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Manchester restaurant slams customers who didn’t show up to bookings on Christmas day

Of all the days to no-show, this one is taking the mickey.

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 27th December 2023

A local restaurant in south Manchester has slammed ‘really unfair’ customers who pulled a no-show on Christmas day itself.

Family-run Indian restaurant Khandoker, in Didsbury, has said that it faced a disgraceful 30 no shows on Monday 25 December.

That’s 30 diners who failed to show up for their reserved table and failed to notify the restaurant that they weren’t coming.

Khandoker said in a frustrated post on Facebook that it was particularly unfair on the staff who were away from their own families to work serving people on Christmas day.

They also stressed that to skip out on a reservation creates a large amount of food waste and overall financial loss for local businesses.

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The Kingsway restaurant has also said that the no shows will be banned from dining there in the future.

They wrote: “Over 30 No shows on Christmas Day is really unfair on all our hospitality staff who had to show up early and be away from there families to prepare for a busy day!

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“It also creates a lot of food waste and overall loss for the restaurant trade. Please be respectful and call up if you can’t make it.

“The no shows will be banned from the restaurant in future. Not a great start to Christmas.”

Khandoker said it had taken deposits for all tables but hadn’t charged people for their full Christmas dinner upfront, which they thought ‘was fair at the time’.

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The business has been flooded with messages of support from customers.

One person said: “That’s disgusting. I think in future you should take full payment by the beginning of Dec. The majority of place are doing this nowadays.”

Another wrote: “Totally disrespectful to both foh and boh staff.”

Someone else commented: “Disgraceful! You were very fair only taking deposits but they didn’t show any appreciation on the day so you know what to do next time.

“It’s ignorant people like this who make things hard for the rest of us but I completely understand why businesses charge the full amount upfront because of cases like this!

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“Those places could have been filled if they’d given you enough notice! Hope everybody had a good day regardless.”

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Featured image: Google Maps