TGI Fridays - Telford — Restaurant in England

Went in for a meal tonight and was so disappointed on so many levels. Had previously had a good experience so when our daughter asked to eat here as a treat we agreed, but we should have eaten somewhere else instead. After being seated, we had to wait a good few minutes for a server to even come over to take our order, despite the fact that there were almost as many servers in the restaurant as tables that had customers sat at. We then had our drinks and food order taken, and it took so long to bring our drinks (2 lemonades, a chocolate milk, and a strawberry milk) that our food followed in almost immediately. My daughter tried her strawberry milk and immediately said it tastes weird, so I had a little taste and discovered that instead of actual strawberry milk it was milk with a bit of strawberry syrup in, so that didn't get drank at all as it was disgusting and she, understandably, didn't want to drink it. My husband had the steak, priced at £26 and said it was the worst steak he'd ever had - considering it costs more than a steak at Miller and Carter you'd think it would have been half decent. My son had the bacon Cheeseburger and struggled to eat it as he said it wasn't very nice and tasted funny. The corn on the cob that came with my meal was burnt in multiple places and barely edible. At no point whilst we were eating were we asked if we needed a refill of drinks which, since I was having to share my lemonade with my daughter, we needed. There wasn't even an opportunity to ask a server as they were too busy messing about making balloon animals despite the fact that there were barely any children in the restaurant. Once we'd finished, we then sat for 10 minutes waiting for our server to come over and take our plates so we could ask for the bill, as she spent that time 'busying' herself but seemingly doing a lot of nothing. She stood and had several conversations with other members of staff, sprayed down several tables then meandered off and left them. She eventually wandered back over and wiped the tables over with blue roll, then stood and had a chat with another member of staff. When she finally came over, she cleared 3 of 4 plates and disappeared for another couple of minutes before coming back with the bill and taking the final plate. In the time that she was gone, we witnessed the manager berate a server in the middle of the restaurant for a good minute before storming off and leaving him to do what he was doing beforehand. We were finally able to pay and left as quickly as we could and will definitely not be back. We spent £70, which would have been more if not for the fact that my husband had the foresight to download the app and claim the kids eat free special, which only worked for one of the children's meals despite the fact that the poster said one child eats free per adult meal and there were 2 adults and 2 children that ate. The food is ridiculously overpriced for the quality and portions that you get, and the service is absolutely appalling. I've never felt so ignored in a restaurant. Save yourself the time and money and just...

So my 2 friends and I arrived at TGIS at 9pm on Sunday (they close at 10pm). We walked in and after a short wait we were “greeted” by a young lady who was contemplating about whether or not they were going to let us sit down, after a quick conversation with the kitchen, they decided they’d let us in an HOUR before end of play!

We sat for a while until a young man approached us, who I can only assume the other staff sent over as a sacrificial lamb to tell us that the menu was limited because the kitchen had completed most of their closedown, and they could only do simple dishes, appetisers etc

Being a manager in hospitality myself, I understand the staff want to get home nice and early, they do work hard after all and some times it’s nice to get an early finish, I would not however allow my staff to refuse service or limit the menu an hour before end of play, out of sheer laziness.

Anyway, I digress, the horror continues… So after being told about the limited menu by the young man, who by the way was actually very apologetic and seemed to empathise with us completely, a lady approached our table and reluctantly took our order.

Huffing and puffing, she went over to the kitchen to speak to them, while shouting/swearing arguing over the gantry. As she came back over our way (we were sat by the door, god forbid we took our seat further into the restaurant and messed up their precious reset tables) we asked if it was possible to order drinks. This is where the real banter started. We were then told, having just ordered food we couldn’t order drinks because the man behind the bar had finished cleaning and didn’t want to have to do it all again. I mean, if she would have said the bartender had gone home it would have been different, but the fact he was stood behind the bar with his hands in his pockets???? I then had to haggle with the girl who eventually agreed to let us have a bottled drink, no pints, no refills, nothing that would involve extra cleaning jobs. Either way, we ordered an old mout, nice an easy a bottled cider, we said we wouldn’t bother with the glass god forbid they’d have to clean extra glasses. When the drinks came over, the waitress brought over angry orchard??? We didn’t even order angry orchard. When I said to her we ordered old mout, rather than apologising for the disgusting service we had received, she took it upon herself to “correct” my pronunciation.

Didn’t stay to eat the food or have the drinks replaced, why would we want to give this diabolical company our hard earned money? Grabbed our coats and walked out, we decided to go for a pizza express, the service in their was fast and friendly and although they also shut at 10, they didn’t complain, or make us feel like we were in the wrong.

TGI Fridays to my friends and I is now the benchmark for poor customer service. “Ah well, they don’t have X or Y but at least they aren’t TGIS” After everything that happened, I expected Ant and Dec to jump out as if they’d been telling the young woman what to say or how to behave! We genuinely were starting to believe...

So i had visited another tgi fridays for a birthday the service was terrible as was the food .they gave me a voucher to use as a sorry as it was so bad. I had reservations about going again, and i should of listened to myself . I came to telford a 45 minute journey . I was greeted at the entrance to be asked what restaurant i had been to before, as in my notes on reserving the table i had put the service was bad . Well, no change seated us agave us a jug of water 23 mins later took a drinks order . 32 mins later took food order still no drinks . At 39 mins one two milkshakes appeared, we asked for 3 .by the time it came, the others had finished . They were biscoff Shakes, daughter had an allergy to walnuts checked, and these shakes were ok . 46 minutes starter arrived a lot of money for very little .. quicky finished as was getting late and 8 and 9 year old were getting tired it was now past 9 oclock at night . Partner noticed men behind counter with very long hair preparing food with no hair nets or covering that put her off straight away over an hour came and mains turned up i had sat so long i wasn't rearly botherd in eating it .it was ok, just ok . Nobody at this point had returned to clear glasses or asked if we wanted more drinks. i was reluctant to ask for drinks, but children were thirsty .by the time they came, i was prompting them for desert menue children wanted biscoff cheescake . There was no information on allergy for this, but I was told biscoff had walnuts in it, so best not to have it . Then came a worried moment as the daughter had the biscoff milkshake . We didn't have deserts, but i was given free deserts from the voucher i had for the children. They asked for ice cream and came out with juice all over it that they didn't like, so didnt eat it .the bill came out wrong 39 pounds above what it should of been even though i had said 4 times we had a voucher and were given free deserts with all main meals. . So to end this .. No we shall not return terrible service long long waiting times while listening to staff arguing there shift was over and were going home .nobody asked if the meals were ok nobody was coming to table to take drinks orders .just total...