‘London diners are so rude they cost my restaurant £1,000 a week’

Despite the English stereotype that Brits have impeccable manners, London restaurant owners have said their customers are extremely rude – and it’s costing them £1,000 a week.

Last minute cancellations, constant complaints and pure anger after seeing other diners being served their meal slightly earlier are all fueling the theory customers simply ‘love to feel like a victim’.

Things have now reached a boiling point for Ferhat Dirik, owner of upscale Mangal 2 Restaurant in Dalston.

Last week he posted on social media describing diners as a bunch of ‘insufferable, entitled and unforgiving p****s’.

He wrote: ‘At which point did it become socially acceptable for the hospitality industry to become the sponge which soaks all of the nation’s vomit; its punching bag?’

His post has since resonated with anyone who has had to work in the hospitality industry, and compounded what we all know to be true – manners are on the decline.

He told Metro: ‘I have had loads of other owners and employees reach out to me after my post, saying they have noticed the same thing: Manners are dire.’

Mangal 2 has been a staple of London’s culinary scene since 1994 when Ferhat’s dad Ali Dirik opened the restaurant after moving from Istanbul.

It’s reputation is a proud one, and earned itself the title of 35th best restaurant in the whole of the UK, serving innovative Anatolian meals which one critic described as ‘brave, compelling, and properly delicious’.

But every evening the restaurant owner is left placating customers who simply ‘have a lack of logical thinking’.

If a table sees another party receive their main course before them? Expect all hell to break loose. Table not ready the very moment they arrive? Forget the idea of an easy-going shift.

Ferhat said: ‘There is a mindset of wanting to hate wherever 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.’

The lack of respect some customers have is even costing his business £1,000 a week, with large parties wanting to cancel last-minute with no apologies.

He said: ‘We have booking for eight people and then the group suddenly cancels, so we are left scrambling to fill that spot.

‘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 has worked in the hospitality industry for 25 years, working in his restaurant as a child while his dad was owner.

But he’s said the treatment of his staff by customers is now worse than ever before.

‘I first started really noticing it around 18 months ago. People now have less disposable income, and now there seems like there is less empathy,’ he said.

Customers, despite being wined and dined by some of east London’s finest cuisine, will also give bad reviews due to problems way beyond the restaurant’s control.

Ferhat said: ‘We get beggars in sometimes, because there is a lot of addiction and mental health issues in the area.

‘They go from table to table asking customers for money, and we ask them to leave straight away.

‘But we will still get bad reviews because of it when there is nothing more we can do, it is just a lack of logical thinking.’

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