This blog has now moved to http://thismummyloves.com
When Liam was here a couple of weeks ago I took him to Frankie & Benny's for a special Mum/Son meal! I let him choose what ever he wanted off the menu (a teenage boy's dream!) We arrived about 6.30pm to the Lenton restaurant in Nottingham. It wasn't very busy, there were a few families in so I wasn't concerned about how the service would be. I thought we'd be done in time to catch a movie! We were showed to our table straight away and given the menu and asked if we would like drinks while we decide. The menu is huge and there is so much choice it took us a while to decide, we eventually decided and our waitress took our order. the waitress was polite but not particularly friendly. After about 15 minutes I asked if would be OK if we could move tables as I was freezing and every time the door opened I got a draft, this seemed to annoy the waitress a little; I'm not sure why as there were many other empty table in the restaurant. Anyway she moved us and it was still a little chilly but much better than where we were.
After 45 minutes we were brought our starters, yes 45 minutes is quite a while for a starter isn't it! Especially when I had been watching the waitresses walk past them on the counter for the last 20 minutes! Needless to say my Bruschetta as lovely looking as it was; was actually stone cold! Thankfully after letting our waitress know she brought another over in under 5 minutes!
 |
| My Bruschetta was served stone cold! The second one however was delicious! |
 |
| Liam had no complaints about his Large Chicken Wings |
Thankfully the rest of the evening the service got better; I wish I could say the same for the food! Liam opted for a *special* Oven Baked Chicken Parmigiana I'm really not sure what was special about it to be quite honest. The sweetcorn was completely overdone and so dry; the spaghetti was dry and stuck to the plate. Liam compared the taste to tinned Ravioli, definitely not worth £13.95. My main course was Chicken Club Triple Decker it was supposed to be served on wholemeal bread but they didn't have any left so I go ciabatta instead. It was served with chips and coleslaw. Not a bad meal but you can't really go wrong with a chicken sandwich!!
 |
| Oven Baked Chicken Parmigiana - not so special! |
 |
| My Chicken Club Triple Decker
|
For our desserts we chose from the lighter options because 1 we were stuffed and 2 I didn't want to go over the £50 voucher which we had been given to review their new menu. I had Chocolate Pancakes at £2.95 they were simply dreadful - I was given a spoon to eat them but what I actually needed was a steak knife; they were so dry and tough. I had a couple of mouthfuls and left them. Liam had Lemon Sorbet which he said was lovely but still I begrudge paying £2.95 for two tiny scoops!!
 |
| Chocolate Pancake - awful dry, tough pancakes! |
 |
| Two scoops of Lemon Sorbet - can't get that wrong! |
So overall I wasn't particularly happy with our Frankie & Benny's experience, Thankfully we didn't have to pay for it. The bill came to £53 and the waitress knocked off my starter which brought it to £48 so the voucher covered it.
Would I go again? No.
Oh and we never did get to catch that film...
10 comments:
So I think it's fair to say it was pretty crap then? Nice to read honest reviews :)
Doesn't sound too good. I've never been that keen on Frankie & Benny's. Great review.
Doesn't sound like you had a great time. Sorry it wasn't the night you planned with your son x
Sorry you had a bad night lovely, I find F&B's to be a restaurant thats either ok or crap lately, got too busy I think x
Liam's main looks horrendous! Actually unappetising and horrible, why would you have chips with pasta? We're using our voucher tomorrow and I'm not filled with confidence.
It's so disappointing when you are looking to forward to a lovely meal & it turns out to be a disaster.
The food presentation leaves a lot to be desired!
I've been for snacks & cocktails before a movie pre-Pickle, but I certainly won't be rushing back to try a meal! Thanks for an honest review.
It's interesting reading other F&B reviews especially as our food was really good when we went....although the speed of service wasn't so great.
The food looks completely uninspiring and pretty awful. What a shame. Haven't been to the Notts F&B's for a long time now - won't be going anytime soon I think.
I've had great meals with them, and really poor ones like yours. I have a feeling they're a bit of a victim of their own success, over-expansion seems to have been at the cost of quality food & service. I can't use our local one for pre-cinema meals as I know it'll be upwards of two hours for a meal.
Post a Comment