How long do you wait to be served?

nearlyrich

We use F & B for working lunch about once a month never had a problem until last time we went, three of us ordered it took over an hour for two meals to arrive and the third was a good 15 mins later (and that was the customer I was treating to lunch)my fries were undercooked and cold. The manager had been over a couple of times whilst we were waiting, he knew we were unhappy and he brought extra drinks. Eventually he came and said there was no charge for anything we had eaten or drunk as their service had been very bad.

gunsandbanjos

aileth wrote: »

I know, and thank you it's nice to have some insider insight. We did think that perhaps this other couple were either regulars or mates by the way she was doting on them and yet totally ignoring everyone else, standing chatting at the bar before they came in!

Possibly, she should have acted a bit more professionally though! It's people like her that give waiting staff generally a bad name:mad: Most of us "long termers" give a damn, it's generally the weekend/ casual staff that are a nightmare.

A lot of people have no knowledge of how a restaurant works and just see the black/white of I sat first but they're getting served first.

aileth

gunsandbanjos wrote: »

Possibly, she should have acted a bit more professionally though! It's people like her that give waiting staff generally a bad name:mad: Most of us "long termers" give a damn, it's generally the weekend/ casual staff that are a nightmare.

A lot of people have no knowledge of how a restaurant works and just see the black/white of I sat first but they're getting served first.

I have to say I'm generally very understanding of wait staff, especially if they're getting f***ed about by a poor kitchen, or bullied by a manger especially, and take a lot of things into consideration especially if they're busy and I am an especially big stickler about tip situations. However she really got my back up,which doesn't often happen eating out!

olibrofiz

If places are busy I'm pretty understanding of things taking a little longer than usual, but the waiting times in some of the posts I'd be pretty p'd off about!

We had a rubbish Christmas lunch the year after my Dad passed away. It had all been ordered weeks before. Our starter took 30 mins to arrive, I think I had pate, my mum soup, and my then 7yo DD had melon. The melon was a galia melon, cut in half, and put on the plate with a sprig of mint (!) The main course arrived 45 mins later, everything but the turkey was undercooked. The xmas pud arrived around 30 minutes after that. The thing I found funniest tho was that my Mum had been complaining bitterly to me throughout the meal, and as we walked out the landlady asked if everything had been ok, she smiled and said it had been lovely - I nearly ran out the door as I was :rotfl::rotfl:

Been to F&B, once, their internet went down so they couldn't take any orders for about 45 mins. The meal wasn't that great when we eventually got it so wouldn't go there again in a hurry.

sassyblue

Funny alot of you are mentioning frankie and bennys, it does seem to be a bit slow and we've also had a really strange experience in there.

We went there with my sister and her family, she asked for another blackcurrant drink for her little one but the waitress returned with an orange one. when my sister pointed out the error the waitress swore black was white it WAS blackcurrant, even after we tasted it to double check.... she still insisted it was blackcurrant, it was completely bizarre!

gellerbing

me and my partner went to frankie and bennys last year, we were waiting 2 hours for a table and when the food finally came it was pretty tasteless, needless to say we never went back

dreamdreamer

We used to live 10 minutes from a really excellent F&B's. Never had bad service there, sometimes a little slow if it was busy but they were always apologetic. We ate in there about once a month to be honest. It was cheap and cheerful.

We moved to a city an hour away 3 years ago. We went to the local F&B's the first time and they muffed up every single course, wrong food, food arriving 15 minutes apart, starters arriving with mains, etc etc. We decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and tried again a few months later.

When we walked in, we were the ONLY PEOPLE in the restaurant. Drinks came promptly. We waited for a while for starters thinking it was a bit odd as we'd just ordered soup and there was nobody else there. A few other tables arrived. Their starters arrived. OH complained, our soup finally came out. Cold. OH sent his back, saying he didn't want another, just to bring the mains as we had been there an hour at this point. We wait another 30 minutes, by which point some of the tables who had arrived after us were LEAVING and we still hadn't had our mains. At that point we stood up, royally hacked off, and told the waiter we'd had enough and were leaving.

OH gave him the money for the starters/drinks. The waiter had the CHEEK to say we didn't get the starters at the set menu price as we hadn't had the mains and would have to pay full whack! Needless to say OH lost it completely, refused to pay them a penny and walked out with me on his heels slightly mortified but kind of proud!

Needless to say we haven't been back! :rotfl:We should have guess it was bad by the fact it's always dead!

I think with all these chains it depends on the branch. We have 2 Cafe Rouge's in our city, one is excellent with lovely staff, the other is without fail completely abominable!

Aimless

We don't really eat out generally, but we had about an hour an a half wait to pick someone up from the station, so decided to treat ourselves to Pizza Hut. We ended up leaving with the pizzas in a box, as there wasn't even time to start them, let alone finish! It wasn't even that busy, we never did find out what the delay was. About halfway through the wait they came and told us the drinks were free (mine was tap water anyway so one free fanta, wow!).

I happened to mention that we were hoping to have dessert as well, and was told, oh, they could do it to take away too. Except they expected us to pay for it, without the icecream of course as we were taking it with us. I was not paying full price for what was basically a warmed up cookie in a box, and said so! So we got those free too. Which wasn't that great when we came to eat them in the car at the station, and found gooey melted cookie is not something you can eat with your fingers.

The only other place we go sometimes is an Indian restaurant in Bearwood, they're always really lovely and the food is great. Not a chain of course.

Aimless

Oh, we sometimes have supermarket cafe meals, my pet hate there is when you order something quick and something that takes longer, and they arrive together, but it is obvious the quicker one has been plated up and sat around for ages waiting for the other one.

paulineb_2

I try and avoid chains where I can, fortunately as I live in a small town theres very few of them. There are some really decent pubs that sell good food, much cheaper than wetherspoons, a lovely restaurant that does a 2 course lunch for less than 8 quid, Scottish and another local Indian restaurant that does a buffet lunch for 6 quid and evenings its £10

Have heard far too many negatives about Frankie and Bennys to want to go there often. Went once last year before Christmas and it was fine, but there are so many local family run restaurants even in a small place like this, I wouldnt bother with any chains.

Have also done a few meals through groupon, mostly in Edinburgh, never had a bad meal or service yet.