Pub denies that woman's pancake was nibbled

A woman has complained that a pancake she was served while dining out already had a chunk bitten out of it. However, the pub restaurant where she was a customer strongly refutes the claim insisting the “human bitemark” is simply where part of the pancake had broken off as it was delivered to her table.

Natasha Downe, 36, of Friern Barnet, was dining with a friend at the Tally Ho pub in North Finchley, London, on Sunday night when she ordered a plate of pancakes as a £2.50 desert. She said: “I ate my first pancake, but then jumped up when I saw the second one. It was bitten into. The manager said they sometimes come out of the packet like that. I couldn’t believe he was trying to justify it. How many diseases are passed on by saliva? You don’t go out for a meal to be violated by someone else’s germs. It’s disgusting.”



Ms Downe, who has a degree in law, says she has been a regular in restaurants in the area for the past ten years, and currently dines out about five times a week. She took the pancake home and has now handed it over to Barnet Council’s environmental health team, who confirmed that they were carrying out tests. Natasha hopes it can be DNA tested with a view to identifying who “took the bite” because, she says, if it was a staff member, there are concerns about them working in other restaurants.

A spokesman for pub owners J D Wetherspoon plc said: “We completely refute the claim made by the woman at The Tally Ho. Staff at the pub work hard to ensure standards are high at all times and the claim by the woman is completely untrue. The reason a piece of the pancake was missing was that it tore off as it was being placed on the plate. The manager has spoken to the woman and reiterated that no one nibbled at her pancake before it was delivered to her.”