TGI Fridays - The O2 — Restaurant in London

I visited the O2 Branch where it says to wait to be seated outside. I was waiting for more than 20 minutes when a staff came and collected a menu and didn't even acknowledge my presence. I beckoned to him that the sign says wait to be seated and he just smirked and went through the door while I was standing in cold at the first set of doors.

Being mindful I have to pay for parking and then to arrive to below standard staff service is just all I needed on a Sunday night!

I waited until another 10 minutes someone came and asked if I was OK which was a bit confusing as I was waiting to be seated as per the sign. I pointed to the sign as the reason I was waiting and she then said she is not the door host. I asked for names and everyone was tight lipped but this happened on Sunday 7th January from about 19.15pm and I am currently only sat at the bar waiting to be seated as the table offered was for 4 and I am the only one dining so I declined that seat as it wasn't a smart choice.

I was then asked out of curiosity where is my accent from - not sure what that has to do with my dining experience. Usually the menu is handed to me when I visit a restaurant , the menu was placed on the table - I believe this is the practice for O2 - however they need to revisit their standards for excellent customer service.

I was seated at 20.04pm and my order taken shortly afterwards.

I could see more people arriving from where I sat with no one giving attention and then they eventually left. In this cost of living crisis where people are making an effort to eat out this negative and poor customer service will definitely impact TGI as a business and it's reputation.

I work in Central London and this would never happen in Leicester Square. I have been to TGI in Bluewater water several times and the O2 is such a very poor reflection on the image of TGI.

I witnessed two people entering the restaurant and going straight to the bar and then they were seated - not sure how that worked based on the notice at the door .

To be fair the restaurant was not even full (i aak that you check your system for how many covers you had at the time I suggested I was there) so I am unsure of why there was such a poor service especially the night I attended.

I don't have a problem with the notice to stand at the door and I don't have a problem if there is no door host but customers cannot just stand there and be ignored when we are waiting to be served, this is unacceptable. I think the whole staff group on duty on the night need some kind of customer service refresher training.

My meal arrived at 20.25pm and only then the gentleman realised I had no cutlery - what joke!

One of the reasons I attend TGI is for the wings only to be told they ran out of wings

It appears door cover was available at 20.30pm as the customers who came to the door after that time was wisked away to be seated.

A group of 10 came in before I left and I guess that will keep the team busy for the rest of night.

I pay this much attention to detail because I have worked in 5* hotels in Central London and this service wouldn't even get on the quality list.

I ordered dessert and I was asked whether I needed a spoon! Not sure how else I was meant to eat it hahaha - hilarious!!!!!

I left at 21.20pm and I am not sure I will be returning. This is my 2nd time to TGI O2 and the last time it was mother's day before COVID and I had to write a complaint then as well as the service was atrocious. I thought it would have improved 2+ years on but I will definitely be sharing that the TGI to avoid for your own mental health and in order not to waste your money is the O2.

There must be some way to do a forecast, looking at trends over past Sunday covers to determine the peaks and troughs and when to have enough staff on duty. Funny how people assume who you are especially in these restaurants when you are dining.

I am still waiting on...

We went as a couple, for my birthday a few hours before a show, having pre booked. I am a wheelchair user.

We turned up about 20 minutes early and joined the large queue…which was JUST for those who had pre-booked. Our names were taken when we finally got to the front and we were directed to the bar area.

A lady with blond hair then said she’d bump us up the list (she had at least four in front of us) as the bar area has no wheelchair height tables - I was eye level to the tables.

Within 5 minute the lovely blonde haired lady got us a table and was really lovely, but I could sense she was so tired, stressed and overworked.

She got us menus and then….. we waited over 20 minutes to be greeted by our server or even acknowledged. I explained it was my birthday and I had a voucher for cocktails. He told us that they’d not had their bar delivery and I should have been told there were nearly no cocktails. Luckily from the menu they had the one I wanted, but didn’t have my husbands so he went for a beer even though it meant it wasn’t included in my free birthday drinks. I ordered the Cobb salad with blue cheese dressing as due to my disability I need a high protein diet and knew the mix of chicken and egg would be perfect. My husband ordered a plain burger.

