The Ritz - JD Wetherspoon — Restaurant in Lincoln

Despite alleged recent refurbishment, very little has actually changed, a relocation of the coffee machine and opening up an old fire exit. Same tired old shabby venue with exact same dirty stained carpets, same rickety tables and chairs, same delapedated leaky smelly toilets. Many of the staff are clearly not happy to be there and appear to have little or no training in even the most basics. Some slam your food and drinks down without speaking or making eye contact, then scurry back to the bar area empty handed passing empty tables littered with the plates, glasses, bottles and general detritus from the last occupants. It's almost if they have been instructed not to clear and wipe down tables. Two tips I would give anyone visiting. Unless the place is very quiet, order your food and drinks via the app because you will loose the will to live waiting at the bar to do it. Also unless it is very quite, stick to the pizza because the kitchen staff can't do busy, not even mildly busy, they will mess up and send out terrible car crash food when put under the slightest of pressure. One anomaly on the menu is that the price on all of the options is relatively good value except the chips. A bowl cost a packet for what's only a handful of oven chips. Unfortunately in common with many wetherspoons, it seems to attract people who drink more than they can handle and they become very loud and extremely annoying to the point it's hard to hold a conversation with someone your with in there. With the tables and chairs being so close together, many of the customers who do over indulge bang into them all as they continually walk/stagger past going to the bar or toilet every five minutes. The real shame is that it wouldn't take much to massively improve the place. A proper refurbishment to freshen it up and train the staff to a much better standard, especially the manager's who really ought to be on top of things, ensuring tables are cleared, wiped clean and then chairs put back in place, menus set at each table, all the rubbish and food on the floor under and around tables cleared away etc. Also checking the cutlery is properly cleaned before wrapping it in a napkin and sending it out is a simple task but clearly never done. Come on Ritz wetherspoons...

Better than The Square Sail in my opinion (as far as Lincoln x spoons goes) but very average service.

Staff can be a bit awkward at times about specific orders that wouldn't be too hard to adjust; for example I like curry with my fish and chips and they wouldn't switch out the peas for curry for me, or there was today when I asked for 1 additional hot sauce dip with my wings alongside both the existing one and the blue cheese dip and all I got was 2 half filled hot sauce dips which might as well have been 1. I get that it gets busy but when taking the food order, it feels like a lack of attention to the customer rather than it's because its hectic.

Tables aren't always cleared as promptly as one would hope; the other week we ate next to a table full of a previous customer's leftovers and empty glasses and it was still like that when we left and we must have been there more or less an hour. Again, we get it when it's busy but this was a fairly quiet hour.

Don't get me wrong, some staff are absolutely lovely and do what they do well but there are just some that let the place down for the rest such as the fairly grumpy people we sometimes get serving us drinks.

Random additional comment, they barely have fish in when I want fish and chips - either I pick bad times or they...

Quite disappointed really, we've been here many times before the pandemic, with no complaints.

However today, with people now starting to go out more and put more money into the local economy you'd think that these businesses would be keen to ensure their customers had a reason to visit and in fact revisit.

The ordering system is still App only, which is fine but the app is dreadful, no ability to sub things or even send a note to the chef to omit items... (to save on food waste etc).

This morning, the app was showing as no items with Muffins as an ingredient was "in stock", Ok no worries I'll have eggs benedict on bread or toast then... Upon asking at the bar (as the app doesn't have provision for it), the request is met with a blanket no can do... Wierd... The table next to us had a lovely elderly couple, the woman asked for porridge with banana only to be told they didn't have any... Too which she remarked "you didn't have any yesterday either?".

These are just 2 examples... I know businesses are struggling, but if you get caught one day without something... Nip down the shop to get some bananas, or Muffins, or at the very least allow the inconvenienced customers to sub an item for goodness sake!

You can do better, and will need...