and i would accept the blame along with the monies.

it's not even close to a burger joint though, and it's not even a chain afaik.

nice

OP sounds like an easy mark. LOL @ choosing "Gordon Ramsey" restaurant when there were "countless other restaurants".

Of course they shouldn't scam you how they did but at an airport you gotta be on guard and passing an airport restaurant with that dip****'s name attached to it should set some kind of mental alarm off. You're at the major airport in a top 3 most expensive city in the world and choose to eat at that place?

aside from having seen a clip or two of him on youtube, i actually don't really have any idea who this guy is. is he actually a known dip**** or does he just troll a little on tv?

i'm not sure why you would assume terminal 5 at heathrow is known for its food... the second best restaurant (food, not service) is probably pret a manger.

Public service message: Gordon Ramsey no longer owns any of the restaurant Gordon Ramsey at the London in LA.

Oh OK, I thought you knew who he was beforehand and still chose to eat there in the airport in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

No way I'm eating at a restaurant with a "designer" name on it.

Saying Ramsay "trolls a little" on TV is a pretty big understatement.

Even if he didn't know who Gordon Ramsay was he was still quite aware of the prices and willing to pay them. His issue isn't the cost of the food but the ****ty service and extra fees which no one would expect regardless of how expensive a restaurant is.

You didn't point out the biggest scam, $22 CAD for a cheeseburger at the airport.

judges...?

we'll accept that answer

meh... with VAT included and assuming it's higher quality than the average bar burger (it was), i don't think that's such an unreasonable price. i ended up paying ~50% more than that though, which is a bit ridiculous.

heathrow has attempted to rape me with a grim efficiency every time I've had the misfortune of passing through

nearly froze to death once when an unexpectedly cancelled flight meant I had to spend the night in an unheated terminal with all shops closed, light summer wear, no legal right to leave the airport, and the bathroom hot-air dryer my only source of heat

and relatives were expecting me at a certain time and I wasn't going to make it and they didn't know what had happened, so I found a pay phone (all of them owned by the same company) and made a short call to the U.S. -- they billed my credit card like $150

die heathrow, die

Yeah I get all that. But Ramsay is literally famous for being a huge dickhead and cussing out chefs and just seems like a huge A-hole in general, that for whatever reason, people can't get enough of. You can't go more than a few channels without seeing another iteration of him screaming at somebody. If I saw a restaurant with his name on it I wouldn't immediately think "classy joint - will expect superior service". I guess they can treat people like garbage because they assume most people choosing to eat there are already perfectly fine with seeing people be treated like garbage (fans of his shows) and would put up with a lot just to tell people they ate some Gordon Ramsay restaurant.

That's pretty cheap, they must have lowered their prices. I ate at this exact location when it first opened, For two the bill came out to 96 quid. We ordered similar.

I don't see as them bringing bottled water as a scam, when you go to an expensive restaurant you shouldn't be worrying about things like that. The £1 donation is a farce, but I would have just told them to remove it.

You are spot on about the burger being cooked one way. I also had a burger there and it came brutally overcooked. The food overall was very substandard. Gordon Ramsay also took over a favorite spot of mine in Maida Vale and it everything went to absolute ****e.

I've ate at about 4 different Ramsay run restaurants and without fail it has been a poor highly overpriced experience.

What is funny, is the UK Masterchef is 1000000x more entertaining, everyone is treated with respect, and there is no prize money for winning. Only opportunities, which most of the winners have used quite well. It is so nice without Gordon Ramsay, he had to go troll the uneducated masses somewhere else to get his awful schtick through.

Wendy's charges $11 (9.99 + absurd tax)for their baconator combo on Yonge st. $22 CAD is about what you can expect even at an airport pub in London, it is expensive.

Nothing is worse than Sheremetyevo in Moscow. I ordered the worst mashed potatoes, piece of meat, salad, and coke and it was 4,000 rubles ($150 at the time) It was in a ****ty cafeteria. I thought it was a joke, but this was the same trip I had a $900 private car ride for 3km. And yes, they were serious. It was from exclusive restaurant who ordered the car. This is just in line with flat prices on Tverskaya u. though.