We were told our drinks wouldn’t be long.

After 20 minutes my husbands Peroni came. Then 45 minutes after ordering my cocktail came. No apology for the time it took. I was sat facing the bar and watched as the bar staff stood doing nothing for periods, and getting a drink themselves.

I had some of my drink but waited for my meal as I didn’t want to get drunk and have issues navigating my wheelchair, as I would have been drinking on an empty stomach.

Over an hour after ordering our food, it finally came but… my salad was missing the egg and blue cheese dressing so the waiter said he would go back to the kitchen.

About 10 minutes later he returned with the dressing but said the kitchen didn’t have any eggs so that’s why it wasn’t on the salad.

We explained how this was such awful service and all the issues and how it was my birthday and this was the worst meal we’d ever experienced. The waiter told me he knew how bad it was and how long we’d waited and was telling the manager.

The manager came over and I explained everything above and how it had totally ruined my birthday, to which he said ‘aww don’t say that’… it really was though. After waiting over an hour I ended up having only a few mouthfuls of an incomplete meal. He said ‘you’ll stay for cake won’t you’ - we had to get to our show after being in there for hours. I just wanted to leave so much to actually get some proper food - which we ended up having to pay hugely inflated prices within the arena.

He said that bookings are always overbooked and the restaurant is like this on event days. They’re understaffed and over booked. While we were sat there, as I said I was facing the bar, but also the staff area, or at least where groups of staff all stood around chatting or drinking. Staff weren’t even going round near tables so we couldn’t even get their attention to ask how long for our drinks or food. People were walking out waiting for their orders to be taken. Staff were leading people to tables saying ‘the service here can’t get any worse’. The manager actually told me to contact head office complain. We were told that online bookings are all done via head office and they over book as they get commission for every booking made. This doesn’t seem right at all.

We have never complained about a meal or service before like this. I’ve contacted restaurants to say how great meals were and staff were, or if there has been an issue I’ve thanked management for how it was handled.

My time in your restaurant completely ruined...

1 star is truly generous - The worst dining experience I’ve ever had. We visited as a group to celebrate a friends birthday and it was a complete and utter disappointment.

As soon as we were seated, we noticed all the tables and menus were unclean and sticky and the interior of the restaurant in desperate need of an upgrade. The womens toilet was out of order meaning all women in the restaurant had to use the disabled toilet, however a member of staff decided to unlock the toilet from the outside using the key while my mum was on the toilet and rather than apologising and locking the door she just left it open.

The price of Cocktails has been increased to £19, you get 2 for this price but they have to be the same cocktail which seems ridiculous. We waited a very long time for our starters in an almost empty restaurant and in the mean time had no one come over to take drinks orders. We finally had our starters and then had to wait almost an hour for our mains during which time no one even bothered to clear our table of the starter plates or offer us another drink.

2 of our group ordered the £40 platter, one was missing 3 of the items and one was missing 4, when we asked about it we were told that they had run out of beef short ribs and therefore they had just left them off. They eventually brought out the rest of the missing items but by this time everyone had already finished eating. One of the mains was brought out 10 minutes after everyone else’s mains. The ‘rare’ steak was well done, the salad that was served with the chicken strips was wilted, dry and completely inedible.

We asked to speak to a manager as we had had a truly unpleasant experience, he did not seem apologetic at all and when we raised the issues we were met with the reply that the salad served comes from a bag and it is pre-made.. he did offer a discount in the end but when we got the bill we had been charged for an extra portion of onion rings that we didn’t have. In the midst of all this we did not receive the usual tgis birthday celebration either.

Overall, unless you want to be thoroughly disappointed and overcharged, do not waste your time visiting this restaurant, you would be better off...