUNK! GET OUT!” He then looked at the woman who served us and said “GIVE THEM THEIR MONEY BACK SO THEY CAN GET OUT!” The woman silently put our money on the counter and the man came up, picked up the money, threw it at us and then unthinkably and disgustingly SPAT ON US! Some hitting the counter, most hitting my leg and my friends face! Terrified, we left with our money.
The amazing thing about this is it was completely unprovoked. We left the members of our group who were not drunk, but drinking, outside, we were polite, we were not loud, drunk or making a scene. We could not think of a valid reason why they treated us the way they did.
Outside we explained to the others what happened. A few of the boys wanted to go in and ask the man to apologise for spitting and swearing at three girls.
We are not sorry for deciding to complain about the ‘service’ we got. We were screamed at, sworn at, spat on, gossiped about, looked down upon, stared at, and ultimately intimidated and scared. It was an appalling, disgusting, outrageous experience. It was the first time any of us had been there, and no doubt also the last.
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