The Olive Branch Marsden Review by JCH, 2019-03-17T00:00:00
We have been eating quite regularly at the Olive Branch for several years now without a problem. The service is usually good and the food excellent, if a little pricey.\n\nAs members of the regular email mailing list, we received an offer for a free bottle of Prosecco (as usual for birthdays) as it was my wife\u2019s birthday last week and so we decided to take advantage of this offer last night.\n\nHowever, my wife and I were subjected to a truly embarrassing and humiliating experience\u2026\n\nShe had ordered her fillet steak \u2018medium\u2019 and all seemed well until we were part-way through the meal when she discovered that the very middle of the steak was raw, not rare, but actually still raw. I pointed this out to not one, but two waitresses, and to be fair they both offered to have the remnants of the steak cooked correctly. But by this time, we were more than halfway through our meals and simply decided that the disruption this would entail was not worth it. It would have meant finishing my meal alone and then when my wife\u2019s steak was returned, her doing the same. So, my wife simply ate the rest of the meal and left about one third of the steak on the plate.\n\nMaybe I am old-fashioned, but I really assumed that any restaurant with such a good reputation would offer a small concession on the final bill, such as maybe not charging me for the ice cream I had for dessert or another small token deduction of some other kind. However, the bill arrived, and it was for the full price of the meal and so I simply asked if it was possible to receive a small token of recompense for what after all had been a disappointing meal for my wife. The waitress then left and fetched the person in charge, whom I presumed to be the owner, who proceeded to patronise me with reasons why she was not prepared to allow this.\n\nFirstly, she said that she was not aware of this problem, which due to her tone, I took as meaning that maybe she thought I was making it all up.\n\nSecondly, she then proceeded to tell me that they would have re-cooked the steak had we asked, and I then explained that we were asked and why we didn\u2019t want to go down that particular route (as above.)\n\nThirdly, she said (and I really could not believe my ears at this point) \u201cWell, you have had a free bottle of Prosecco!\u201d\n\nAnd lastly, she resorted to that old standby of anyone who has exhausted their excuse list, of\u2026 \u201cWell, it\u2019s not our policy\u2026\u201d At this point my wife and I had had just about enough and so I interrupted her with, \u2018We\u2019ll its not our policy in that case to ever come back here again.\u201d So, we just paid the full amount and left.\n\nAll this by the way, took place within the earshot of several other diners, which was totally embarrassing for us.\n\nNeedless to say, we will keep our promise to her and never go back. There are plenty of other decent, honourable restauranteurs in the Colne and Holme valleys, who treat their paying customers with the respect they deserve.