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Mud Dock

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captain oddsocks
captain oddsocks
First Reviewer
2 out of 5
Avg. Member Rating
2
Reviews
4
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Awful Customer Service

  • June 22, 2009
  • Rated 1 of 5 by Chris-TT from Bristol, United Kingdom
We have been to Mud Dock plenty of times before, and in the past have had good experiences. Before I would always recommend this venue to friends and family.

Yesterday we had family down, so decided to take them to Mud Dock for a meal and a few drinks. We noticed that none of the tables were big enough for our group, so proceeded to move 2 tables closer together.
Immediately a waitress appeared and started shouting at us, telling us to "Move the tables back ‘Now!’", and "never ‘ever’ move tables closer together!" I was pretty gob smacked, and almost couldn’t believe she was being serious, as I’ve not been spoken to in such a manor for many years. In-fact the last time I was spoken to like this was when I was given detention at school.
We explained that the tables were out of the way, and that our group wanted to sit together. She just reiterated what she said shouting at us as if we had just done something illegal.
Needless to say we all left with a very sour taste in our mouths, and are very unlikely to return again. Mud Dock’s customer service has obviously drastically gone down hill in recent months. Thanks to her attitude she lost Mud Dock our custom and I advice everyone to give this venue a miss until they train staff the fine art of customer service.
Editor Pick

Mud Dock Cafe

Mud Dock Cafe

The Mud Dock café was one of the places I was most looking forward to visiting in Bristol.

The combined cafe and bicycle store occupy a brick warehouse near the swing bridge behind the Arnolfini. The bike store is on the ground floor and the café up above, with a large multi-level terrace offering views over the floating harbour. Entrance to the café is via the external staircase that leads up to the wooden deck.

Inside the sliding-glass door you’ll find yourself in a large open space of exposed brick and wood. A huge circular window frames a view of St Mary’s slender church tower and early on a December afternoon the sunshine was streaming through the big windows to the south and bouncing a beautiful golden light off the polished floorboards. I could see how the mud dock cafe could be so popular.

When I went to the counter to order I asked for a white coffee and a piece of pecan pie. "Sorry Sir, we’re out of the pecan". That bothered me for two reasons; I really like pecan pie and there wasn’t much else that took my fancy, so that was reason one. The second thing was that I really don’t like being called ‘sir’ Probably the barman meant no offense, but I certainly don’t look or behave like a ‘Sir’, and sometimes when I’m addressed that way it feels so formal that’s it’s almost mocking. It’s perhaps more about the tone than the substance but I think it’s unnecessarily and coldly formal and it bothers me.

Anyway, I wasn’t really there to make friends, so I asked about the Apple ‘latisse’ and was shown a small piece of strudel with diagonal cuts along the top. For 3 pounds. That’s about six dollars. "I’d just like the coffee please."

The coffee was quite good, and sitting down to drink it gave me a good chance to notice some things that I’d missed when I’d entered, like the cycles hanging from the rafters as decorations and the way that the newly constructed parts of the café (bar and bathrooms) had been skillfully blended in with the old. I also had a look through the menu and discovered that I could have ordered pastas, like the penne with aubergine, lemon and basil, for about 12 pounds, or Lamb rump on bean cassoulet with a herb crust and rosemary jus for 16.95. The meals sounded good, but were a little rich for my budget, and that’s even before the compulsory 10% service charge, which the menu stated would be added to all meals.

My impression of the café is that it would once have been a wonderful place, a fun, informal and innovative mix of bike store and café that unfortunately started to believe its own publicity and popularity and forgot how it became popular in the first place.

While there’s a lot to like about the Mud Dock café and I’m glad that I went, one visit was enough thank you very much, Sirs and Madams.

From journal Orright me Babber?

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