POLICE were called to settle a furious dispute between restaurant customers and management, in a row that led to six members of staff walking out.

Officers attended the Old Vienna restaurant, in Eastwood Road, Leigh, on Saturday night.

Upset diners claim they were not given their food and refused refunds, but the restaurant owner stated he called the police after a rowdy and rude group tried to leave without paying.

Six members of staff walked out mid-shift due to the dispute, leaving diners in the lurch as only two waiters remained to serve about 100 customers.

Restaurant owner Walter Haiser says the serving staff have since been sacked.

One customer told the Echo: “Many diners were not served the main meals or desserts on a very busy night. Diners who arrived for a 7.30pm booking had not been served their main meals by 9.30pm.

Complaints made to the serving staff resulted in the staff walking out.

“The police were called and at least four squad cars turned up to defuse the situation.

“Despite the trouble, the oompah band played on, just like on the Titanic.”

On Facebook, customer Ben Emberson branded it the “worst meal out ever” and said it was “like Fawlty Towers”, while several people also took to review website TripAdvisor to criticise the restaurant.

But Mr Haiser claims the waiting times were not excessive and the dispute was caused by one disruptive group of diners acting unreasonably.

He said: “We called the police ourselves. We are a busy restaurant on Saturday nights and sometimes one or two big parties will have to wait, but not excessively.

“The problem we had was one party was extremely difficult and what happened upset the staff so much they walked out on us.

“It was unbelievable – everyone else enjoyed themselves but one party of 24 people decided to walk out without payment.

“We don’t want them to enter here again, they are not our type of customers.

“The staff who walked out were all dismissed, as they left 100 people in the lurch.”

An Essex Police spokesman said: “Police were contacted at 10.30pm on Saturday, with reports of a disturbance at The Old Vienna restaurant.

“Officers attended and no offences were reported.”