Poor poor POOR! It was nearly empty and yet we were asked to sit in the bar area for 10 minutes before even being taken to our table.
We ordered drinks (a Coke and a milkshake) and although mine arrived pretty promptly (it was the barman himself who brought it over), he asked if my partner was having a drink, to which we said that we'd ordered a milkshake. His milkshake took another 10 minutes to appear, and even then it was only after prompting the waitress, and after I'd finished my first drink. After I jokingly said "I thought you'd forgotten it!", the waitress said, "no, it just takes a long time to make a milkshake". It doesn't take 20 minutes to make a milkshake, no.
It then took several more minutes before anyone took our order. The starter arrived relatively quickly and was tasty.
The main took over 40 minutes to arrive (a pasta bolognese and a hot dog with fries). The bolognese was 98% pasta, very stingy with the actual bolognese. The fries were good though. We almost didn't get the meal, as our waitress took it to the wrong table before bringing it over to us.
My Coke came with free refills but it took so long to get someone's attention that I only got one more refill. The staff didn't seem to come to the area where our table was, so we had to do a lot of "looking around" to get the attention of staff, make sure they knew we were waiting etc. No one came over to ask how the food was or if we needed anything else, we weren't offered parmesan for the pasta, no one refilled my drink without asking or anything. I was tempted to go to the bar myself at one point.
After the meal, it took 10 minutes until anyone came over, and that turned out to be the manager, who didn't ask how the meal was or anything, simply "have you finished?" then took the dishes away. At this point we noticed one of the chicken starters we ordered had now been sitting under a hot-lamp on the kitchen collection point for 20 minutes. Ugh. That celery would be awful by now! The kitchen staff seemed overrun. I counted two of them, who were running around like headless chickens, and a third who came occasionally from a back area, returning there shortly after.
The manager returned a few minutes later, but only to ask if we wanted to order dessert. We declined, but asked for the bill.
We didn't see the manager again.
We waited 20 minutes, doing our "looking around" thing to try and get anyone's attention (we counted 3 waitresses, a host, the manager, and another lady in formal black clothing who I assumed was a matire'd or head waitress). Nobody came over. Only when we caught the eye of the waitress who brought our food out did she come over, and that was simply asking if we had ordered dessert and were waiting for it. We had to tell her that we were waiting for the manager to bring our bill, but that she'd vanished. The waitress told me that she did that a lot, and was never around when she was needed. Wonderful.
She brought our bill. Another waitress took our payment. Both waitresses were friendly, can't complain there.
After we paid and were on our way out, we saw the manager stood by the bar talking to someone. If we hadn't got our waitress's attention, we'd still be waiting for her to bring the bill over, not that I imagine she would've remembered to!
As I neared leaving, I told the waitresses, host, and maitre'd that the manager had been gone for ages and not bothered to serve us properly, and that we'd still be waiting now if not for our waitress. They laughed, in a way to suggest it was a common occurrence, and they were pleased to hear a customer bring it up.
This was mid-afternoon on a weekday, and ordering from the lunch menu. There weren't a huge amount of people dining, and there were plenty of staff, so for it to take so long, and be so low in quality/customer service seems unforgivable to me.
Frankie & Benny outlets vary in quality and experience, as you can imagine, but I don't think I'd go to this one again in a hurry! read more
