FU Valentino's Restaurant
last night was my work christmas party. we had decided to go to valentino's on king street in hamilton. we had originally booked for 20 people, but at the last minute some people cancelled so there were only 14 of us attending. we called the restaurant and told them this and they said everything was fine. they made no mention of any issues at this time. however, when we got to the restaurant we were told that there was a minimum of 20 and that we'd have to pay for 20 meals even though there were only 14 of us. obviously, we tried to argue it down and ask for some sort of break but they said no. they outright refused to even knock off a meal or two, or offer free desserts or anything. the guy literally was said something to the effect of "all i can do is make you pay for 20 meals". for some reason (not mine) we decided to stay anyway.
i should also mention that we had to put a $100 deposit down for the group days beforehand.
we had asked them to take the total price for 20 people and just divide it by 14 and we'd pay that way (with 5 of us who paid $20 each for the deposit getting $20 less off of our bills). we also made sure that the extra 6 meals were still given to us since we were being forced to pay for them.
well, when they brought the bills, without telling us they had decided to keep our deposit and had divided the extra $100 between all of us to pay. obviously, we noticed right away and complained. they said that since we had 6 less people and those people would have bought liquor and such, they had decided to keep our deposit since they were "losing" that money. they also stated that they had to close the part of the restaurant we were in for our party and that had led them to lose money because they had less room for customers - this was obvious bullshit as there was literally 6 other people in the restaurant and there were open tables everywhere.
they even added the extra $100 on in a sly way because those of us who had paid for the deposit still had the $20 less for our bills. on top of this, they were also trying to force one of us to pay double the meal price because she had wanted to take one of the extra meals to bring home (i.e. one of the 20 meals that were already included in the overall price).
we literally had our math teacher crunching numbers on her cell phone trying to show them how they were making us overpay. we had to argue with them for like 30 minutes until they just got fed up and let us pay the price we had agreed to pay. let me make this clear, they did not agree and they did not say sorry or admit they were wrong - they just gave up fighting with us.
what made this even worse was that the manager was there and we had originally spoken to him, but after the first conversation with him at the beginning of the meal, he just refused to come out of the back room to discuss with us. he made the female servers come and talk to us. we felt so bad for them because they were like "well, that's what the manager told me" and we're like "well, he's wrong so..."
they were incredibly rude dealing with the situation in general, but to try and steal our deposit on top of that was just nuts.
so fuck you valentino's! you just lost yourself a bunch of return customers.
plus, your food was shit.
i should also mention that we had to put a $100 deposit down for the group days beforehand.
we had asked them to take the total price for 20 people and just divide it by 14 and we'd pay that way (with 5 of us who paid $20 each for the deposit getting $20 less off of our bills). we also made sure that the extra 6 meals were still given to us since we were being forced to pay for them.
well, when they brought the bills, without telling us they had decided to keep our deposit and had divided the extra $100 between all of us to pay. obviously, we noticed right away and complained. they said that since we had 6 less people and those people would have bought liquor and such, they had decided to keep our deposit since they were "losing" that money. they also stated that they had to close the part of the restaurant we were in for our party and that had led them to lose money because they had less room for customers - this was obvious bullshit as there was literally 6 other people in the restaurant and there were open tables everywhere.
they even added the extra $100 on in a sly way because those of us who had paid for the deposit still had the $20 less for our bills. on top of this, they were also trying to force one of us to pay double the meal price because she had wanted to take one of the extra meals to bring home (i.e. one of the 20 meals that were already included in the overall price).
we literally had our math teacher crunching numbers on her cell phone trying to show them how they were making us overpay. we had to argue with them for like 30 minutes until they just got fed up and let us pay the price we had agreed to pay. let me make this clear, they did not agree and they did not say sorry or admit they were wrong - they just gave up fighting with us.
what made this even worse was that the manager was there and we had originally spoken to him, but after the first conversation with him at the beginning of the meal, he just refused to come out of the back room to discuss with us. he made the female servers come and talk to us. we felt so bad for them because they were like "well, that's what the manager told me" and we're like "well, he's wrong so..."
they were incredibly rude dealing with the situation in general, but to try and steal our deposit on top of that was just nuts.
so fuck you valentino's! you just lost yourself a bunch of return customers.
plus, your food was shit.
Comments
i agree that the former does have a better ring to it.
yes, my gf was planning on posting on yelp about it.
post on their facebook page is a good idea too.
that might be a bit extreme considering with did end up getting the proper price. well, almost. technically they charged us $42 each instead of the exact price of $41-whatever. and also, in the end we only were refunded $80 out of the $100 deposit as only four out of the 5 people who put in $20 got it back - the 5th person was one of the ones that didn't show up in the end and we kind of forgot to include that extra $20 after the drawn out disagreement.
Generally I HATE all the "no split bills", helpfully adding the tip for large groups (or telling you it's mandatory), and all the other nickel and dime bullshit that's out there.
I just want them to tell me what the meal costs . . . I'll figure out the rest, thanks.
The small claims court isn't too outlandish, but I wonder what would have happened had you said you were going to call the police then and there. Theft IMO.
Mark
If you could even get the cops to turn up.
Second was agreeing to pay for meals for people not there. You lose 5 bux each if you walk out then. But that is probably when they cave.
Better luck next year.
Std policy for large groups IMO. The other shit was dirty but if you agreed to bring 20 then expect to be charged for 20.
fyp...
The "6 others would have paid for drinks and such" claim is about the moment I start launching the 6 extra meals toward the back room. Bet the manager makes an appearance then
All Caterings and Large Reservations (20 or more) require $100 Deposit in order to reserve the date. Deposit is non-refundable if cancelled within 2 weeks of the reservation. The minimum money value of catered parties is $1000 + tax. If the minimum is met, the deposit is applied towards the total bill and will be deducted upon payment. If minimum is not met, Valentino’s reserves the right to apply the deposit towards a fee for renting the room.
FK U TRIGS!
At one time in Hamilton, the Italian food was fabulous and cheap.
All of the best Italian places were mob run.
They all did a fabulous job of it.
This is no longer the case.
Sad.
Maybe we can get mob involvement around here?