Forgan's Broughty Ferry — Restaurant in Scotland

I had a table booked for 2.30pm for myself, my friend and my 1 year old daughter. On arrival I was holding a helium filled balloon by itself, I was abruptly told that I was not allowed to have the balloon indoors, whilst I appreciate that there is the ongoing situation with COVID19 and understand that there are restrictions in place I advised the man who greeted me that the government guidelines allow 1 balloon per table, he again, corrected me and said ‘well, Forgans have a different policy and we don’t allow balloons’ again, whilst I appreciate that every establishment is different, he was extremely rude and unhelpful, the tone of his voice and body language was appalling, should he have explained that Forgans have a different policy in a nicer manner, I would have accepted this, however, due to his lack of good customer service and terrible attitude I wish to make a complaint about this. In addition to this, after the disagreement regarding the balloon, he ordered me to wear a mask, ‘please put your mask on until you’re seated at your table’ this is NOT the way anyone should speak to another person, let alone a PAYING customer who CHOSE to come to your establishment, especially in the tone that he used, I then told him I could not wear a mask due to health reasons, to then be ignored and made to feel stupid. If a person enters a building where masks are mandatory then the said person should be asked nicely to put a mask on, such as ‘please can I ask that you wear a mask if you are able to do so until you are seated at your table?’ - maybe you can reiterate some training to this individual on how to speak to people.

I was so upset I walked back out of your restaurant until I calmed down before coming back in to meet my friend at the booked table. When I entered Forgan’s, I asked the woman at the bar if I could just go over and meet my friend at the table and she, as well, very abruptly, ordered me to sanitise my hands, again, not the way you speak to anyone, you ASK people to do things, not abruptly demand that they do, the woman behind the bar was very clearly able to see that I was holding my baby girl therefore could infact not sanitise my hands as my hands were clearly full holding onto my child, I said to the woman, I will need to sanitise my hands once I put my daughter into the high chair, to again, be completely disregarded and ignored.

Once I put my daughter into the high chair I went back to the station set up at the door to clean my hands and returned to our table, to then be approached by the same woman from behind the bar to take our order, my friend ordered a glass of champagne and a bowl of fries, she spoke very nicely to my friend and when it was my turn to order she looked at me, she did not ask what I was having she just stared at me and waited for my order, again, with a terrible body language and bad look on her face, because of this I decided I was not going to give any of my money to your establishment so did not order a single thing and could not wait to leave, the only reason I stayed was because it was my best friends 30th birthday, and what was supposed to be a lovely catch up for my and my friend and my daughter turned out to be a hellish experience and I will never recommend that anyone visits your restaurant and I will not be returning because of the members of staff you employ.

From my experience of working in the same line of work I would never in a million years treat anyone the way I was treated today and I highly suggest that further training is provided to your staff on how to be respectful towards your customers.

Overall horrific experience, these staff members put a bad name on...

I’m not sure where to begin- firstly I do not write bad reviews only in rare circumstances like this.

Our booking was for 1330 for 4 people and a 17 month old. By 3pm there was still no sign of ANY of our meal. After we placed our food order we were pretty much actively ignored by all staff and we could tell there was clearly an issue in the kitchen. We had to call for a member of staff to order a second round of drinks- they acknowledged our wait at this point (around 230pm) and said our food would be a few min. After another while we called a member of staff over and asked if we could please just have the kids meal. At this point the baby was absolutely starving, unsettled (rightly so )and pointing at the kitchen watching food come out and going to other tables. They said it would be between 2-3mins and again after 20mins still nothing.

Between 230 and 3pm staff were actively avoiding our table as they knew there was an issue. The manager (assuming so, as the only staff member in plain clothes) stood at the kitchen counter with her back to the entire restaurant and clearly wanted to avoid us. Other than telling us the food would be a few minutes, noone took the time to acknowledge us and explain was the situation was. By 3pm the table next to us ( who arrived and ordered well after us) was served, still no sign of the kids meal and with no update or acknowledgment, we just couldn’t wait any longer so we got up and left.

On the way out a young member of staff apologised and finally we were acknowledged by the manager who just shrugged said we’re really sorry but no explanation- clearly still no sign of our food being ready.

In no way do I blame the regular members of staff, it is literally out of their control. I feel at this point the manager should have stepped upped and approached us and explained the situation.

I would not be writing this review if we had just been acknowledged and given a gesture of anything (a basket of bread, chips, something to share) to keep us going. Even if they had brought the kids meal as they promised, we could have waited for ours but the baby was starving. At 3pm when we left, 1.5 hours after we arrived there was still no sign of our food.

Clearly staff, management and the kitchen staff are overwhelmed and it was hard to watch. Whoever leads or owns the company should really step in and look at their setup and ensure a smooth process not just for customers but for their staff too, who are no doubt working very hard and unsociable hours over the festive period.

We are a family- half live in edinburgh and half in Aberdeen and this was our Christmas meet up and we ended up having to go around the corner to spoons. The menu is not cheap at all and you expect much better from a place like this. Just so disappointing that this could have been completely resolved with some acknowledgment from management but this was just the worst I have ever experienced in a hospitality setting. We are all from retail/hospitality backgrounds and have huge empathy for staff working in such settings, especially around the Christmas period. We are aware of all the issues that could happen, but this could have been handled so much differently. In my experience these issues usually start at the top, profit is put before staff well-being or customer experience. Do better.

This was our place for family meet ups but sadly this won’t be the...

We noticed the Shania Twain boozy brunch online but wasn’t very clear what was included so I called up. First person I spoke to said he didn’t think the menu had been created yet baring in mind this was 2 days before the event so I said I’d call back the next day. The next day I called and was told hesitantly that it was a glass of fizz on arrival and two cocktails as well as something from the brunch menu. All fine decided to book it. Then received an email which stated we actually get 5 drinks but the choices were a bit poor in comparison to most boozy brunches I’ve been to. That being Prosecco, mimosa or a Bloody Mary.

Upon arriving to the venue multiple staff were just awkwardly looking at us and nobody saying anything / guiding us on where to go? Eventually we were taken to our table only to find the brunch menu was something entirely different from what we had been told.

The brunch menu was only two drinks included and the food options were much more limited than anticipated. We asked one of the servers for some clarity as 2 drinks is a big difference to 5 which was stated in the email.. in all of the servers defence they were very pleasant and I actually felt bad for them because they had to keep going back to the manager to ask for clarity and had to keep apologising to people.

It was clear that this was not properly organised and a lot of people were complaining. Eventually the manager came over to us and explained there had been a mix up with an old email and because of their mistake offered us 4 drinks which we appreciated and agreed to. However, I would have thought the manager would have done the same for everyone but they only seemed to do this for those that bothered to complain.

The performance was great but even the performer herself said she asked three different members of staff what time she is supposed to start and nobody could tell her. There was also supposed to be a DJ which there wasn’t so there was no atmosphere before the performer came on.

From the minute we walked in the door it felt very disorganised, feels like a management issue as the servers are doing their best and kept a smile on their faces despite all the complaints. Funnily enough when receiving the bill it actually said boozy brunch 5 drinks so looks like they could have done the five drinks because on their system it goes through at the same price anyway but hey ho. Might I add they do include a 12.5% service charge onto the bill which for the first time ever we asked for this to be removed because of our experience.

I would suggest some forward planning for the next boozy brunch event, ensuring staff and customers know exactly what is expected. Unfortunately, we won’t be back to...