The Chameleon

On a very quiet, early evening on Saturday 27th
July 2013, myself and 2 friends went to Wisbech to see a film. Prior to that we
thought we would catch a bite to eat. We came across The Chameleon, and seeing
that we had 50 minutes before the film and there was no one else at all in the
entire restaurant we thought we would have a quick meal. Considering there was not a single other customer in
there for the entire time we were there you'd not think this was a tall order.
We ordered our soft drinks from the very unfriendly bar man, and chose a main
dish. (No starters as we didn't think we should push it on the time) 2 veg strogonoffs and one kebab dish all of which were on the menu and not a
special request. We sat and chatted and soon realised we had waited 30
minutes and we still had had not received our food. While we sat there, someone
dropped into the kitchen and the whole staff stopped working to chat with them,
they then left. I thought at this point we would receive our food but still
nothing. I've been to many restaurants all over the world, including
standard cafes to 5 star Michelin star restaurants around the world and I've
never experienced such an unaware and customer indifferent staff member than this bar man. We couldn't really wait any longer and so I approached the
bar and said to the bar man that I'd like to pay for the drinks. When the
(still sullen) barman asked me about the food I said politely that we didn't
have time to wait for the food as we had to see a film. He then said with all
due respect if you had told me when you came in I would have hurried it. There
was no due respect in his demeanour, and I wondered how could he have hurried
it up when there were no other customers in the restaurant (!??) I responded
that we had not expected to wait for over 30 minutes for a meal. To which he
curtly responded this is quality food. Assuming that I clearly had never
experienced quality food and needed to be educated in the processes involved
in it! I responded that I had actually
experienced quality food and I have not had to wait for 30 minutes for it. He
said What do you want me to do about it? I simply said I'd like to pay for
my drinks. He took my money without looking at me, he didn't respond to his
own staff who were asking him what was happening (so I was witnessing a grown
man sulking!!) and sulkily gave me my change. There was absolutely no effort to
make the situation better from his part and no apology at all. It looks like the Chameleon is true to its nature and changes its
colours all the time. I certainly wouldn't bother going there again as it was a
bad experience with nothing about either the service or the staff to tempt me
to try to give it a second chance. I'd recommend you find a different place to eat! (I can absolutely recommend the Luxe Cinema,
though! When we got there on our empty stomachs after this appalling experience
the staff were incredibly lovely and couldn't do enough to help us recommending
their food and drinks and making us feel thoroughly welcome!) Our Wisbech visit
was well worth it for the Luxe Cinema but certainly not for the experience in the Chameleon.