Neds Noodle Bar - Work Experience

Hi, my name’s Summer and I worked as a Ned’s hostess this summer.

I’d never worked in a restaurant before, and so this was a totally new experience for me, but I can honestly say that it’s helped me grow as a person and improved my communication skills.

The first challenge of the job: finding the place. On a street with no signage and not being local to London, myself, it took a combination of the TFL app, google Maps and sounding like a complete tourist to work out where I was going. Needless to say, I was already quite stressed when I arrived.

Neds isn’t really a sit-down restaurant, but still, the task of looking after the whole floorspace, as well as restocking the fridge, emptying the bins, and getting people to come inside seemed daunting as I sat down with the manager, Gary, before my first shift, but all of the other staff are there to help at the smallest sign of struggling. For example, Gary himself helping me reach things that are stored too high for any reasonable person to reach with his twelve foot height and octopus arms, or Tom covering cleaning up as I did the bins out back or went to the bank.

My sister also works for Ned’s, so when we were working together, every five minutes we seemed to have a customer politely tell us; “You look like sisters.” To which we’d respond, “We are.” “You look like sisters.” “We are.” “You look like-” “We are.” “You-” “We are.” “Y-” “We are.

Our similarity in looks caused other problems, too, for instance my first time working with the Managing Director. Walking into the shop and heading towards the kitchen I’m stopped by a single phrase.

“I thought you were working in Shoreditch.”

My heart stops. Fear rising. Was I in the wrong place? Had I somehow forgotten being told that I was changing restaurants? A moment later the fog clears and a gasp out a reply.

“Oh, that’s Kira. I’m the other one.”

And with that my day continued. There are many other stories to tell about working at Ned’s, some funny, some terrifying and some rude, but there is one thing tying them together. From the moment you step in there as an employee you’re family, everyone pulls together to get things done, and that sense of comradeship is something that I hope I’ll find again in my future jobs.

Summer