The owner of an upscale restaurant in East London says his customers are “insufferably” rude, with their bad behaviour costing his business £1,000 a week. Ferhat Dirik, owner of Mangal 2 in Dalston, London, took to social media to air his frustration at diners last week, labelling them “insufferable, entitled and unforgiving p***s”. “At which point did it become socially acceptable for the hospitality industry to become the sponge which soaks up all of the nation’s vomit; its punching bag?” he added.
Mr Dirik, whose father founded Mangal 2 in 1994 after moving to the UK from Istanbul, said other restaurateurs and employees had reached out to him after the post, sympathising with the growing trend of “dire manners” among customers. Last-minute cancellations for large parties have also recently accelerated in frequency, he said, with many refusing to pay the associated fee, causing weekly losses of around £1,000.
“We have a booking for eight people and then the group suddenly cancels, so we are left scrambling to fill that spot,” he told the Metro. “But when you tell them they have to pay a cancellation fee, they start arguing with you.
“Most people say a family member is ill, but it just feels like a trick because you can’t ask for proof and then feel evil for insisting they pay the fee.”
The dad-of-two, who has been working in hospitality for 25 years, said he began noticing increased customer rudeness around 18 months ago.
“People now have less disposable income, and now there also seems to be less empathy,” he said.
“There is a mindset of wanting to hate whatever they eat. Obviously, as a service worker, you want to rectify it, but there is such a combative attitude.
“A table that gets served their main before they do would not have had starters or a simpler dish to prepare.
“And if they arrive and their table isn’t ready? Often, the customers themselves are early, and we spend the rest of the shift trying to make up for the ‘bad’ start.”
Mr Dirik also bemoaned “unforgiving” and “dramatically” extreme one-star reviews of the restaurant, which he said had been left for dishes being salty, waiting 15 minutes to be seated and – beyond staff control – a drug addict wandering into the building.
“We’re all poorer than ever before. We’re all more frustrated with life than ever before. Living standards have dropped. Our voices are constantly ignored,” he continued.
We expect the world, we feel we deserve the world, and we will be furious if things do not turn out perfectly. I get it, I’m just as p****d off. But your intolerance, your annoyances are misdirected.”