Hands down the worst place I've ever worked. - Anonymous employee Chiquito Employee Review

Where to start! I Interviewed for the position of a bartender, but was told I'd be better suited to waitressing. No idea why, when I had years of bar experience and no waitressing experience. I was told at the interview they would provide me with enough shifts to be able to pay my rent. That didn't happen at all, I was given 2/3 shifts a week, on most of which I was sent home at 'manager's discretion' which on a number of occasions was after about two and a half hour's work! I was contracted to 12 hours minimum and often didn't get my 12 hours which I'm pretty sure is illegal. Working til a close meant spending an hour's wages on getting a taxi home. Training was brief and sporadic, often thrown right into the deep end on a very busy night in the restaurant which was horrible. It pays minimum wage and if you don't have your own section to wait on then the tips are rubbish, you'd make about £2 a night despite working just as hard as anyone else. Some of the staff there were lovely and very pleasant. However, it was a cliquey workplace and I felt very much as if I didn't fit in and some of the other waitresses (and one of the managers) were very unwelcoming. There were a few incidents where if I made a mistake - as I was still new to the job, I was spoken down to and belittled, even by people who were not superior to me in their role. One of the managers was in the clique with them, so I felt like everyone was against me for reasons that I felt were unjustified. The only thing that I did was get overwhelmed in a busy restaurant due to lack of training on the floor or with the food. When I stood my ground against one of the waitresses who had had a go at me, some of the staff started talking about me and giving me dirty looks - including the manager! On my last shift, I said goodbye to the manager on my way out, only for her to look me up and down and give me a dirty look as I left. No goodbye! I rang in the next day to say I wouldn't be coming back. In conclusion, I really did not enjoy my time at Chiquito and didn't last long there. This is probably not the case in every restaurant but it definitely was in the branch I worked at.