A MUM has raged about restaurant staff taking her 19-year-old daughter’s glass of wine away after refusing to accept a photo of her ID.
The customer, identified as Nicola on her Tripadvisor review, said the waiting staff were “rude” and lacked the “legal knowledge” to handle the situation.
The angry mum said waiters lacked the “legal knowledge” to properly deal with the situation.[/caption]
However, the restaurant has responded by saying that they were simply following their company policy.
In her review, Nicole says that staff at The Lyttleton Arms, in Hagley, said that her daughter had not brought her ID to dinner but that her husband had a photo of it on his phone.
“On arrival we were shown to our table and we all ordered drinks and our meals at the same time. Husband and son ordered cokes whilst me and my daughter ordered a bottle of wine to share.”
“Whilst eating our starters the waitress returned and asked for ID from my 19 year old daughter.”
“She hadn’t brought it with her but hubby thought he had a solution…[he] had a copy of our daughters driving licence on his phone however this was not good enough.”
Nicole complained that the manager had not introduced herself and that the staff handled “the situation really rudely and badly!”
READ MORE UK NEWS
She also attached to her review a page from a government website that said that 16-year-olds can drink some alcohol with a meal as long as it is by an adult.
Being 19, her daughter is above the age where she is allowed to buy alcohol for herself.
However, Marc Hyatt, the general manager of The Lyttleton Arms, chose to respond to the review.
“I’m sorry we were unable to serve your daughter alcohol on her recent visit, the law you state for 16-17 year olds to drink is also at management discretion it is company policy across the 100s of sites we run that we do not serve alcohol to anyone under 18.”
“All our staff are trained in this and our due diligence is necessary to prevent underage drinking.”
“To this end like many places we operate a Challenge 21 policy where if you are lucky enough to look under 21 we ask you for ID; this is common practise across the majority of licensed premises not just ourselves.”
“Photos of IDs are not acceptable as a form of ID which is why we were unable to serve you.”
Most read in The Sun
He concluded with an offer for the family to return but suggested no flexibility in the policy: “I would like to invite your back and will happily get you a bottle of wine for the table if ID is provided.”
Of the 1,481 reviews of the restaurant on Tripadvisor, 788 are rated ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’.
