I went to DN One the other day to take my mother because she had a voucher for it, letting us have buy-one-get-one-free meals and two hot drinks (one each). As I walk past this restaurant every time I am in the town centre, I thought I'd give it a try.
We carried the pushchair up the steps (there was no ramp and the porters inside did not offer to help) and it was deserted. A man appeared from the woodworks and showed us into a deserted restaurant area that looked like it had been decorated in the 80's. We sat on some uncomfortable couches, as we had a baby and no high chair. We were handed menus, and the man disappeared again. (Might I re-itterate that there was nothing other to be done as I found him sat with the receptionist having a chat).
The meals themselves were expensive (£5.95 for a small 'starter like' portion) and the man who I assumed worked there but he didn't introduce himself as all waiters are trained to do in high-end restaurants. It took 30-40 minutes of entertaining the baby before the meals came. The waiter handed me the plate (?) and I took my mother's too as she was holding the baby who was crying and trying to play with the ornamental teapots on the windowsill. The meals were fine, except there was a lot of fat in my gammon. I had to scout around the lobby area (as it is part of Danum hotel) for the man to ask for our hot drinks. He gave us a pot of tea (strong-brew, it had four tea bags in and it was only around the size of two fists) and two tea cups, then disappeared again. I found him in the lobby again to ask for sugar and he seemed annoyed, went to the tea station next to the kitchen and roughly pulled out a drawer to find a bowl of sugar sachets, uttering the most sarcastic apology I have ever heard. The milk was room-temperature, and as I said before, the tea was strong-brew.
As for paying, I could not find the waiter, just an impossibly ruder man that snatched my voucher and card from me and stomped into the restaurant to the computer to put the payment through.
A very poor experience, I'd had high hopes from such a prestigious hotel. read more