Diners dialled up a recipe for disaster when they inadvertently booked tables with cheeky students instead of a top-class restaurant.

A misdirected telephone line meant food connoisseurs thought they were booking tables at Raymond Blanc's top restaurant Le Petit Blanc, in Jericho, Oxford.

But a BT line fault had meant their calls were redirected to a group of students who took the opportunity to grill customers and cook up trouble. Duty manager Wynford Jones said students posed as restaurant staff and told his customers they were "having a great time" and were getting "stoned in the restaurant".

He said: "Customers were disgusted by the way they were being treated.

"Customers may think they have booked a table with us but have booked with the students. We would challenge the students to come up to our standards of cooking.

"Rather than report the fault, they started to have a bit of fun with our customers. It is certainly irresponsible, but we know that students are prone to doing that sort of thing. We are more concerned about the effect on our customers." Le Petit Blanc discovered the fault when customers called on one of the restaurant's other lines to complain about the rude "staff".

BT has apologised the the restaurant for the mix-up.

Mr Jones is asking all customers who called their Oxford restaurant on 01865 510999 on October 2 or 3 to phone and confirm bookings.

Story date: Friday 15 October

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.