La Cascade Restaurant Perth - Avoid at all costs
 

Unless you want an experience akin to Fawlty Towers, I suggest you avoid La Cascade Restaurant in Nedlands Perth. If waiting over an hour for a first course and then being abused by the staff when politely complaining is something you enjoy, then please give them a try. The food is awful too. Avoid this place like the plague

Did you have any good experiences in Perth? Where did you stay?
I was in Perth in May and found it a beautiful city with very friendly people.

You don't think, perhaps, that this could have been a ane-off experience and you were just unlucky? I guess I'd be slightly annoyed, too, if a stranger abused me when I was being ultra-polite to him/her, but you sure did get your revenge, didn't you? "Avoid at all costs"!!! Wow! I bet they wish now they had never "abused" you!

Now that you've got it out of your system, maybe you'd like to write in again with something POSITIVE.... just for the sake of balance, you understand.

Alan,
I was amused by your retort of robbieb's condemnation of this one particular restaurant. I have travelled far and wide in my life time and would rather mention the good things I have run into.
I spent a wonderful 5 weeks in Australia in April and May of this year. I travel from Sydney to Port Douglas to Perth and back to Sydney and absolutely adored your country. I never had a bad experience and would return in a heart-beat.

I agree with robbieb, sticking it up any place that does not deliver the goods!

Too many establishments, all over the world, get away with garbage because people don't want to bother talking about their negative experiences. Life is full of both but when I'm paying money for food & service I expect a positive experience, not a negative one. On yer robbieb!

Robbieb, how did the Manager of La Cascade respond when you took up this bad service with him/her?

This time, Lyndie, you are a little wide of the mark.

What you have not taken into account is that when you visit another country you are not just a single tourist with her own demands and expectations... you are a representative of your homeland, and as such you need to be a little understanding when you find, for instance, that in New Caledonia the service is not as fast or frenetic as it is in New York. If you stand up on your hind legs and demand that it SHOULD be, then you risk giving offence IN AN AMERICAN (or whatever) ACCENT, and, like it or not, people then tar all your countrymen with the same brush (I know that's not fair, but that's how it is). They don't smarten up their service, they just learn to groan inwardly when the next person with the same accent and attitude comes to call.

I am different to you in this regard... when I am overseas I try to leave my expectations of service-just-like-at-home right where they belong.... back at home. I accept that things won't go smoothly all the time, but I save my complaints for only major catastrophes, whatever they are (I haven't had one of those yet, luckily). If I hadn't done that, I can't imagine that I would have enjoyed places like India and Mexico as much as I did. A smile goes a long way in those countries.... in Australia, too!

And I would certainly never dream -- not in a million years -- of getting onto an international forum like Fodors and bad-mouthing (in a headline, yet!) some poor establishment simply because I had to wait an hour for a main course. "Avoid at all costs"! Frankly, when I saw that, I wondered if I were going to read a saga about a busload of people being carted off to hospital with ptomaine poisoning! THAT would be a good case for "avoid at all costs". But all it was was a bit of slow service, and a perfectly-understandable objection to a "polite" (I wonder , given the tone of the initial post on this thread, how polite it actually rated on a score of 1 to 10) complaint! You know as well as I do that Aussies DON'T react to complaints as humbly as, for instance, the Hispanic workers in the USA; we tend to "stick it right back" at you, because our view is that everyone, worker and guest, is equal and has an equal right to be treated with courtesy.

Robbieb's over-the-top complaint about something as trivial as slow service stamps him as being an ungracious guest. You shouldn't support people like that.

I'm usually wary of such posts, but I think it's as well to take note of the poster's track record. robbieb is a regular and helpful poster on several forums, doesn't seem to be given to exaggeration and gives credit where credit is due.

Alan, robbieb is actually an English-born Perth resident. I doubt that a London accent would elicit any comment in Perth.

On the other hand you do get suspect posts, like the guy on the Asia forum a while back who bagged some place in Manila. It was his first and only Fodors post, he'd posted the same whinge to other travel sites, and in any event it was all over some local screwup over a wedding reception. I was surprised that several people (Lyndie included ;) ) uncritically accepted all this as gospel and cheered him on. (ref: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34586574). But robbieb, I think, is in another category.

I did not accept his criticism as "gospel" for heaven's sake, pardon the pun! I respect his right to criticise, whoever & wherever he chooses. I never leave my expectations anywhere. They stay with me, especially since they were moulded by my experiences. Alan you're just a bit too PC for me. But I respect your right to say what you feel here.

OK Lyndie, I'll modify that - you gave him the benefit of the doubt, I didn't. I am however prepared to give robbieb the benefit of the doubt because even though he's a Sandgroper his Fodors bona fides look good.

I'm sure that Alan, who I picture as an august, dignified gentleman of mature years and sound judgement (a bit like yours truly, come to think of it) would be disturbed to hear himself described as "PC". What in heaven's name was "politically
correct" about his post?

I thought "PC" meant "penis challenged"!!!

Signed: "an august, dignified gentleman of mature years and sound judgement" (aw, shucks!)

Dear Alan. We don't know each other well enough for me to decide you could be defined as penis challenged. Hopefully there is a treatment you can endure if it causes you concern.

I've received many such kind offers from enterprising souls selling useful remedies on line. I've forwarded a few to friends, with the line "I was talking to (wife's name) the other day and..."

ROFL! I'm not contributing further. I have nothing more to say on the subject.

Oh, dear! Now that I have finally found out the truth about PC (I had thought that maybe you were a friend of my ex-wife, Lyndie!), now I have a new one to cope with: ROFL?????

ROFL = Roll on floor laughing

AKAROTFL (also known as Rolling On The Floor Laughing).

I must say that they don't take kindly to criticism in sandgroper country. My husband and I were at the rotating restaurant for our anniversary some years ago and the only thing that was not good was the "sheila" singing ( if that is what she called it). The waiter came up and asked if everything was to our satisfaction and I replied, " well no actually". "Ma'am, surely what can be the matter then" he asked and to which I replied that no-one had strangled the singer! He told me in no uncertain terms that if I didn't like it I could leave - which we did and have not stopped telling people about it since. I also only gave him half the bill seeing that I had to endure the "entertainment" and half the bill was my fee. I also gave him my phone number, name and address but never did hear anything from them. I think that if you get someone rude or offensive the best thing is to do is take the matter up with them and if you think it necessary then cut the bill in half- that way they won't forget. There was not a fodor's forum then so I guess I would not have had the same impact as robbieb except that anything that hits the hip pocket seems to be remembered longer than a post on Fodors.

Hi guys

Glad that my initial "complaint" generated such a wealth of comment. I'll get back to some of the specifics in a later post especially with some recommendations for future inter-state overseas visitors. Neil_Oz is correct in that I am a Perth resident and my motivation for the initial post was to ensure that visitors to our fair city did not suffer the same experience as we did. I think the other important principle is that the customer has a right to complain if he/she feels they are not getting value for money.

After doing a search on my favourite restaurant - La Cascade - I was quite perturbed to come across this post! Robbie, I really think that you were a bit hasty to post a comment such as "avoid at all costs". The food at this restuarant is among the highest quality & best value for money that I have experienced in Perth & on the numerous occassions that I have been there I have always found the staff to be exceedingly helpful & polite. I will agree that there is typically a long waiting period between meals, but considering there are 4 courses and it is French food that takes some time to prepare, it really is quite reasonable. It's NOT a restaurant to go to if you want a quick meal but it is perfect for occassions where you are happy to sit with good friends and enjoy the dining experience.