A popular Indian restaurant and takeaway has shared its sadness after 30 customers failed to show for pre-booked meals on Christmas Day, leaving the business out of pocket and with a huge amount of food waste.
Khandoker restaurant in East Didsbury branded the behaviour, in which a number of tables failed to turn up and did not call ahead to cancel, ‘unfair’ on its staff who had to spend the holiday away from their families to work. In a post shared to social media, owners urged people to have respect and said no shows would be ‘banned’ going forward.
The family run restaurant, situated on Kingsway just over from the Parswood entertainment complex, has been running for 40 years and is known for giving back to the local community and charities like Christies St Ann’s Hospice. In 2020, the team gave out free hot meals to the elderly and those most affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
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But sharing their sadness on their Facebook page over this year’s Christmas Day, its owners said: “Over 30 no shows on Christmas Day is really unfair on all hospitality staff who had to show up early and be away from their families to prepare for a busy day! 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.”
On Facebook, Khandoker’s followers were quick to add their thoughts on the situation, with many branding the treatment of the restaurant as “disgusting”, while others asked whether they had taken deposits. One person wrote: “That’s so very sad for you. It’s just terrible.”
Another wrote: “Disgusting on those people who didn’t show up! I’d send them an invoice for the purchases you made for them!”
A third said: “Well said Khandoker…no accounting for people’s ignorance, you’re perfectly right to ban them.”
The post also started a conversation about taking deposits versus a full payment ahead of the meal to ensure customers either turn up or cancel in good time. One person weighed in writing: “I think a deposit of £20 or so per head for the Christmas / New Year period should be taken, hopefully this should stop no attendance.”
They added: “After all your work for charities, NHS workers, this is a setback.”
Replying to some of the comments, Khandoker’s owners explained that they did take deposits but people had still failed to show up. They responded: “we took deposits only as we thought it was fair at the time. Didn’t realise how wrong we [were].”
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News this morning, one of the restaurant directors, Mo Khandoker, explained that they have been shocked by what has happened and that they believed they were doing the right thing by taking a £20 deposit per table.
Mo said: “We’re down on sales majorly, and we kept on extra staff because we were expecting a lot more people, and cooked a lot more food. We took deposits so all it would have taken was for someone to quickly call up and say they couldn’t make it or ask to reschedule.
“We lost about 30 covers out of 80 we were expecting so almost half. We had some big groups that didn’t turn up and some smaller bookings too. It’s all a bit of a shock as we’ve been doing Christmas Day for seven or eight years.
“It’s left us feeling pretty sad and we get extra staff on. Usually we would have about four or five front-of-house staff but we had eight on just standing there in the end, and it’s a bit of a joke really because they missed out on being with their families.”
In terms of loss of earnings, Mo explained that they were charging £40 per head for the three-course Christmas meal including poppadoms, starter platters and a curry and rice of customer’s choice, but only a £20 deposit per table, leading them to lose out significantly on the larger bookings that didn’t show up.
On whether they’ll be forced to ban no-shows going forward, Mo added: “I think we may have to you know, especially on Christmas Day when we’re only open for reservations. We could have filled those tables if they had just rung ahead to say they couldn’t make it.
“There was a lot of wastage too, so while we gave some away to staff, we had prepared a lot because it was a set menu we were catering for. Initially we were catering for over 80 covers, so to have 30 not show has a big impact.
“On top of that we always give a percentage back to the community, so there would have been some money put aside from Christmas Day and put back into charities so they’ve lost out too, so it’s a knock-on effect.
“Really we just wanted to be fair to people and not make people pay up front as we know it’s tough, but by not taking full payments ahead of the day, we lost out. If we had taken them we probably wouldn’t have had any no shows.
“The only upside it after I posted it on Facebook, a customer who hadn’t shown up saw it and rang up and asked how much we would have made from that table and paid the full amount for that table sitting. At least they’ve got a good heart to say sorry and pay.”
The contemporary Indian restaurant and takeaway serves up a range of dishes including starters like fish samosas, prawn puri, butterfly king prawns, and chili paneer tikka. Main courses feature a blend of Khandoker family recipes – some passed down through generations for over two centuries – as well as classic favourites like diced chicken marinated in Tandoor sauce for 12 hours and hearty chicken and lamb biryanis.
Khandoker still has some tables left for New Year’s Eve celebrations. More details can be found on their website.
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
