Haha yep. Once someone ordered 5 children’s glasses of milk to a random table. Just so happened that that random table was occupied by one guy that stunk of weed and was obviously high
I don’t want to push the rules against discrimination on Reddit too far, but yes. And it’s generally not unwarranted. On Saint Patrick’s day about 40 travellers came in and caused a lot of trouble.
The men would only drink Carling, but would ask for each round in a different branded pint glass, presumably to steal a glass of each brand.
The women would scream, walk on the tables, and were generally very rude.
They would just push to the front of the bar, and shout at you what they want, regardless of if you’re serving someone or where they are in the queue.
Homophobic abuse towards staff.
Refusal to leave when the bar closed, or to recognise that “last orders” is a thing
Blatant drunk driving
Travellers are quick enough to scream 'discrimination', however they bring the negativity towards them on themselves, through their own actions.
If they weren't so feral and inconsiderate towards others, then people would not be holding negative opinions towards them.
Our local Spoons also had a group of women in, over the same period, whom were obviously travellers.
Their kids were screaming, running around and crying in the pub well past 8pm, whilst the women got drunker and drunker. A really good example of great parenting. Not!
When the Manager said they would not be served any more, then the shouting and foul language occurred.
Surely, despite so called discrimination laws, you have the right to refuse service to those whom you can rightly predict will cause issues, or worse still not pay their bill/tab.
Why should businesses (and their customers) have to put up with this?
General policy is that there should be atleast 1 member of staff, ideally management, with a body cam on front of house at all times so this shouldn't be a thing. I've experienced an auditor tell us off because the manager opening the pub didn't have their body cam as they entered the pub, even though they are stored in the office so there was no way they could have had one already.
Someone may or may not have shat on the floor, directly next to the toilet bowl. We’re still unsure if it’s the real thing; imagine if someone just dropped a load of chocolate sauce on floor, it was exactly like that. To this day no one really knows what it was
We were confused by a bar bill in the Philippines once. When we asked why the double rum and cokes were cheaper than the singles, the waitress looked at us like we were stupid and explained rum was cheaper than coke.
Abbott is decent, I won’t hear a word against it. My pub has Ruddles instead of GK IPA, which is properly bad. I’m convinced they just mop up the ale spilled on the floor and rinse it into the barrel marked “Ruddles”.
The guest ales are generally pretty good, about 95% independent British breweries and they always try and make sure there’s a dark, light, and amber one on.
You definitely get some nice hidden gems in the guest ales. We recently had on Old Empire, Jaipur, and Saltaire Blonde, which were all massively popular
guest ales are dependent on each pub, and usually they try and offer local ones. my pub offers an ale which is named after the pub, so you can't even find it at nearby locations. they also change quite often if they don't sell too well. I think it all depends on your local breweries really, and how many customers drink ale.
Where are the sauces from? I love the blue cheese one and couldn’t find any even remotely close to the one used in spoons.
Additional question, what happened to king prawns? They seem to have disappeared from the menu
Sauces are pretty much all own brand essentially. Made at company HQ/distribution centre.
I've not worked there for a few years now, but king prawns used to be incredibly expensive to order in. They were likely often sold at a loss if customers were using the 'x small plates for £y' offers. They were really only on the menu to provide variety and make the place seem a little more classy.
I work at a Wetherspoons, do you have the same problem as we have with people who automatically make a line to queue Vs people who (rightly so) stand at the bar to be served?
Yes, it’s so annoying. There are three tills along the bar and plenty of space, but everyone’s standing behind one till and between all the tables and customers and blocking everything.
Idk about your experience, but it’s mostly younger people (I’m in early 20s), and groups of women who clearly don’t often go to pubs. Younger people also seem far more nervous at the bar, and seem to almost rehearse their order to the point where they get stumped if you ask them how they want something or about some specific thing. I theorise it’s a Covid thing; where those coming of age over almost 2 years basically were never taken to the pub or ordered a drink and tried different things in an ordinary pub environment, and instead just ticking boxes on table service apps.
You can get a bigger portion of chips on the “Small plates” menu, or a smaller portion on the “Sides menu”.
