TGI Fridays - Coventry — Restaurant in Coventry

We had a table booked for 7.15 arrived at 7.10 to be told our table was just being cleaned and would be ready in a few minutes after then asking the same question again 15 minutes later to be told the same thing and again another 15 minutes later at this point there is still people sat at our table we knew this as we had been in and looked in the restaurant. So to be told at 7.10 our table was being cleaned was a complete lie and then again a further 2 times. Why were we not told our table was not ready you were running behind and given a realistic wait time. Instead we were left standing in the enterance cold from the doors being constantly opened and closed for 45 minutes. We come to TGI every year for my sons birthday we have always received excellent service but this year it was an absolute shambles. We eventually were seated at 8pm please bear in mind we had 4 young children with us. After speaking to a manager he said as an apology he would offer free round of drinks and sharing nachos. Now whilst we appreciate this by this point the kids are all very hungry and none of them would eat the nachos due to them being covered in jalapeños and chilli. We ordered our food pretty much as soon as we sat down and although we had drinks brought over very quickly our food was not brought out until gone 9pm again with young children this was absolutely shocking considering our table was booked for 7.15. Then our food gradually came out and eventually we all had our food it was then cold which was just ridiculous after waiting for over an hour. The kids then asked for ketchup to which the waitress searched high and low for some and came back and did apologise but said there was none in the whole building. Again how does a restaurant have no ketchup . We also had a lady who was 25 weeks pregnant and served cold food . We then spoke to another manager and were told she would speak with another manager. At this point we also have an extremely upset little boy who comes to TGIs every year for his birthday for the experience and he is normally made to feel very special with balloon hat and just checking in. He had eaten all of his food and despite asking still had no hat etc. I then spoke to our waitress about this who did then go and bring one over and get his cake and sing for him but to be honest having had him in tears it was a little to late. As mentioned above he has Autism and likes routine and structure and having been used to a certain level of service was very angry and upset and not understanding why today on his birthday the level of service was so awful. We then asked for the bill as by this point its almost 10pm everyone is very fed up and frustrated. Now all we were offered by the manager was the kids free meals which is an offer on irregardless of the shocking service and as mentioned the free round of drinks and sharing nachos .

In summary we were extremely disappointed and frustrated with the whole experience and to be completely honest don't know if we will continue with our traditions of coming every year for birthdays if this is the service we will receive.

The only positive I would like to mention and the only thing that saved us complaining more was the fantastic waitress Claudia who despite what an absolute shambles it was did nothing but apologise and still have a smile on her face and helped in any way...

Got to the restaurant on the 10/11/24. Was driving back home after a busy weekend and decided to stop for food. Diverted off the route specifically to go to TGI.

Stood around in the foyer for around 10 minutes. Finally got asked to sit at the bar as the table was getting cleaned. Got to the bar and ordered some drinks. At a push there were about 5 tables with people in the restaurant and tens of empty tables to choose from. 10 mins later sat at the table, got given the menus. Waited another 15 mins before the order was taken. When ordering food we got told they did not have some items we wanted, which would have been good to mention when giving us the menus. Never mind, ordered something else.

Also, not sure how exactly the table was getting cleaned and what were waiting for because between the 3 of us we only had 1 fork. Likely meaning that the table was not cleaned from the previous party.

Fast forward very painful 40-50 mins food started to arrive. 2 main dishes my friends ordered were fine. My food, however…. Wow. I mean, I go to TGIs VERY often and order a delivery even more often. When I say I had better food arriving on the back of the moped in the middle of winter - I mean it.

Ordered maple glazed corn ribs, boneless hot wings + chips. All to arrive at the same time.

Pork ribs arrived, asked politely to swap it to what I ordered (the waitress did repeat the order back and she did repeat corn ribs back not pork so not sure what went wrong there). All well and good, this got taken away. Wings arrived. The blue cheese sauce was covered with some weird film (almost curdled on top) and genuinely felt that it was just stood under the lamps for a good while. Chips never arrived. Asked where they were and got told that they were going to be here in a minute as they were “just plating them up”. Another 5 minute passes and “corn ribs” arrive. Picture 8 or so pieces of steamed corn with absolutely nothing on it. No sauce, nothing just steamed plain corn. At this point, still with no chips, I asked for a manager.

In the meantime chips arrived. Absolutely inedible with so much salt on it that it could give you instant hypertension.

Manager arrived. I explained that it’s been a very poor experience and she asked me what I wanted to do and offered to fry a fresh portion of chips. Considering we still had another 2 hr drive to go and these took over an hour to come out - I politely refused. Corn also came back, same pieces as before but this time garnished with things that are stated on the menu.

Manager couldn’t really explain what took so long or why the food was such a terrible quality but said she’d go and have a look “what could be done about it” and promised to come back with the bill.

Ok, waited another 5-10 mins no sign of manager. Asked the waitress to bring us the bill. The manager did take all of my items off the bill in the end.

Overall really poor experience, guys. Like I said before I go to TGIs often and I know what to expect food wise. Don’t come to not pay. I want to pay but I also want decent food that arrives in reasonable time. All in all around 1.5hrs of time wasted on a long...

Took our family out 6 out for my husband's birthday meal, booked online through the website and listed that it was an 'adult birthday celebration' as I know that the staff would come and sing the birthday song to him but that didn't happen as they didn't bring our booking up, didn't give a high chair either and we had to request one on arrival. The website is very complicated, too many things flashing and popping up, it gets in the way of completing the booking form easily. There are no prices on the website so I had to ring up and they offered to email them over but they got my email address wrong so I had to call back. They offered all sorts of free things on the app that we later downloaded and it was so confusing again I had to call back, turns out it's only one offer per transaction but they make it sound better. After sitting down for 5pm the place was very empty, it was clean and the staff were friendly so I thought that we would have a good time. Drink prices are utterly insane at £7 for one 500ml bottle of cider that is £3 in any shop, refill glass of fizzy pop £4, small glass of fruit juice for the kids at £2 each. The prices for even more silly when it came to adult main meals. £20 for a few strips of sesame chicken that didn't come with any sesame seeds, a handful of fries and that's it for you money. Small half rack of ribs is £20, a standard burger or chicken burger and chips again £20. They brought me a coke instead of a lemonade. I had to return the sesame chicken because it was heavily deep fried and filled with grease.... They said it's their most popular dish! My children struggled because the kids menu is tiny with just 4 choices and two of those were burgers. My ten year old was still really hungry as the portions are tiny, both myself and husband were as well as again adult mains were tiny. An extra portion of chips is another £6 for a handful. At desert time the kids had a make your own sundae and my husband and I shared a smoke biscoff sundae, at £8 each there's no way we could afford more. The ice cream was the really cheap tasteless stuff that was mostly ice water, one biscoff biscuit broken up and a drizzle of sauce......£8!!!!!!

They brought two of our kids deserts out once the rest of us had finished ours. They did give an extra portion of the boneless bites meal as it was tiny and wasn't enough for our baby and toddler which I did appreciate

They forgot all about my husband so no birthday song for him which he was bothered by, then staff offered to do it as our coats and bags were on and we were paying the bill

A meal was left on the bill and I had to ask to have the £20 taken off....

We waited ages for the bill, I had to wander around looking for the waiter. By this point the kids were crying and restless

My oldest said the burger wasn't nice, she was dissatisfied with the very small amount of food for such high prices and going to be sending her own email

Personally we don't want to come back, we fell prices need to go down, portion sizes should go up, better quality ice cream should be used, wider variety of kids choices and less...