There's a thread on reddit where a persian kid got kept on lock down at Sheremetyevo for two years befor the Canadian government granted his family citizenship. There is no worse airport in the world, and I've been to most of them.

The whole bottled water thing is ridiculous. Ate at some faux "nice" restaurant in town and ordered "water is fine" and the waiter was like "we have blah blah brand bottled, blah blah brand bottled, or city of Houston tap, which would you like?"

UGGG. Go die. Nothing better than trying to make your customers feel like **** because they are unwilling to light money on fire. Especially when you have like 2 tables bro.

i know you are a big ****in moron but those two post are even bad for you man. seriously you do realize that op is complaining about not receiving us standard service in a heavily european dominated domain (europe) you should be smart enough to realize you will receive a european kind of service in europe and not be a tard about it. we europeans like us some bad service before we ride our goats to work so ****ing what.

and you want ketchup ask for it. i mean seriously did op not realize the ketchup might not be enough when he got his plate? he must have been mighty suprised at some point when the ketchup went out, i really dont see the problem in saying: you dude i think i`ll need more ketchup for my fries.

i cant believe i jump to the defense of garibaldi because i have been annoyed by him since his very first post in the german subforum but this is way out of line.

All of these except the donation are pretty standard in London. You need to be fast and firm asking for tap water (I do this even at upscale restaurants like Nobu, **** those guys)

sucks you didn't get mayo. Mayo -> ketchup by 1 million miles

re: the bottle water thing, its standard to pay over the odds unless you specify tap water. ****, but thats how it is.

theres a thin line between a waiter waiting for you to expect ketchup to be refilled, and having to go up to the counter and ask when you're paying good money (even in an airport)

charity donation is wtf.

i think descrationary service charge = tip. but legally means it doesnt have to be taxed. it is your right to disagree, but obv most people dont

I mean, Nobu is £100 a head minimum and you are worried about paying £4 for water. It is only a recent thing anyway that restaurants have to give you free tap water in London.

I went to a mexican restaurant that only served their tap water in sno-cones. That was @£$%@£$%. Obviously never going back.

Tap water is bad if it comes out of old rusty pipes like in Russia where your hair will turn orange or green just from using the shower. any nice restaurant should have filtered water coming out as they use it to cook with anyway.

You could always request your food be prepared with bottled water only if they pressure you.

Pretty sure they charge more like 6-7 pounds a bottle (I may be wrong), and that **** adds up fast, especially if its more than one person. I also don't like the feeling of not being comfortable with drinking as much water as I like because it's gonna mean another bottle.

On top of that, the tap water is fine anyway. This is probably more reasonable in countries where the tap water sux, as you said.

Lol discretionary donation. I'd of laughed and told them they better not put that on my bill. I also would've sent back the bottled water, gotten as much ketchup as I wanted, and sent back the bill to get the cheaper option.

OP sounds a little pussified.

zero chance you're chasing down the waiter, making them reverse the charges on your card (and likely ****ing up somehow and/or taking forever in the process), and paying again, with the possible end result that you get charged incorrectly again and/or double charged and have to worry about disputing the charge, all to save 30-50c. particularly when you have a plane to catch. that's the beauty of scamming an additional 1-2% off the top.

Depends what size. I agree about the annoyance of having to pay per bottle. They should have unlimited soft drinks for a set fee in every restaurant. The worst is when they get out the 125 ml bottles and you pay out the arse.

Nobu is most annoying about getting you in and out in 90 minutes. That's probably why Boris Becker shot off in the waitress so quickly. It's definitely a buzzkill when you are having a good time.

Ha, there's a movie theater in Brighton, MA near me that has a sign up saying part of your ticket fee is the 75 cents discretionary donation to restoring the theater, and that if you don't want to pay it, you have to specifically say that before you begin the purchase, which I'm sure most people don't want to do bc they feel like *******s doing so.