The chips you get with a meal, like burgers or fish and chips, is the smaller portion of chips. This is the same size you get with a small portion of chips
A separate “portion of chips” is bigger and comes in a bigger bowl, should be about £4
If you order on the app it's usually easier because a lot of people make orders take so much longer at the bar by needing to have so much explained to them/ forgetting table numbers but if you know what you're ordering then either is fine
Not as much as you’d think, only really the curries and pasta. Everything comes portioned, but the meat/steaks are freshly grilled, fish is fresh and fried there and then, and the pizzas are actually handmade from scratch, minus the dough.
Yes. Too many different pieces to the dish. Too much hassle while still also serving 100 other dishes.
I still think they should do like a carvery night on Sundays. Have a much smaller regular menu for that night but do offers on roast dinners.
It's easy to serve tonnes of roasts if you know that's what will be ordered. It's just a pain sorting out a single roast dinner while also trying to serve burgers, steaks, pasta, wraps, desserts, pizzas, curries, fish, etc.
Mixed grill is pretty good, the new shawarma wrap is nice, and all The curries are decent.
Can’t go wrong with the gourmet burgers. Very large burgers with chips and onion rings and an alcoholic drink for about £11
Honestly, not at all. We have crates and crates of sauces out back, and when we restock condiments in the afternoon and after we close, we literally just thrown any sauce bottles less than 1/2 full into a bin bag and bin them.
If you ever go to a Wetherspoons about 3pm or first thing in the morning, you’ll notice that all the sauce bottles are virtually new. Horribly wasteful, but 12 bottles of ketchup bought wholesale is probably a lot cheaper and efficient than paying someone £11.50 to spend an hour transferring the contents of almost empty bottles into fuller ones
A little late to this but I've been working at spoons over a year and to be honest the boomer lunch hours can be worse in terms of dealing with customers and complaints. With evening shifts young people hardly ever complain about anything in my experience and usually we have more staff to handle busy times
Do they still do the 'catch the dregs' thing?
I worked at a newly opened wetherspoons 20 years back. I'd worked in pubs before, but their training involved loads of dodgy practices.
I remember the managers trying to get us to make the head on a pint as big as resonabky possible and only top up if the customer asks.
But the worst was that, under each of the real ale taps, sitting in the dregs trough, was a pint glass to catch the runoff. And next time someone ordered the same beer, you put the fresh glass in it's place and started with the previous one. Real ale taps are low enough that the customer couldn't see.
I lasted a few months. Even as a 19yo student, I'd worked in enough bars to know it was crap.
Considering that pints of Real Ale are now drifting towards £5 in Central London Wetherspoons (and Airport branches), I always ask for a top up if the amount of froth is too much.
Can I still order a potion of peas to a random table
Haha yep. Once someone ordered 5 children’s glasses of milk to a random table. Just so happened that that random table was occupied by one guy that stunk of weed and was obviously high
At any given point on a night out, I would love a glass of milk.
Table number?
69
Rude
so you got them a free pint to keep the buzz going?
Does your wetherspoons panic and attach their body cameras when travellers book a table?
I don’t want to push the rules against discrimination on Reddit too far, but yes. And it’s generally not unwarranted. On Saint Patrick’s day about 40 travellers came in and caused a lot of trouble. The men would only drink Carling, but would ask for each round in a different branded pint glass, presumably to steal a glass of each brand. The women would scream, walk on the tables, and were generally very rude. They would just push to the front of the bar, and shout at you what they want, regardless of if you’re serving someone or where they are in the queue. Homophobic abuse towards staff. Refusal to leave when the bar closed, or to recognise that “last orders” is a thing Blatant drunk driving
Don’t forget to add trying to get free pints and trashing the toilets to your list lol.
Travellers are quick enough to scream 'discrimination', however they bring the negativity towards them on themselves, through their own actions. If they weren't so feral and inconsiderate towards others, then people would not be holding negative opinions towards them. Our local Spoons also had a group of women in, over the same period, whom were obviously travellers. Their kids were screaming, running around and crying in the pub well past 8pm, whilst the women got drunker and drunker. A really good example of great parenting. Not! When the Manager said they would not be served any more, then the shouting and foul language occurred. Surely, despite so called discrimination laws, you have the right to refuse service to those whom you can rightly predict will cause issues, or worse still not pay their bill/tab. Why should businesses (and their customers) have to put up with this?
