The Union's new catering offering appears to be suffering some serious teething problems, with waits of over an hour for food in the evenings.
Problems were apparent on Monday when a large contingent from the tempestuous Union Council meeting arrived in the bar half an hour before the meeting, eager to try out the new menu. With the canteen-style service gone councillors arrived earlier than normal to have their fill of burgers, pizzas and pasta - but sadly not early enough. With the start of Council already 10 minutes late, the Council Chair had to abandon his position in the bar to take up his position at the meeting, with several other councillors joining him. A glamorous assistant then delivered the food in fits-and-starts during the meeting, with the Council Chair's pizza the last to arrive around 75 minutes after ordering.
This baptism of fire was bound to end badly - with a rush on food on the very first day, and a tight schedule to keep to for those ordering, Live! initially put the slow service down to poor timing and teething troubles. Events this evening have shown that the problems continue, with the Union apparently unable to plan for perfectly predictable numbers of customers.
This reporter was attempting to review the new catering offering in a more real-life scenario than the previous taster session, however ended up at the Hereford Arms instead. Upon arrival in Beit Quad, da Vinci's was packed, with advertising all around for the football match showing in the bar. Despite the numbers in da Vinci's, the Union bar remained closed, meaning there was nowhere to sit and eat, and certainly nowhere to have a civilised pint. The queues for the bar seemed large, while wooden spoons indicating food orders were scattered around the place. Upon asking the Felix team if there was a chance of getting food in the next hour, it turned out they had been waiting nearly 45 minutes for a jacket potato, which had still not arrived.
With the advertising of the football match distributed, the numbers likely to head to the union were presumably highly predictable, yet both the bar and the catering seemed under-staffed. Live! wonders how the Union will cope as people celebrate the end of their exams in the next few weeks.
Email this Article
