***ALLERGY AVOID / SHOCKING FOLLOW UP***
***ALLERGY AVOID / SHOCKING FOLLOW UP***
My partner and I had a wonderful evening and meal on her December 21st birthday. We enjoyed the staff, and atmosphere at the table and in the bar upstairs afterwards.
Sadly my positivity ends there.
My partner is Celiac - so cannot eat anything with Gluten without her being voilently sick for a week. For those with allergies, you will understand that even using the same utensils can mean the difference between you getting ill or not.
Having not eaten since the am at home with no gluten ingredients, we had dinner at 6pm at the Chesil Rectory.
Within a window of 2 hours from eating - 30 minutes from leaving (we had drinks upstairs after the food) - We were in Incognito having just ordered a drink and she had to go to the toilet where she was voilently throwing up multiple times. Luckily there were some nurses sat next to us who assisted in the ladies bathroom.
The rest of the evening was horrible for her. Even once we got back to the hotel, the staff saw how poorly she was as well as crying. The Winchester Hotel and Spa were great, on hand to help, bought us multiple bottles of water and promised to take us to A&E as apparently quicker than an Ambulance given the distance.
My partner remained very ill for the following 4 days, taking the magic out of Christmas Day for her.
***SHOCKING FOLLOW UP***
Once my partner settled that night I emailed the restaurant with my concern, the following day a response which talked of an investigation they would undertake and some questions around whether it was something she could have eaten earlier.
I replied describing the above and with 30+ years of managing the condition, we have no issues when we cook at home.
Later that day, my partner receives a phone call from Incognito asking if she was ok. This was pleasantly surprising and we asked how they knew, as we had only mentioned it in passing as we left swiftly (nor did we identify who we were).
We were told that someone from The Chesil Rectory had been over to the bar to lay blame on Inognito for what had happened - they then looked us up from our booking and made the call out of concern for her.
On the 3rd of January - I re-emailed the manager Gareth to ask if we were going to get a reply back from 'the investigation'.
Today it is the 15th of January and we have had nothing back at all.
This is the most shocking service I have seen from a restaurant.
If you have an allergy, I would not trust this restaurant to keep you safe or make good when they make you ill.
I'm going to now look into reporting them to Food Standards Agency - such a shame.