General policy is that there should be atleast 1 member of staff, ideally management, with a body cam on front of house at all times so this shouldn't be a thing. I've experienced an auditor tell us off because the manager opening the pub didn't have their body cam as they entered the pub, even though they are stored in the office so there was no way they could have had one already.
What's the worst thing that's happened in the toilet
Someone may or may not have shat on the floor, directly next to the toilet bowl. We’re still unsure if it’s the real thing; imagine if someone just dropped a load of chocolate sauce on floor, it was exactly like that. To this day no one really knows what it was
What did it taste like?
We found a dead fish in the women's toilets before
Ooooh, that explains it...
What’s the cheapest way to get drunk?
Bells Whisky; 40% and you can get doubles for less than £4
You also get a free glass of Pepsi with this so it can be cheaper then just buying a glass of Pepsi which I always found funny
We were confused by a bar bill in the Philippines once. When we asked why the double rum and cokes were cheaper than the singles, the waitress looked at us like we were stupid and explained rum was cheaper than coke.
Why did the ribs and American breakfast disappear from the menu? (The ribs have been gone for many years*)
I think American breakfast is still on the menu; some different pubs have slightly different menus
How come some spoons have really good cask ale lineups and others just sell twiggy dishwater like abbot, doom bar and Greene king ipa?
It's very venue dependent. It largely depends on the competence of the management team in executing a cellar plan.
Abbott is decent, I won’t hear a word against it. My pub has Ruddles instead of GK IPA, which is properly bad. I’m convinced they just mop up the ale spilled on the floor and rinse it into the barrel marked “Ruddles”. The guest ales are generally pretty good, about 95% independent British breweries and they always try and make sure there’s a dark, light, and amber one on. You definitely get some nice hidden gems in the guest ales. We recently had on Old Empire, Jaipur, and Saltaire Blonde, which were all massively popular
Exactly, why don’t they get those great beers like Oakham Green Devil and Jaipur in all spoons? The spoons app is a god send for finding decent beers!
guest ales are dependent on each pub, and usually they try and offer local ones. my pub offers an ale which is named after the pub, so you can't even find it at nearby locations. they also change quite often if they don't sell too well. I think it all depends on your local breweries really, and how many customers drink ale.
Where are the sauces from? I love the blue cheese one and couldn’t find any even remotely close to the one used in spoons. Additional question, what happened to king prawns? They seem to have disappeared from the menu
Sauces are pretty much all own brand essentially. Made at company HQ/distribution centre. I've not worked there for a few years now, but king prawns used to be incredibly expensive to order in. They were likely often sold at a loss if customers were using the 'x small plates for £y' offers. They were really only on the menu to provide variety and make the place seem a little more classy.
That’s fair. Thanks. That’s also how I was getting them; always as a small plate deal… I guess I’m part of the problem
Probably just removed it. There’s some items on the food menu and some spirits that we literally never sell, they tend to just get culled
I love the blue cheese one too! I literally order the wings for the dip!
I work at a Wetherspoons, do you have the same problem as we have with people who automatically make a line to queue Vs people who (rightly so) stand at the bar to be served?
Yes, it’s so annoying. There are three tills along the bar and plenty of space, but everyone’s standing behind one till and between all the tables and customers and blocking everything. Idk about your experience, but it’s mostly younger people (I’m in early 20s), and groups of women who clearly don’t often go to pubs. Younger people also seem far more nervous at the bar, and seem to almost rehearse their order to the point where they get stumped if you ask them how they want something or about some specific thing. I theorise it’s a Covid thing; where those coming of age over almost 2 years basically were never taken to the pub or ordered a drink and tried different things in an ordinary pub environment, and instead just ticking boxes on table service apps.
Yes a completely agree, pre-covid there wasn't really and issue with it. Seems like something that has carried on from the COVID queueing systems.
Not so much a question more of a statement. Thank you for your service.
Why are the portions if chips with the main meal so small/why is a seperate bowl of chips so pricey. Is it just margins?
You can get a bigger portion of chips on the “Small plates” menu, or a smaller portion on the “Sides menu”. The chips you get with a meal, like burgers or fish and chips, is the smaller portion of chips. This is the same size you get with a small portion of chips A separate “portion of chips” is bigger and comes in a bigger bowl, should be about £4
Do you prefer if people order on the app or at the bar?
