BARE TASTY AFRO BBQ & SUYA SPECIALISTS - REALLY POOR SERVICE
Bare Tasty
AFRO BBQ & SUYA SPECIALISTS (Andrew) London SE11 4RN - Very Poor Service
My significant concerns with regard the service I received from Bare Tasty BBQ (Andrew) on 21 June 2025 are set out below.
My guest were invited for 2pm start and Andrew was contracted to feed 170 guests. Andrew arrrived 2 hours late and started serving food to my guests at 6pm which was 3 hours later than agreed. By then my guests were starving despite me having to give out food which was planned for later in the evening. Andrew then left by 9pm which was much earlier than expected as the commitment was to be there until my guests had left.
As a result of Andrews late arrival there were long queues for the food and instead of serving the food, as was my experience at a previous event catered by Andrews, he treated it like a buffet which lead to people helping themselves. This was the reason Andrew gave for the food finishing quicker than expected.
Andrew stated that there would be 3 staff and there was only two. The barbecue was left unmanned until I told him that wasn't acceptable. There were young children at the party.
There was no communications with Andrew throughout the short time he was catering my event and he kept disappearing.
I truly did not think that Andrew had sufficient food to cover my event which was further exacerbated by his late arrival (transportation issue) and buffet approach. I did think that his focus was on his transportation issue when he arrived rather than ensuring that my event ran smoothly and his obligations were honoured.
In terms of value for money and service provided, it fell well short of what I was expecting (and I have hosted many catered event). For in excess of £3,000 I expected more than just over 2 hours of food being provided which included significant gaps of queuing when food was being cooked.
After the event Andrew agreed to refund me £1,000. He then changed his mind not because it wasn't a fair refund but because he said he couldn't afford that amount. I reluctantly agreed £500 in cash and £500 off another event (even though I told him I that I didnt have the confidence to use his services again). He paid £250 later than the time agreed and has largely ignored my requests for the remaining £250 owed. We are now in November and the event was in June.
It was a very special event which I had hoped to enjoy fully, but this was not the case.