TGI Fridays — Restaurant in Sandusky

I was a server/bartender/ manager for more than 10 years. We came in 30 minutes before close, and I can honestly say that I can't think of many things that would have made our experience worse.

The host handed us menus and pointed toward the bar. Every table was dirty and there was a massive stack of dirty plates on the bar. The floor was really sticky. We sat at a table and the server came over after about 8 minutes. She never introduced herself and we had to ask her to wipe down the obviously dirty table.

She told us that there was 30 minutes left and we needed to get our order in quickly... okay, I was slightly bothered, but no big deal, as we already knew what we wanted.

We ordered an alcoholic beverage, and when she delivered my wife's (in a tall glass), she didn't bring a straw. She also didn't come back, so I went to the bar. The bartender didn't even acknowledge me, so I just walked around to the server station and grabbed a straw myself. The server happened to be walking nearby and never addressed it. She then came back and asked if we wanted our food to go... we hadn't even had a sip of our drinks.

I would never, under any circumstances, EVER suggest a guest take their food to go. When we said no, she clarified that she wasn't rushing us. Smooth.

It took over 25 minutes for a sandwich and a salad, and I was already aghast at the service and feeling unwelcome, so we asked for boxes to eat in the room. While waiting for boxes, they started turning off lights. Then, the male bartender with the very quaffed eyebrows (who I believe referred to himself as the bar manager) was talking loudly to the cocktail servers about whether they thought they made money that night. With guests in the bar still... This is probably the tackiest thing I have ever seen in a restaurant. He rounded it off with a couple f bombs, which I don't really care about, but it just made it clear that they didn't care that guests were still there.

We got the boxes and I already had my card out. I glanced at the ticket, and it said 51. I dropped my card on it and she ran it, but then came back and said that she gave me the wrong ticket and that mine was 55. Ok, mistakes happen, but talk to me BEFORE you run the card?

She then offered us to go cups for our alcoholic beverages, I suppose to get us out of there more quickly. I don't know the laws in Ohio, but in Tennessee, that's highly illegal.

My wife and I have never felt like cattle so acutely as today. This whole place is a mess with no professionalism and it is frankly a smear on the TGIF brand. The server is an aberration to service professionals who care about their job.

The guest side of me didn't want to leave a tip, but professional courtesy wouldn't allow me to do that, so I left 9% and left as quickly as possible. I usually leave 20-30%.

Overall, avoid this place at any and all costs. If TGIF corporate is looking at reviews, please take a long, hard look at this place. It is...

The plus side is that it is very convenient when you are staying at the hotel. Now for the downsides….plan on slow service and people that just don’t really care because they know the business is going to come to them. We went there 2 nights and here are my observations. Both nights we sat at the bar. They had 5 people working the bar and 3 of them just spent their time cleaning versus helping out the other people. We watched 1 bartender handle not only the bar but the tables around the bar. We pretty much expected slow service, but one bartender just looked around and never helped anyone. The food is just ok…the chicken whether the sandwich or the wings are so over breaded that you have more breading than chicken. One person in my party ordered the same cheeseburger with cheddar instead of American both times and they still came out with American on them. If this would be a stand alone Friday’s, it would be gone already, but when you have a captive audience things are different. Also, if you are going to print late night menus, please make sure your spelling is correct. To me this is a sign of laziness, especially when you can’t spell the word “chips” correctly. My word of advice to anyone going there should plan on slow service and the occasional attitude server.

I would rate lower, but honestly the server we had helped pull up the rating because I could see the frustration she had.and how much she was trying, versus the other staff. And it helps with the convenience of it being where we were staying. I know places are having a hard time hiring staff, but they need to adapt. And if that means instead of having 3 host’s, make one a server. Or maybe the manager...

I know some places are still having a hard time finding help, but this is by and far, the worst experience we've ever had a restaurant. Our server was great - super friendly. Aside from this...yikes. We ordered 2 appetizers - 1 came out hot (mozzarella sticks) and the other was literally cold (boneless wings). We weren't going to say anything, but the wings ended up not being edible. So we opted to say something. They went back, and we could tell that they just went back in the fryer. They were warm, but were so crunchy, I was afraid we were going to crack teeth.

Fast forward to our food. A burger, a steak, and a chicken sandwich were ordered. Literally all of it, with the exception of the fries, was cold. We don't like saying anything because we understand the times, but with nearly $100 worth of food and drinks later, we felt compelled to make the kitchen staff aware of the situation. Let our server know how cold our food was, and he apologized and went and talked to the kitchen. He came back and said that the manager didn't want to come out and talk to us, but that they'd comp the parts of our bill that came out cold. We weren't necessarily looking for that, we just wanted the staff to know so others didn't have to leave hungry like we did. We ended up with a $30 something bill, which included our drinks and the hot appetizer, but to leave hungry, wasn't ideal.

Just hoping the staff can fix this issue so this restaurant doesn't die out soon and people can...