Police called as Christmas party ends in farce

Saturday night in one restaurant in Leigh-on-Sea, ended with the police being called, as diners at an Austrian-themed restaurant had such a disastrous meal that they refused to pay

The Old Vienna restaurant must have thought their were onto a winner when they packed the place for a special festive night, costing £39.95 each. Unfortunately, things didn't go entirely to plan.

Trip Advisor revealed the scale of the shambles claimed by diners. One reviewer wrote: "This has to rate as one of the most bizarre Christmas meals ever." They added that "a vegetarian [was] offered uncooked sprouts with bacon", while another diner received "no vegetables at all". She added that "The poor staff were embarrassed and did their best, but it was woefully inadequate." But said: "On the positive side, the band played on as the ship went down and did so with good humour."

Another wrote: "Our main meal took nearly an hour to be served and when it arrived all of the vegetables were stone cold.... One colleague had to send her steak back three times and still it came back over-cooked."

A third said: "We sat at table about 8. Took an hour to take our order. By 9.45 we got starters (nothing special). By 10.30 the time to leave. No sign of meals. People getting up and leaving all over place. The waiting staff all walked out at 10."

The Telegraph reported that after things started to go awry, six members of staff walked out, leaving just two to try to serve around 100 people.

One reviewer added: "Never in my life have I been in such a total shambles of a place." "People were leaving in their dozens all complaining. Not a very merry Christmas venue."
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Eventually the police were called. One reviewer said: "We said we wouldn't be paying any more than the £20 deposit and he called the police and told us to leave immediately!" "Needless to say we didn't hang around for our 3rd course. We waited for the police to arrive but sadly had to get home before they got there!"

One reviewer added: "We then called the police who turned up in the droves all hell broke loose and the oompah band carried on. It felt like we was on the Titanic."

An Essex Police spokesman told the Daily Mail that: "Police were contacted at 10.30pm on Saturday with reports of a disturbance at The Old Vienna restaurant. Officers attended and no offences were reported."

In response, restaurant owner Walter Haiser, 76, told the Telegraph: "What annoys me is no one else complained to us." He said that the problem was largely down to one party of diners: "On the evening at around 10pm they started shouting so we asked them to leave because they disturbed all the other customers who were enjoying themselves. They didn't move so we phoned the police." Mr Haiser stated that the staff walked out because the customers were shouting.

He said: "With TripAdvisor you have one big party and out of those you get 10 bad comments. We have a hundred parties who are really satisfied so it is not really a fair measurement against us."

Overall the restaurant's reviews are mixed, with 30 rating it as excellent, 24 as very good, but 10 as poor and 27 as terrible.