Service Scenario

Service Scenario

The Birthday Dinner at the Ritz Carlton Powerscourt, County Wicklow, Ireland

This scenario goes to a beautiful property of The Ritz Carlton Hotel, County Wicklow, Ireland. As one of the most popular brands The Ritz-Carlton features luxury hotels and resorts in the world’s premier destinations trading goods and services for a valued exchange.

The primary market segments are independent travelers and the meeting event planners.

Independent travelers are defined as people benefiting from the luxury service quality for business reasons, from individual initiatives or simply for pleasure to resident in a luxury hotel. Meeting event became an interesting way to attract independent business travelers.

The Ritz-Carlton, Powers court offers its discerning guests an authentic experience of Irish culture and hospitality in the iconic surrounds of The Wicklow Mountains and within easy reach of Dublin.

Gordon Ramsay restaurant had extensive space, which could be available to groups and individuals for breakfast, lunch and dinner with option of meeting or private venue. It is equipped with an outdoor terrace overlooking the Sugar Loaf Mountain, which makes an attractive place for residential and travel groups with business or leisure purpose and allows the hotel to compete with its major competitors in the market.

With great passion for dinning and hospitality, my husband and I decided to celebrate our birthday in the Gordon Ramsay restaurant at the Powercout which is located on mezzanine floor of the hotel. The experience starts immediately with the arrival to the hotel where welcoming foyer leads you to the Georgian style lobby completed with fireplace and classy lounge with elegant decor creating warmly welcomed atmosphere.  When we walked in the shiny lobby where everybody made the atmosphere even better with the great smile and warm welcome, the guest services offered assistance immediately and took my husband and me to the Gordon Ramsay restaurant where the reservation was made. On the  way to the restaurant, they gave us a brief introduction of the property  and also suggestion to start with the drink in the elegant lobby lounge with stunning overview of the Sugar Loaf Mountain, since we still had a time before our dinner reservation. We agreed and enjoyed a couple Bellini’s as per suggestion of the lounge bartender who gave us a knowledgeable explanation of the cocktails choice. The bartender was demonstrating expressive characteristics with being enthusiastic, confident and animated during our interaction. With the expressive body language which he demonstrated by casual poster and open palms and facial expressions the contacted the guest services without our knowledge to exceed the special attention and they have returned back to escort us to the restaurant. It was a great touch of the unexpected needs.

When we arrived to the restaurant, the service staff opened the door for us with a great smile and warm greeting with using our names, which made us feel very special.  We were surprised that they knew our names and assumed that our friendly bartender must let them know that we were coming. The simple gesture of holding the door and using our names made us feel very important.  The atmosphere of the restaurant was warm and slightly intimate. There were candles on white and crisp tablecloths which were nicely pressed and decorated with bawl of water topped with floating flower. Everything was shiny, nicely polished and clean which was in perfect harmony with neat presentation of staff uniform and their shiny nametags. The hostess who appeals more as analytical character by her monotone slower speaking with rigid posture and being very diplomatic and working very orderly with data and facts in the reservation system assisted with our coats and escorted us to our table. She pulled our chairs from the table to help us seat, present and explain the menu precisely.

After menu presentation, which included the choices of ala card menu, menu prestige and chef surprise menu, she introduced our server for additional questions and left  us  to enjoy  the dinner. Within few moments our servers arrived to offer a water service. He introduced himself and greeted us using our names. He further explained the different varieties of Coctails that were available. We asked for couple glasses of Champagne to start our celebration. The glasses of champagne were brought and presented from champagne trolley for the great show. Without any rush, he gave us enough time to explore our option of the menu and enjoy our drinks with delicious canapés. He returned back with timely manner to check for further questions. With difficulty to decide, he helped us by promoting the knowledge of the menu and recommendations according to our needs and likes.

Finally, we decided to order the menu prestige with a combination of wine tasting to complement each dish. The menu prestige includes two appetizers, choice of main course and choice between dessert and cheese selection. My husband chose a duck for the main course and I chose a beef medium rare. As for dessert we chose a cheese selection from the restaurant cheese trolley. I should mention that they did not have apple tartan on the menu which we had loved for our lunch menu during our previous visit earlier that year. Server apologized for the inconvenience that the item is no longer on the menu for its season. Before he placed the order, he asked for any allergies they should be aware of or any type of food we couldn’t eat for any other reasons. Shortly the service staff brought fresh baked bread with organic butter accompanied by the amuse bouche. Demonstrating his knowledge he presented and briefly explained the bread selection and the amuse bouche.

Prior to each course, our server set the proper cutlery and proper wine glass. Meanwhile, waiting for our dish the restaurant sommelier presented the glass of matching wine which he chose for our meal and gave us detail information. Our dish arrived on a silver tray carried by service staff and placed on tray which was already prepared on the side. Repeating the service style for each course, they promoted the consistency of service. Each course was served with good timing and perfectly matching wine selection and explanation of the whole dish and why it matches the wine. The whole service and presentation was outstanding. Everyone was knowledgeable about the products and gave great amount of information, but not too much to disturb. Unfortunately, not everything could go smooth that night, and we had experienced a service failure during our main course. Not only my beef was a way to overcook but also my husband’s duck was served pink which was not mentioned on the menu or by our server. With disappointed faces, we called our server to our table and explain the situation. The server was apologetic and recognized our frustration by empathy. As driver characteristic and action oriented he determined the personality of my husband who was a driver also and wanted to know what the fix was. Server gave him control in problem solution by letting him decide between other choices from set menu or chose anything he would like to have from the ala card menu which was not part of the set menu. My husband liked the idea to have something else from the ala card menu and chose the organic pork plate. I stayed with my previous decision of steak medium rare.  Focusing on task our server quickly made a decision and chose immediate solution without involving a manager by remaking our dishes, removing the charges for the main courses which demonstrated the driver characteristic of quick result and problem solution. During our waiting kitchen send us a complementary course of a basil sorbet. The waiting was not too long and the meal came properly cooked with the additional sides of shallot and trufflesvinaigrette, sautéed vegetables and horse radish apples for my husband. With fast resolution and meal being delicious, the experience was back on track.

For the final course, our server approached the table with cheese trolley. The selection of Irish, French and Belgium chesses lined on top of the trolley decorated with grapes, chutney and nuts were very impressive. We learned some new and valuable information about the cheeses and the whole presentation was very entertaining. The sommelier matched cheese with an excellent choice of wine and our server asked if he could also treat us with famous Irish coffee on the house. We agreed to have it after a little break. The Irish coffee arrived accompanied by apple Tatin with two birthday candles for both. We absolutely loved it.

As a special touch, in the end to make the dinner even more special, our server offered a kitchen tour where we had the opportunity to meet the team who was preparing our meal and took some memorable pictures.

Receiving coats from wardrobe on the way out, the hostess gave us prepared print of our birthday menu with matching wines we had for dinner and birthday congratulations signed by the team. With fond farewells and many thanks for choosing Gordon Ramsay Restaurant, we left with the greatest satisfaction.  This experience was truly unforgettable, and we were absolutely amazed.