We were going to be passing through Reading and were keen to try this restaurant as it got a glowing review from food critic Jay Rayner. But even after I reserved a table via their website, several hours later they contacted me to tell me my reservation was cancelled. I messaged with them on WhatsApp and they said they could possibly fit us in at 14:15. But we couldn’t make it at that time as need to be moving on.
Online, there are reviews that appear to suggest the business is struggling with the volume of custom generated by Rayner’s positive write-up. This is an interesting phenomenon - potential for harm to a small family-operated restaurant when a big-name food journalist visits and gives it a great review.
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
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I’ve seen similar in Manchester, when Rayner has reviewed a new place. Ramps up the numbers and you’re lucky to get a table. These days, we make a note of the place and leave it on our “to try” list for six months or so. By then the bloggers getting freebie meals and the “restaurant tourists” will have moved on, in the main. So expect to see my HO review of the Medlock Canteen in November or thereabouts.
FWIW, I would be well peeved if I’d made a booking on a restaurant’s own system and they then cancelled on me.
My husband happened to be in Manchester for work the very weekend Rayner’s Medlock Canteen dropped. I messaged him about it and he walked in and had a really nice lunch there.
I’m putting it down to their possible inexperience in the UK restaurant business. It’s their loss as we would have probably spent a lot more than their average diner as eating is a hobby of ours! They might have been maintaining parallel methods of taking reservations and not keeping track.
