TGI Fridays - Milton Keynes Theatre — Restaurant in Central Milton Keynes

Before I start I'd like to clarify this review is in no way critical of the service i received or the kitchen staff who made my food to a predefined spec and are completely faultless. Nor do i have an axe to grind, I wasn't refused money off of my bill or something similar. My server was attentive and pleasant which was the only bright spot of an otherwise dismal dining experience. Yet that alone wasn't enough to upgrade this review to two stars, and i think this is probably the first one star review i have ever left. But if i can save just one person from the overwhelming feelings of disappointment and disdain i feel towards those steering this sinking ship i have done my job...

Having seen recent headlines about TGI's struggles i thought i would give it the benefit of the doubt as i hadn't visited for around ten years and figured they may have made some long overdue changes given the strength of competition now and a growing list of competitors offering decent "authentic" american dining experiences and given TGI is the original in the UK and they are in a modernise or die phase i figured they might have something up their sleeve. It didn't take long for me to realise the UK arm is now in it's death throes. On arriving at lunchtime tuesday i entered to find a restaurant that hadn't changed at all since the first time i visited when it opened some 25 years ago, in which time every other restaurant i've visited has had multiple refits. Still the same dark and dingy decor, devoid of atmosphere, hardly filled me with confidence but i wasn't there for that.

We had our drinks and appetiser order taken, i had a pint that was recommended, seemed alright, my girlfriend had a coke zero that was merely a glass of ice with a splash of coke, quite disappointing. The appetiser was unspectacular, loaded potato skins, small potatoes, not so loaded. Again not the fault of the staff this is guidance from above.

We decided to go for the "new" smash burgers from the main menu, figuring this might be some sort of bounce back from TGI although for all i know this menu could have been five years old and the very reason for TGIs failings. These were the source of the greatest disappointment. The burgers themselves were presented well enough, albeit dripping with grease. It was everything else which epitomises why Britain has such a bad culinary reputation. They were served on a bare plate with plain fries no better than something you throw in the oven and a choice of mayonnaise and ketchup to dip them in. This would have been laughable if it wasn't so expensive. The overall quality of the food was equivalent to a wetherspoons which is roughly five times cheaper and i have had much better meals for half the price in many other establishments. Have TGI really learned nothing? They have corporate staff who have no doubt seen what the competition are doing and go on their fancy holidays to the states and no what is expected and what is "authentic". But to carry on serving junk like this is their way of throwing in the towel, they're merely waiting to go out of business so they can get their big redundancy pay outs from the american arm while the hourly paid retail staff get very little or nothing at all.

It might cost them all of 50p per cover with their buying power to throw a couple of onion rings, a little pot of coleslaw and a few bits of side salad, pickles etc into a basket with red and white checked grease proof paper and make it somewhat appealing and maybe retain some custom but they're clearly not interested. This is what i was expecting. From a burger that costs £26 it's hard to put into words my sense of disappointment, which is why i waited a day to write this review.

My bill for two people came to about £85 which was a real kick in the teeth and I wasn't quite sure how until i walked out of the restaurant and looked at the receipt... the 2 for 1 cocktail i bought cost £16 for essentially a glass of ice (just like the coke, which itself cost £4 for about 200ml of product) and maybe had two shots and a splash of...

Our party of 4 came here for a quick bite before heading to the theatre. We arrived at 17.45hrs. We was told if we could wait ten minutes while the server cleared the table we could have the booth. On this we went to the bar to order drinks. The young man at the bar said " ill be right with you" he turned around and carried on his tasks and never came back to serve us. So while waiting we looked at the menu for our food. After around ten minutes later. Another staff member asked what we wanted so we gave her our drinks and food order which came to £105.48 the time was 18.02hrs and went to the booth, however it was cleared of plates etc but was left dirty and not cleaned. I had to go back to the bar to request it to be cleaned. We sat down and waited and waited. I went outside and on doing so I noticed a sign saying " 20% off for theatre ticket holders " on this I took my card and receipt to the bar and asked for a refund of £21.09. The staff member said she didn't know how to do a refund and asked her manager. To which I was met with a " sorry we can't do that as you should have mentioned it at point of ordering". As you can imagine I was shocked and sat back down to continue the wait. Bearing in mind we had to be at the theatre for 19.00hrs. We had had enough of the wait and poor service, I went to the bar at 18.38hrs and explained that if we hadn't received our food by 18.45hrs I will expect a full refund . We was, nor was anyone else, told of the waiting time. Low and behold 4 minutes later, 18.42hrs the cold side order for the fajitas came to table. Shortly followed by the rest of the mains. My burger and fries was just warm but edible. Everyone else's were fine. I asked the server if, under the circumstances could I have a complimentary beer due to the long wait and refusal of the refund of the theatre offer. She returned after having to ask the manager saying " Yes. You can have a complimentary beer". She never returned! No beer. I would like to add, a couple on a table next to us ordered before our group and didn't get served until well after our food arrived. On this we left only to never return. Very poor service even from the management which is obviously totally disorganised. Maybe they should come out of the back office. First and last time of going to...

Absolutely abysmal effort of a restaurant!

I’ll try and keep this as short as possible but in summary: After waiting an hour for our food to come out (this was after chasing a few times) I think some of our order was served to another table so we was told my child’s meal would take another 5-10 minutes. My food was not what I ordered so I had to make do as we were running out of time because we had theatre tickets booked.

My wife’s chicken burger meat was stone cold like it hadn’t been cooked fully (possibly still partly frozen as I assume they don’t use fresh food) so she couldn’t eat it. My childs meal came out and the bun was still frozen inside. Again not edible. We ordered second drinks that never turned up (not offered complimentary because of the delay either) Never offered any condiments.

Finally the manager Courtney came over and said she would fix this and this is where the kick in the teeth came. She took the meals off the bill (charged for all drinks) but because we had eaten some of the chips between the 3 of us (as it was the only thing edible) she had the audacity to charge us for 2 sides of chips as well! I explained that we will have to go to our show now hungry and this has ruined the family meal out and we won’t get to eat now till 10pm at night, She couldn’t care less. Despite me suggesting that I can’t believe she is still going to charge considering they have ruined the start of our night, her attitude was simply “well you have eaten the chips so you should pay for them” !!

I’ve never experienced such bad service before. It was chaotic in there. They have no systems in place because the tables in front and behind us you could hear also had problems. I was chatting to someone else from another table and they told me it’s like that a lot in there. They must employ young staff with no experience or training nor do they have any systems in place as they were run off their feet and everything seemed to be going wrong. These poor people must have to put up with constant customer...