Theatre venue’s food is ‘awful’, says councillor

While a review of Worthing Theatres by a specially formed working group found that improvements had been made in terms of budgeting and programming, the quality of catering still left much to be desired.

During a joint overview and scrutiny committee meeting at Worthing Town Hall on Thursday, Adur District Councillor Liza Mckinney claimed a meal she had at the council-run Denton Lounge was the worst she had ever had in Sussex.

Mrs Mckinney began by praising the quality of the theatre programme describing it as ‘exceptional’.

However, her tone changed when she began to describe the catering.

She said: “The worst meal I ever had in Sussex I had in the Denton Lounge. Not only was the food awful the service was abysmal.

“If you are going to take on waiters who have no idea what they are doing they should have a really good training programme. It’s an art form – treat your customers right and they will come back again. I haven’t been back again and it would take some persuading.”

Councillor Keith Bickers, chairman of the working group, said he and Councillor Vino Vinojan had shared a similar experience.

Mr Bickers said: “There are still issues with quality of service and quality of offering and I know some councillors have experienced a less than satisfactory experience in our venues.

“We have highlighted customer service training as a priority so we can give a much better all round experience to Worthing Theatre-goers and people who come from outside Worthing.”

Mr Vinojan added: “It was extremely disappointing. We should be up to standard and we should be doing a lot better than that.”

However, councillor Mary Lermitte countered that it had ‘certainly not’ been her experience.