toastED

[Jeremy]

How about if you have a bottle of wine with your breakfast?

By Penguin's theorem, which postulates that service charge is better value at breakfast, should less than 12.5% of the cost of the wine added to my bill?

This is a MINEFIELD.

Don't get me started on cocktails. Please.

[El Pibe]

And what's the Dutch threshold?

[Penguin68]

What I was saying was that the service charge that you would expect to pay at dinner (which will likely include relatively high-cost booze) as an absolute, not %age figure will be (much) more than you would pay at breakfast - although the amount of 'service' (work from someone) you got might well be more - I was using the amount of effort going into serving wine or serving tea/ coffee and juice as the comparator.

I was implying, (light heartedly - yes, I should know better) that you might expect to pay more absolutely for service at breakfast than at dinner. In fact, for small bills (under ?10) many people would give ?1 as a tip - often thus working out at more than 12.5% which would be charged if added to the bill. (For any bill under ?8.00 ?1 is more than 12.5%)

[El Pibe]

Don't worry Penguin, thread headed in the usual downwardly curmudgeonly spiral nicely sabotaged, hold your head up high ;)

[sidll]

A check on their menu shows that Franklins only add a discretionary service charge of 10% on tables of 6 or more and that has been the case for as long as I have been going there

[Peckhampam]

I'm glad to see the word curmudgeonly cropping up again

[Cedges]

In my opinion...Service should be taken into account within the prices in the menu. You don't expect to pay a service charge in a deli or grocery shop for the checkout person to ring your goods up at the till..I don't see why it should be any different in restaurants. If all restaurants applied this same policy, there would be less bad feeling amongst customers who do begrudge an additional charge and good service can still be rewarded with a tip if the customer feels it's deserved. Whilst yes you can ask for a service charge to be removed, I do feel that many restaurants count on the majority of the great British public to be too embarrassed to ask for it to be removed, regardless of how good the service actually is.

[*Bob*]

You can ask for it to be taken off, but I agree it's akin to taking a dump in the basket during a group hot air balloon ride - ie not well received and takes the shine off the whole event.

The problem (for me) is that the service charge has lost its purpose here in the UK. It's just become an extra stream of income which is both expected and taken for granted - thus offering no incentive or encouragement ie for the supposed recipient to be rewarded for good service.

I'd rather go Ozzie style (just pay your staff a reasonable wage and to hell with service charges) or US style where peeps work for their tip and thus you feel better giving what you think they deserve.

Unfortunately I suspect the reason why the 'add to your bill' came into being is because so many Brits are massive tightarses when it comes to tipping. Give them a change to leg it unseen leaving a pile of miserly coppers on the table and they'll do it - no matter how good the service was.

[HonaloochieB]

*Bob* speaks sooth of the sly throw of a few coppers into a saucer as a tip. It tends to happen I find when out with 'colleagues'.

A good meal, pleasant attentive service, but for some the crabbed handful of new pence is a prelude to a swift scarper. I've discreetly removed the shrapnel and 'noted up' the dish on several occasions.

But the breakfast service charge? Leaves me colder than the uneaten laverbread from a full Welsh.

The pint glass on the counter with a postit note enscribed TIPS, certainly.

At Xmas time, the Quality Street tin, slot-carved and wrapping-paper-taped, any caff/cafe I use, I'll note it up (I'm hoping this phrase might become a 'thing'), and I'll do so with a generous hand and no thought of personal cost, just the desire to provide a seasonal reward for people who have been adding to my cholesterol level over the year.

I've been known to single out favourites and press folding money into their hand, to do with what they will.

I haven't been in Rock Steady Eddie's in Camberwell for a while, but I doubt they'd countenance a service charge. And if RSE isn't down with it, then proves it can't be correct procedure.

I half promise to get in there on Friday and suss it out.

So, no then, I take all the logical/rational arguments and comparisons between dinner and breakfast being much of a muchness and wipe the egg yolk and ketchup from my chin with them and bid a cheery goodbye to my server, who though not getting 12.5% today can be certain of a nice bit of bunce come Yuletide.

[HonaloochieB]

Unless of course there's a tronc in the place, then I'm OKish with breakfast, possibly.

Does the tronc appear in Brit dineries of any kidney? First meal of the day, last or the three or four in between.

Or have I been paying too much heed to that Adrian Gill from the ST?

[drummingstar]

its a crap name & crap food. boring. unchanged. smells f oil all the time. really there is no imagination in East Dulwich.

[drummingstar]

sarahemjones Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Went for lunch today in the new toastED on

> lordship lane. Highly recommended! Great staff and

> lunch menu! House wine really reasonable too!! All

> in all a great addition to LL...

this place is crap. Crap name & food. boring. unoriginal. overpriced. no imagination. smells of oil. when is a restaurant or new bar ever going to open with some imagination.

[StraferJack]

a bit needlessly aggressive, no?

can you define "imagination" anyway?

I see that 3 years ago you were all about vegetarian indian canteen

Well, someone tried that - it didn't work

[showboat]

>

> this place is crap. Crap name & food. boring.

> unoriginal. overpriced. no imagination. smells of

> oil. when is a restaurant or new bar ever going to

> open with some imagination.

And your high quality suggestions would be...? Would love to know how you could do better!

(I wait with baited breath)

[Jeremy]

You can say that the food's a little unoriginal (arguably) and that it's quite expensive (perhaps). But it certainly isn't crap.

[Mick Mac]

I still haven't been :( good to see most of the reviews are good though. Dumstar can take his custom elsewhere.

[El Pibe]

Timeout review has it as ? out of ???? for price

http://www.timeout.com/london/bars-pubs/toasted

[Jeremy]

Probably a mistake...

[Dopamine1979]

El Pibe Wrote:

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> Timeout review has it as ? out of ???? for price

> http://www.timeout.com/london/bars-pubs/toasted

Is that good or bad?

[El Pibe]

it jst means not too pricey.

It got four out of five stars in the review.

[Willard]

What El Pibe said...

[lozzyloz]

I had lunch there a couple of weeks ago with my wife and was quite impressed. We shared 5 dishes, I had a craft beer and she had a soft drink and it all came to around ?35 including service. I really like their concept, the service was knowledgeable and attentive and the food delicious. what more could you want? It's a quality place so it's never going to be somewhere for a quick bacon sarnie and a cuppa for ?3, but I do think they're trying to give value for money. It's never going to please everyone but it's a good addition to the Lane and glad it's not empty premises or worse still, another Estate Agents.

[BrandNewGuy]

El Pibe Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> it jst means not too pricey.

> It got four out of five stars in the review.

Time Out's one-star price symbol means 'budget', two means 'mid-range', three means 'expensive' and four means 'luxury'

At ?6-?9 for a starter and ?14-?18.50 for a main, I don't think it could honestly be called 'budget'.

[Jeremy]

I thought the food was great, and will definitely be going back! But it will be somewhere for a treat rather than a quick casual dinner.

[JMT]

I finally got to go to ToastED the other day. I have to say the food was delicious, very accomplished and unusual, and the staff were very friendly.

However, I have a real hatred of menus that mention an ingredient in the description that turns out to be no more than a garnish. I ordered turbot with kohlrabi and quinoa thinking it sounded like a well rounded meal - it was ?23.50 after all. When my meal arrived I could literally count the grains of quinoa sprinkled on my fish. Luckily I had eaten tea with my kids earlier. I mean, how much would it cost to offer a side of quinoa? Not that I am a big fan of having to pay extra to have a balanced meal either. Am I asking too much? Am I behind the times?