I once went to this Indian restaurant where we started off with some sort of soup. When we got it, they had out some powdered soup at the bottom of the dish, covered it with hot water and put in front of us like that.

Goodbye in a hurry. The place was closed down by the health authorities a few weeks later.

A couple of months ago I went to an indian restaurant in town that Gordon Ramsey had been to for one his restaturant revamp shows, the difference between that place and the one last night was massive, the staff were attentive and very polite, and the standard of the food was amazing, I went with a group of 14 again celebrating someones birthday and we all love it! Why can't all restaurants make an effort?

I might sound like a spoiled sport but I hate eating out because of those reasons -  you pay good money for rubbish, well very often - there are a few restaurants that cater for my veggie requests but even in Britain today, I think, with the produce available, restaurants/chefs could try harder! I have been to my hubby's works Xmas party and been served cold sprouts with a re-heated Asda lasagne (they were 2 mins down the road btw)while all others where on their xmas pud - I had to search tables for something to make up a meal! This is really bad when we have so many wonderful cultures cooking in our society.

About 12 years ago I visited one of the historic houses owned by the National Trust. At lunchtime I went into the little restaurant attached to the house. I sat down and had a look at the menu, or what there was of it as there wasn't much of a choice. I asked to start with I can't remember what but was told that there wasn't any, so I settled for some melon. The waiter came back about 5 minutes later, apologised and said that "the melon's gorn orff", so I had some soup, during which I overheard some other visitors ordering salmon fishcakes for their main course.

A Chinese girl came in and sat down near by. She was very quiet. After my soup, I chose my main course. When talking to the waiter, it soon became clear as why the other visitors had chosen salmon fishcakes. They were the only things actually available.

After some time the fishcakes arrived and they were OK. The Chinese girl was still sitting near by. She was very quiet.

I finished my fishcakes and had some icecream and a cup of coffee (no problem there at least). The Chinese girl was still sitting near by. She was very quiet. I realised she had not been waited upon, that she was too quiet to say anything, and that there was a strong likelyhood that she might starve to death. So I came to her rescue and asked the waiter to attend to her order (for salmon fishcakes).

I left thinking that this could have been the inspiration for Fawlty Towers (but I know that's not the case).