Cardiff chef Lee Skeet gives waitress entire £1,000 bill and bans customers who ‘disrespected’ her

The chef-owner of Cardiff restaurant Cora has banned a group of diners from his restaurant after a member of his team was “talked down to and disrespected”. Lee Skeet also gave the waitress in question, Lily, 22, the entire proceeds of the party’s £1,000 bill as an apology for having to serve them.

Skeet shared an email he sent to the unidentified customers on social media. He wrote: “I wanted to firstly thank you for choosing my restaurant for your meal tonight and I understand you had the biggest bill we’ve ever had on one table here. Unfortunately, throughout the evening I was made aware that your party’s behaviour was inappropriate towards Lily, who runs front of house.”

Initially, Skeet offered to refund the group’s bill, but then decided he would give Lily the full £1,000 instead. He added in his letter: “I would thank you to never come back to my restaurant. Lily means a lot more to me than money. I also think you should assess the people you surround yourself with.”

Skeet told CODE that the diners’ actions were not severe enough to warrant contacting the police and confirmed Lily is “okay” and decided she wanted to carry on working her shifts. “Most people who come to Cora are lovely,” Skeet said.

He also responded to accusations that he only posted the story to social media for publicity by confirmed Cora has been full every night since it opened in January. 

Skeet told CODE: “The customers [in question] haven’t replied. My only real concern is Lily, and I’m glad to say she’s fine. 

“We’re a really close team and we look out for one another. I was told as service went on that they [the diners] were disrespectful and talked down to her. It broke my heart to hear her talk about it.

“Lily is a colleague and a good friend. She’s brilliant. I don’t want horrible customers in my restaurant – I can do without them. 

“I’ve worked in a lot of high-end places in my time and you do get customers like that. I’m in the kitchen, so I don’t always see it first-hand, but we’re always made aware.”

Skeet added: “We’re fully booked every night. Cora is going really well so I’m not talking about this for the publicity. I’m raising awareness of hospitality staff and how people can be.”

CODE has heard that there has been a rise in poor behaviour among customers since lockdown. Please get in touch with us at [email protected] if you or a member of your team would like to talk to us.