Ford's Garage ChampionsGate — Restaurant in Four Corners

We first ate here last night, September 23, 2024. The hostess taking us in was hard to understand (accent?) but advised us about the compulsory (mandatory) 20% upcharge, referencing a small sign at the entrance, that I couldn't have read if I wanted to. We agreed to this, but were not happy about it.

We were seated and given several menus to order from, food and drink. We were greeted by Cali, who was nice enough and seemed to want to help us have a good experience. We needed a few extra minutes to look over the menu but ordered our drinks in the meantime. That was the last we saw of Cali for a LONG time and it was at least 15-20 minutes before she finally returned to take our orders (this should not have been the case, because the place was not busy at all). The food, however, did come out quickly after that. My wife liked her chicken dish. I ordered a burger and it had some unusual sauces/toppings on it, but I didn't like it at all. It had a weird flavor (almost like Blue Cheese?), but I ate it all the same. The onion rings, however (a $3 upcharge from the fries) were EXCEPTIONAL and some of the best I'd ever eaten. They were crunchy on the outside (as opposed to soggy elsewhere) so this was the highlight of the meal for me. The unsweet iced tea I ordered was bland and tasteless, but my wife did like the bloody mary she ordered.

All in all, it was a mediocre experience. The real problem I had with this was the obligation to tip 20%. I tip 20% (or more, if the food and service are good) wherever we go, but being obligated to this is where I draw the line on the integrity of the situation.

“Regarding the service charge, you can find comprehensive information about why we’ve implemented this program and how it benefits both our staff and our guests at fgteamservice.com” , When you respond this way to every inquiry that every other reviewer has voiced concerns about, you're just avoiding the liability/fallout that most people would have over a policy like this, and trying to justify your actions. I wouldn't have minded if the service was exceptional, but it was definitely NOT, and neither was the food. Because businesses don't want to pay a living wage to their people, this does not (and should not) automatically fall back on the customer to make up for that shortcoming. Thanks to Ford's Garage for reaching out, but as I've said before, there is really nothing that management can do about the experience once you've had it. I've been as detailed as I'm going to be with my review, so if you can glean anything from my commentary, that's what you should do.

We don't live in the area so we would not benefit from any kind of perk or other discount that they might offer. This would not have swayed me from writing another review like this anyway nor change my impression of the service we had.

Most importantly, businesses are not entitled to charge automatic tips when its a service-oriented business. That is COMPLETELY up to the customer. What they're trying to do is FORCE you into the idea that tipping is mandatory, which it...

Let's start with the good bits - our server was great and the food was amazing. Our party of 4 had four different burgers and every one was cooked to perfection and tasted fantastic.

And sadly, there it ends.

We arrived right behind a group of 25. We were told there would be a 25-30 minute delay as this group had "put pressure on the kitchen". A quick look around saw that at least half the tables in the restaurant were vacant.

We asked could we have a drink at the bar and were told yes. Before leaving to go to the bar, the girl pointed out to us that there was a 20% service charge for our bill, which was a new policy to pay all staff other than our server, who would be paid a commission on sales. We were provided with an explanatory leaflet which was, frankly, incomprehensible, corporate nonsense. We were told that while there was no expectation that we would tip the server, many guests did.

Anyway, we walked to the bar, noting that we were wrong about the level of occupancy - the restaurant was at least two thirds empty. We ordered our drinks and sat at a high table (in a more than half empty restaurant remember) beside the bar to await our table. While waiting, the manager sent the same girl who had greeted us to tell us we had to leave the table as it was a table for diners and we were only drinking. The fact that we were waiting to dine and that the restaurant had plenty empty tables seemed to have eluded the manager. To be clear, had the restaurant been remotely busy we would NEVER have sat down. But it wasn't. (Footnote - a word of advice for the manager - next time you want to tell guests to leave a table, do it yourself)

Thankfully before this became any more of an issue, we received our text to go to our table. A drinks waiter asked if we wanted water - I said no. He then appeared and placed a glass of water in front of me. When I said, politely, that I'd specifically said I didn't want water, he told me (I assume trying to be funny but I'm not certain) that if I was drinking a certain strength of alcohol I had to be served water. So now I wasn't so polite - I do not drink alcohol and there was a large glass of Coke sitting in front of me. He walked off rather sheepishly. I'm not proud that I wasn't polite but by this stage I was done.

Apparently one of the reasons for the 20% service charge is so that your server will never leave the room and will always be available. As I said already, the server was great but she was out the room as much as she was in it. It's a nonsense policy as she would have received at least 20% from us.

Sadly, I won't be back, which is a pity because the food...

My family and I had gone to differents Ford Garage Restaurant locations in Central Florida. We went to the Idrive, Margaritaville and Winter Garden location and everything related (food,service)was good. My family decided to take me to this new location in Championsgate on fathers day, since is closer to our home. We were excited, I even took my Mustang and parked in front of the restaurant. At the beginning everything was ok, waiting time not too bad (20-25min). We make the order and when the appetizer came (onion rings tower, which it wasn't on a tower like they use to), the server throw them on the floor by accident. We order two nacho plates and a burger for my wife. The nachos came all burned and the burger was heavy on salt which it was strange to us because that never happened before. We told the waitress but we don't like to returned food. Later on, the waitress came a couple times to our table, my drink was empty and she never gave or offered me a refill. At this point I'm uncomfortable, since this place is somewhat expensive for nachos and burgers and also on top of that they charge you 20% tip automatically to provided the customers a better service, service that me and my family wasn't receiving. I'm not use to complaint on restaurants, but this time I asked to speak with a manager. A person came and I explained, they said they were sorry, but right after I spoke with the manager, the waitress came finally with our drinks and question us with attitude about how long we were waiting for refills. At that point, I completely lost it and asked again to speak with manager. Another person came stating he was a manager, he said he was sorry and that they where going to gave us a 15% discount of the total of the order( which is funny because they charge 20% gratuity, so that means that they will still get the whole paid for the food and the waitress will still get 5% gratuity). At that point I said that I didn't wanted any discount or anything like that, I told them that I just want a fair service for the price we are paying on that place. Another manager (this was the third person) came, basically to make me explain what happened again, at that point I was already mad and told the person that I was not going to repeat myself for the third time, that I just wanted the check and leave. He tried to gave me a discount again, which it makes me more furious, because that's not what I was looking. My family and I just wanted to have a good time, and get the type of service that we already been charge off. At the end we paid the whole bill, leave and not planning to go back. Poor service for the...