Annie’s Burger Shack — Restaurant in England

I've wanted to leave a review for Annie's every time we have eaten there. However, we just end up saying we'll never go back. A few months will pass and we'll say to ourselves once again, "oh maybe it's changed, let's try it!" We have tried Annie's about 5 different times now and EVERY single time, we're left feeling disappointed. Every single time we say we'll never go back, but we have done previously because we return with high hopes. Now, I'm leaving this review because we truly won't ever go back. We are always left being about £50 poorer, feeling annoyed at ourselves for trying again, and seriously unsatisfied. We never like to complain while we're there because the service is usually great; although one experience we had where I did speak up as I was shocked by my dry, £13 burger that would've looked really bad next to any Mcchicken. The response I got was just as shocking as the burger! There was no solution, I was offered no option to try something else and we still had to pay £13 for that when I took one bite out of it. So, I'll list some other positive points about Annie's: The menu! The menu is amazing on paper- it's creative, it's well Americanised (I lived in America for 10 years & worked at a burger place there), the drinks selection is great, the service is mostly excellent & both the Nottingham and Derby restaurants are lovely buildings. The bad points: Back to the menu, it's almost deceptive, you look at this great menu and are spoilt with choice, you picture this idea in your head of what a crazy delicious burger you're about to eat, but when it comes out- it's kinda nothing like it. To order a burger that's more than £10 you'd expect it to be a delicious experience BUT every time, we always see our burgers and say how we could get more for our money somewhere else, even Wetherspoons. Our burgers have always been dry. I must state that we do get the veggie alternatives, usually the veggie chicken. My partner's burger last weekend was rock solid, mine was just disgustingly dry. After much experience of eating meat alternatives, I've never tasted anything so bad. When the derby restaurant first opened, we gave it a shot, we thought ok maybe it's improved since they've opened a new location. I ordered a veggie chicken burger, looked incredible on the menu- when it came out, it was just a small piece of veg chicken with 2 small pieces of lettuce in a bun & that's literally all it was- on the menu it said anything could be made vegan or veggie but I guess they forgot about any other toppings or even sauces? Basically, you can create these burgers at home for two people for over half the price. It's really sad because we've wanted so badly to enjoy Annie's & it has great potential. We asked a few friends if they had been not too long ago, one is a professional chef & they said absolutely not, they said they'd been there and wouldn't go back. Do yourselves a favour, go once to experience it but if you leave feeling disappointed, don't give it...

TL;DR - Bad customer service, long waits, not responsive to complaints

I am not someone who usually complains, and I have gone through the official channels to raise my concerns already but have received no reply from restaurant management.

I visited the Derby restaurant on the 3rd October in the afternoon with a party of five. We were initially seated quickly, provided with menus and informed the server would return shortly to take our order. Over the next 45 minutes I made repeated attempts to get the attention of the server to no avail, until a member of the party physically went to find a staff member. There were two servers on duty, one gentleman wearing a flannel shirt, and a lady who seemed to disappear often. She spent a good 20 minutes in the toilet, then sat behind the bar for the duration of our time there, on her phone. The gentleman was serving the restaurant solo and was clearly run off his feet. During the 45 minute wait to place an order, customers had waits of up to 10 minutes at the door before being shown to a table, and several groups left. Indeed, our party was considering walking out too. In the end we spoke to the lady at the bar (at this point she was on her phone hidden away in a nook behind the bar where they seem to keep spirits), who begrudgingly took our order. She was short and to the point, no pleasantries. She clearly didn't want to be there, and would have been happier sending selfies behind the bar as she had been doing previously. She then proceeded to not bring any drinks and get the order wrong for two of the party. A meat burger was served to a vegan, and I was served a vegetarian burger instead of a meat one. The vegan issue was spotted by the person as it was passed over, however I did not notice the mistake with my burger immediately, but did bring it to the attention of the male server, who shrugged and said he would change the order on the till. I assume this was to cover up the error. No real apology provided. Just 'meh'. We finished and left. As mentioned earlier, I did send an email to complain however I have not heard back from the company since.

It is a real shame. Annie's Shack has been good in the past, but has definitely gone downhill recently. I think the issue is with restaurant management, who clearly have not got a grip over the staff, and do not appear to care about customer experience. If anyone at the company does wish to reach out to me regarding this, my initial complaint was sent to the complaints email listed on the website at 13:45 on the 3rd October.

I'm not looking for compensation, I just feel frustrated.

A reputation is hard to build, but...

I had high hopes when heading to Annie's for the first time, after all, all I had heard about Annie's was rave reviews. I have to say, I was underwhelmed by my experience and I'm not sure if this was due to all the hype I had heard, raising my expectations too high, just that it was not as great as usual, or it was just a mediocre restaurant.

Service was rather slow to start with, it looked like the restaurant floor was very short on staff with only 2 staff working both the floor, bar and food service. Therefore, it took a long time to get served, and a long time for the food to arrive.

Drinks, however did arrive in good time but we did have to chase one drink which had been missed. Peach shake was nice but could have done with more peach flavour.

The food arrived and the portion size of the mains looked great but the side of onion rings was ridiculous with way too much. We ended up having to leave over 50% of the side as there was too much. The amount of food waste which must be generated from this unexpected large portion must be significant.

The burger was okay, crammed full of toppings which did make it tricky to eat, but I was prepared for that. I had the hoisin burger special which was okay. I had loaded curly fries with chilli, sour cream and cheese which was disappointing. The chilli was very dry, the sour cream quite firm weirdly and the cheese didn't melt which was a shame.

It took a long time between main and being offered the dessert menu and due to the size of the side of onion rings we were hesitant to order a pudding as we were concerned it would be huge. We risked it and was pleased to see the puddings were of a reasonable size and frankly were the best part of the meal. I had pecan pie which was delicious. My only comment would be the ratio of ice cream to pie was off with slightly too much ice cream.

Overall I found Annie's to be okay, I wouldn't rush back and I...