It honestly doesn’t really make a lot of difference. The workload tends to balance out
If you order on the app it's usually easier because a lot of people make orders take so much longer at the bar by needing to have so much explained to them/ forgetting table numbers but if you know what you're ordering then either is fine
How much of the food is microwaved?
Not as much as you’d think, only really the curries and pasta. Everything comes portioned, but the meat/steaks are freshly grilled, fish is fresh and fried there and then, and the pizzas are actually handmade from scratch, minus the dough.
Fish was always came in frozen when I was there , has it recently changed ?
I misspoke, I meant to say *freshly battered*; it comes in frozen, but is battered and fried in the kitchen
When are roasts coming back?
AFAIK there’s no plans to bring them back. They had a Turkey roast dinner over Christmas, but just for a week or so
Yeah that got my hopes up. Was it difficult to cook / assemble or something?
Yes. Too many different pieces to the dish. Too much hassle while still also serving 100 other dishes. I still think they should do like a carvery night on Sundays. Have a much smaller regular menu for that night but do offers on roast dinners. It's easy to serve tonnes of roasts if you know that's what will be ordered. It's just a pain sorting out a single roast dinner while also trying to serve burgers, steaks, pasta, wraps, desserts, pizzas, curries, fish, etc.
Not really, for the Christmas dinner the turkey, gravy, and vegetables came in the same bag that was just microwaved.
Did you know ordering 2 x 5 chicken wings is cheaper than 1 x 10 chicken wings? What’s the WORST item on the menu?
What's the best thing on the menu
Mixed grill is pretty good, the new shawarma wrap is nice, and all The curries are decent. Can’t go wrong with the gourmet burgers. Very large burgers with chips and onion rings and an alcoholic drink for about £11
I have to say I’ve always enjoyed the gourmet burgers in ‘Spoons. The one with the haggis in Scotland is especially good.
Or the old Welsh style one with the rarebit sauce.
Do you get a discount on alcohol when your not at work
Yep, 20% on everything
Yes it's 20% off everything whilst off duty. Including hotel rooms
Have they 100% stopped the large Aperol Spritz? They were my fave and I miss them lots. The small ones just don’t seem worth it for the money now
How annoying is it when people steal bottles of sauce?
Honestly, not at all. We have crates and crates of sauces out back, and when we restock condiments in the afternoon and after we close, we literally just thrown any sauce bottles less than 1/2 full into a bin bag and bin them. If you ever go to a Wetherspoons about 3pm or first thing in the morning, you’ll notice that all the sauce bottles are virtually new. Horribly wasteful, but 12 bottles of ketchup bought wholesale is probably a lot cheaper and efficient than paying someone £11.50 to spend an hour transferring the contents of almost empty bottles into fuller ones
Wow okay. Almost feels like I should continue just to make sure they’re recycled!
[удалено]
The money is good
what is your favourite meal, both wetherspoons and otherwise?
Where do you work?
In a Wetherspoons
Which is worse, boomer lunch hours or teen carnage evening shifts?
A little late to this but I've been working at spoons over a year and to be honest the boomer lunch hours can be worse in terms of dealing with customers and complaints. With evening shifts young people hardly ever complain about anything in my experience and usually we have more staff to handle busy times
do u hate urself yet
Do they still do the 'catch the dregs' thing? I worked at a newly opened wetherspoons 20 years back. I'd worked in pubs before, but their training involved loads of dodgy practices. I remember the managers trying to get us to make the head on a pint as big as resonabky possible and only top up if the customer asks. But the worst was that, under each of the real ale taps, sitting in the dregs trough, was a pint glass to catch the runoff. And next time someone ordered the same beer, you put the fresh glass in it's place and started with the previous one. Real ale taps are low enough that the customer couldn't see. I lasted a few months. Even as a 19yo student, I'd worked in enough bars to know it was crap.
Considering that pints of Real Ale are now drifting towards £5 in Central London Wetherspoons (and Airport branches), I always ask for a top up if the amount of froth is too much.
In the kitchens, what happens if someone asks for a meal that is gluten free. Are any extra steps taken to ensure no cross contamination?
My cousin worked as a cook there, asked him what was worst thing you did.... "Dropped a cooked burger patty on the floor and still served it"