Jan 11, 2011

La Bigoudenne Restaurant, Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland

We went out to this restaurant to celebrate my Mother's birthday whilst she was visiting from Spain. The starters we had were a dish of crab, smoked chicken and ham (amazing!) and an apple and parsnip tartin which was magnificent. Our main courses were a striploin steak, duck breast and pheasant. The pheasant and duck were superb but the steak was overcooked and very fatty and full of gristle.

When the waitress approached the table and asked how our food was she was informed by the person eating the steak that it wasn't up to the expected standard but that he would eat it nevertheless. About 5 to 6 minutes later the chef burst out of the kitchen carrying a vacuum-packed tray of meat which he slammed down on our table and started to shout at the gentleman having the steak that this was the piece that his steak had come from and that he knew 'nothing' about his food. He then stormed back into the kitchen without allowing anyone to argue their point with him at all. At this stage everyone in the (very small) restaurant was staring at our table. Might I add that the gentleman who was eating the steak had trained and worked in a butchers for 7 years so would be quite knowledgeable when it comes to his steaks!

Needless to say we ate the rest of our meals in shock, changed our dessert order to something that could be consumed faster and left as soon as we could (being charged full price in spite of everything might I add!). My Mother's birthday was pretty much ruined at this stage.

The food in La Bigoudenne is top-notch for the most part, we obviously just got a dodgy steak but it would have taken nothing for the chef to either A: stay in his kitchen and say nothing or B: come out and apologise but his temper tantrum left an awful lot to be desired. We will be telling everyone we know about this experience...

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