TGI Fridays Lakeside Quay

It might be a chain, but consistency is key and unfortunately on this occasion the service was a miss. Food wise, nothing really to complain about. What I ordered tasted fine. Their menu however could do with a makeover. If you’re not hungry for a burger then the other options are somewhat quite limited. I think what annoyed me the most was the service (or the lack of it I should say). Despite the restaurant being super quiet when we got there, staff were nowhere to be found. Most were standing up by the kitchen pass chitchatting amongst themselves instead of looking out for guests. On the plus side, kids eat for free so it’s a pretty good deal if you’re planning on taking the family out without having to break the bank.

Friendly and quick service. The app had a voucher for £25 off when you spent 100 which was great. The restaurant has a nice vibe. The stack ribs a bit of a let down though. The ribs were really dry, overcooked and not marinated well so had an unpleasant smell. We are unlikely to return because of this. The chips were really nice though.

Still not the TGI Fridays of old but definitely an improvement from my last visit to their Basildon branch. We attended here for a Thursday lunch visit. When sat down, we were only given the main menu. I had to ask the waiter for the lunch time deal menu. He didn't apologise or say that he had forgotten it, just grabbed it for us after I asked him. I genuinely believe this is a tactic that a few different restaurants keep doing to try and get people to spend more money on the main menu, instead of saving money using the deals on the lunch time menu. Sadly there was another menu that had lunch for £7 and we never even saw this one. We only found out about it after the meal and asked if it was real and it was. Very disappointing. Another thing, we had our two children with us. The waiter gave us two children's menus but nothing else. No crayons, colouring-in or activity sheets for them to do. Normally I'd expect something for the kids, especially in a family restaurant. The waiter didn't give us his name, nor was he wearing a name badge. He also didn't write his name on the card you receive with your bill at the end. Thought this was odd. A female member of staff was bringing the food to the tables, she was just wearing a grey Nike quarter zip over the top of, what I assume would have been her uniform. Wasn't very professional and definitely looked out of place. Even with the lunch time deal, we still spent £70 for lunch. 1 kids meal, 4 soft drinks, 2 adults starters and mains. It's never a cheap place to eat but we knew that when we came here. On a positive, the food was very nice this time round. Cooked great and tasted good too. The atmosphere was ok, not too loud which was good. Tables were sat spread out so no overcrowding anywhere which was nice. Only problem we had was where we sat, we couldn't be seen by the waiting staff all of the time, so sometimes we had to wait for a while to get someone's attention or stand up to go and get them. Only a minor thing.