On Sunday, Mother's Day, my family booked to go out for a meal at the Dancing Dragon Chinese restaurant in north Oxford.

This is a 'help yourself to all you can eat' restaurant for a certain price per person. We turned up in good time to have a drink before eating and were shown to our table.

When I saw how many tables were laid in such a small area, I was a little concerned.

As we sat there, more guests arrived. I have never seen so many people crushed in a restaurant in my life. People were queuing for ages to reach the food and often the dishes were empty and we were waiting for them to be refilled. It was disgraceful.

I stood it for a while, then turned to my daughter and asked her if she minded if I complained. The manager tried to apologise but, of course, it was too late. He went on to explain that it was Mother's Day.

The truth was they were being greedy by trying to crush as many people into such a small area as they could. After two hours, we gave up trying to get more food and asked the manager to compromise on payment. At first, he offered to waive the 10 per cent service charge, then offered a 20 per cent reduction, but we declined.

As there were 10 of us, we offered £50. He refused and said he would call the police. We said we would sit and wait for them and went back to our table. Within two minutes, he accepted £50.

I know many other guests were upset, maybe spoiling Mother's Day meals for them.

I don't know if they complained but I'm glad we did and were compensated.

Why are some restaurants so greedy and pack too many people in on special occasions? JULIA COLWELL, Oxford