Frankie & Benny's — Restaurant in Ashford

I'd like to first explain that this wasn't our intended eatery as Harvester Ashford closed without without notification. We arrived and was met by the manager. She was pleasant and happy. We were taken to a table and we met our less than happy server. I'm assuming she was having a bad day on top of losing her phone and forgetting to buy a lottery ticket and her numbers were drawn. I think you get the idea. For the purpose of this review we'll call her "happy" . She came to the table and asked for our drink order. One drink was a still water and a slice of lemon. We ordered food, comprising of one meal being Mediterranean grains salad. Happy responded with "we are not making that!" Not a sorry to be heard even in the distance. We thought that a reason would be forthcoming, unfortunately any explanation was as present as anything resembling Italian food in this establishment . So when we asked "Why?" We were told "We have no grains!" in the same way a drill Sargent asks a new recruit to tidy his kit. I'm sure you get the idea again. We were later told by the manager that this was incorrect information. We ordered something different. The drinks arrived. Unfortunately the still water with lemon was lacking a key ingredient and it wasn't water. I understand that a drink of this nature can be considered tricky to assemble due the the large amount of ingredients. I pointed out the missing ingredient by saying, could we possibly have a slice of lemon, to be told "I'll look in a while but I doubt we have any." this was also incorrect again clarified by the manager. The fugitive lemon never arrived at our table leaving the still water lonely and disappointed. The food arrived. That's about all I can say. Bland, warm but edible. Nothing extraordinary but it won't make you unwell either. (hopefully). Time to pay the bill. I was given the receipt and asked by "Happy" how I wished to pay. I elected card payment as who carries cash anymore? Well actually I do as I'm a certain age, but I digress. I asked for my card receipt and "happy" left. Only to return around a minute later to ask me to pay again. I must have one of those faces. Upon checking, My two receipts were showing two different amounts. My card had an added gratuity charged. As I paid with my phone, and never touched the card machine, this means someone else must have chosen a gratuity and the confirmed this extra payment. Can anyone guess the only other person to touch the card machine? This is unfortunately fraud. One last point, we were charged £1 for a spoonful of BBQ sauce. Heinz ketchup and Frenchies Mustard are free. I will be calling customer services tomorrow. Just for information, the elusive grains were later spotted at another table accompanying salmon. Those grains really...

Me and my wife, took a visit to this restaurant after watching a film in near by cineworld.

As we entered the restaurant it seemed steady but not too busy. For how long the place as been standing it still looks in great condition and decor seems fresh. Only pick outs if any were the toilets are in need of a refurbishment badly, and the blinds are either broken or not been pulled up correctly. They looked very messy. My wife informed me that they had been like that for some time. However restaurant seemed very clean and organised celebrating their 30th birthday.

We ordered two cordial drinks and two meals with upgrades for each.

Service did seem to be slow but after around 10 - 15 mins we were asked for our order. When our order came the food seemed to be presented very well and well portioned. Unfortunately my wife's upgrade of ribs had not been placed on the order. This was explained to the waitress and we decided to take it off the bill.

Has I started to continue with my meal it was noticed very quickly that I also had experienced the wrong order as my calzone was the wrong filling. Again I brought this to the waitress attention and the right one was ordered to be made. Of course in the meantime my wife was eating hers and finished before mine arrived. This was clearly disappointing and to add we noticed the table behind us had also been giving the wrong dishes and it seemed the 2 tables had clearly been mixed up. When my dish came from who we learned to be the Manager Megan I was still missing my upgrade of fries which Megan quickly gathered.

At this point we were extremely dissatisfied and disappointed at the service and reaction, but we have to give credit where credit is due. Megan's dealing, professionalism and approach with the situation and unique ability to listen to positive feedback and take positive action to find a solution to solve our concerns is exactly why we would return. In a difficult situation she remained calm and polite throughout and we fully appreciated her for that.

It is clearly obvious that with the right team around her and with the appropriate and well deserved support from her peers Megan we go along way in her career of hospitality and is a credit to Frankie and Bennys . I say this from a past managerial background for many years in the same line of work.

So although my service star is only 1 this is to reflect the service we experienced via our food order however the resolution and problem service we experienced when dealing with this unfortunate but avoidable situation was 5 star and beyond.

We look forward to our revisit soon.

All the best to the team...

Booked a table for this evening to celebrate our Sons 5th Birthday. Arrived for our table booking at 5pm. 1 member of our party had already arrived so we made our way to the table to meet him. Menus were provided but no offer of a drinks order being taken. I realised that we had not been given a children’s menu and tried to get the attention of a couple of members of staff to ask for one, but was either avoided or ignored on each occasion. There appeared to be only 1 waitress but there was a young man seating people and 2 members of staff making drinks at the bar area. We sat at the table for 20 minutes with still no offer of a drink and staff extremely difficult to get the attention of. At one point my father in law politely called out to a member of staff passing our table but was again completely ignored. My husband then did manage to get the attention of a member of staff who came to the table, he immediately gave the impression of having a seriously bad attitude but I politely asked for a children’s menu, I was given no verbal response at all, but instead the member of staff stomped off, I assume, to find a children’s menu, there obviously wasn’t one at front of house where he went to look first, so he had to then retrace his steps back past our table (still no communication) to go towards the kitchen to get one. He came back to the table and again, without speaking, put the menu on the table and walked off. It was at this point my husband decided to question and challenge his poor behaviour stating that we had been waiting for well over 20 minutes and had not yet been spoken to by anyone or even offered so much as a drink. The member of staff became immediately hostile, stating that we had arrived for our booking late (this was absolutely untrue!) and then simply said to us “bye!” And walked off…..at this point we decided to leave the restaurant as we were under the distinct impression that we would not be receiving any further “service” A very unpleasant and disappointing experience, especially as this was for a 5 year olds birthday! Disgusting service and behaviour from the member of staff in question, I am only sorry I did not get his name. I have never known anything like it...