Bosphorus Turkish Restaurant, Cardiff
by matt @ 7:38 pm. Blogged under Travel / Holidays, Eating and Drinking
The Bosphorus Turkish Restaurant in Cardiff was a strange place, the service was probably the worst I’ve ever experienced in my life, I’m not even sure I’d call it service, it was almost self-catering. I can’t fault the food though, very nice indeed. Presumably it’s the food that draws the punters in, and was responsible for the queue which was twenty strong by the time we were seated at our table. Despite our local guide for the evening having telephoned ahead and booked a table for six, we ended up crowded around a table for four; apparently when they confirmed the booking on the phone for ‘inside the restaurant’ it was a mistake, they meant ’sit outside in the cold’ - which we didn’t want to do.
We waited twenty minutes for somebody to come and take any kind of order from us. They only came over because one of our party went and asked a waiter if we could order. The drinks arrived quite quickly after that although I had to change mine from Jack Daniels to Johnny Walker as they were out of JD (not ideal). The starters soon followed and were very tasty. However, we then waited about another hour before anybody came to clear our plates away or to take more drink orders. During this dead time we stacked the plates ourselves and played an improvisation game for half an hour with an empty bowl - actually quite fun.
During the mains I noticed that the waiters at Bosphorus spent most of their time at the till area (see my dark photo above), one waitress seemed to be drinking more wine than anybody else in the restaurant was able to do (because order taking was low on the priorities it seemed). One very amusing moment was the singing of happy birthday which filled the restaurant; it was the most off-key rendition of that song in history and made everybody laugh (although probably not the intention). Paying at the end of the meal seemed quite confusing for the poor waitress who didn’t seem to know how to operate the credit card machine (or speak English) - we had to help her, so even paying was self-catering. If I’d been in on my own I might have contested the service charge and insisted on invoicing them for my own time, but the company of friends made this experience much more bearable.
When I’m out and about I never stop thinking about how somebody could be making more money from their business. If Bosphorus was my restaurant I’d seriously look at the staffing, either get more employees or get those already employed to do some work. It would have been easy to get us out an hour quicker than we were (two and a half in total) and get more people seated and eating to drive up the coffers.
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July 27th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
Service charge zero and blog that it’s shit…All you need to do dude…
August 3rd, 2006 at 3:07 pm
If I was the Manager of the Bospherous I’d possibly squirm and your Critique of their Restaurant, if only because others may see it. Somebody told me once, actually it was a woman who worked for the Food Inspectorate within the American Government, that there are tourist restaurants and local restaurants. Although this we had this discussion in the Docks of San Francisco, I figure it may be quite relevant. She explained why she wasnt taking me to a restaurant on the Quay, where the tourists go, its all because the food is cheaper ( buy and sell price), the quality is not as good, but significantly, they dont care because their clientelle rarely returns unless they have thick stomachs or no taste buds. So your article set me thinking, does the Bosherous care? I think not. Its been open years and it can still have people queuing becasue they think it looks cool as a place to frequent. Its got all the ingredients, views, light, atmosphere ( to be discussed) and so, in general - it works!
Having said that I do think it was crap service, but I’d still go back there. I like to give people and places a chance. I’ve been there about 4 or 5 times and its been good. I think the difference was being with a group of people that could improvise the meaning of a bowl.
My other thoughts - when do you write this stuff? How do you find time? Do you do it at work, in your head, or later at home to escape the dishes? How do people find Blog stuff? If I googled Bospherous, would your article come up?
Its all really interesting and I should really get back to my work… However, I’m off to Newmarket Races tomorrow with the Stevenage crowd with the hope that our Dinner wont be the same service experience as the Bospherous.
p.s. Say hi to Suzie_Q…. or ‘Santas little helper’ as I prefer to call her
August 3rd, 2006 at 5:35 pm
LOL, Well as I said ‘the company of friends made this experience much more bearable’ and the food was very good, but since I’m now blogging everything these days I like to give an honest assessment. As you say ‘do they care?’ probably not, but as 5 people came in here so far from searches I like to think it’s a valuable ‘review’
Where do I find the time - 3 hours a day on the train is plenty of time to watch a film and write a blog entry… tomorrow’s review ‘Roller Disco in Kings Cross’
August 4th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
Hi Dave, where does Matt find the time to write his blog? …well lets just say Santas Little Helper gets lonely off season
August 7th, 2006 at 1:29 pm
Hi Matt!
I agree with you about the service, very sloooowwwww…. I felt like getting up and saying:
“You, that table is waiting”, “And you, clean that other table”, “Don’t ignore people that are
looking at you”. What can I say, the waitress hat comes on when I go out… (Will I ever get
rid of this hat? I ask myself)
But, the food was lovely and I had lots of fun doing the killer dish! hohoho
And Let’s not forget how wild the night progressed having Mr. Findley hanging his plastic Cock out
of the window! LOL
See ya!
PS: HI SUEEE!!!!
August 7th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
and Dave’s question ‘If I googled Bospherous, would your article come up?’
Number 8 on ‘bosphorus cardiff’ doing quite nicely
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bosphorus%20cardiff
Respect the optimisation guru. I didn’t spend 6 years learning search techniques for nothing.
August 15th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
I cant believe Carol wrote that about my Cock being plastic. Technically its rubber though otherwise I dont think it would make such a noise when you squeezed it as rubber allows it to ‘Bellow more’.
Anyways… Hi Krol and Suzie_Q
On the subject of food and service, we stumbled across a superb Cafe Art Gallery in Cardiff thats been open less than a week, called Miglis ( Web Site is under development ) but run by two Sisiters who have their Art Degrees, were wondering on the next Step, were inspired by the New York Cafe Gallery scene and brought it to Cardiff. Your next visit to Cardiff will definitely inculde a trip to Miglis. Strange name though as it appears to be the name for a Welsh Dog !!!!! But I thought both Sisters were reasonably attractive.