Frankie and Benny's not such a good review

This will be the first time i have written a not so glowing report and as i write this i do so  from my bed.



Yesterday we reviewed the Frankie and Benny's chain in Aylesbury.  I was really excited about this as Ali and I haven't been out to dinner since Sophie has been born so this was a big thing for us and we even took Sophie as Frankie and Benny's is a family friendly restaurant and it was a good way to see how they catered for kids.  Ali and i used to go to Frankie and Benny's all the time 3 years previous, enjoying a burger and beer after work, i vaguely remember those child free and frivolous days.

We turned up at 6.30pm even though we booked a table for 7pm and we were greeted nicely and asked for a booth so we could contain Sophie, and the waited said that he would need to clean a table for us so we waited.

We were shown to our table and asked what drink we wanted, but as we hadn't even sat down yet we asked him to give us a minuet.  Sophie asked for a balloon and the waiter went and got her one and also brought back a activity bag for her which contained a pencil and a book to draw in that had matching, colouring, counting activities, as well as a push out create a dice fora table top board game.  Which we all thought was really good as the throwing dice and counting round the board kept Sophie occupied for ages.

5 mins later he came back and we placed our order for drinks, in this time i got a good look at the restaurant there were 3 waiters and what looked like a supervisor serving 15 tables and 2 chefs in the kitchen.  The floors were dirty and there seemed to be a lot of paper and food on the two main walk ways through the restaurant which didn't get swept until we had almost finished our deserts.  Sophie dived under the table to go and sit on daddies side and when she came back to sit on my side came back with a handful of old food which i had to slap out of her hand and say no its dirty.  There was also a good many tables full of dirty plates and dishes again were not tidied till desert stage of our meal cleaning products and cloths were on the chair of one of the dirty tables.  We thought they must be very busy.

After 10 mins someone finally came and took our food order and offered us a second drink, Ali chose a Steak with peppercorn sauce, Sophie had a hamburger, and i found a steak burger which i never seen before on the menu, our now waitress told me to avoid the burger bun as the steak burger is a bit sloppy and that i should eat it with the ciabatta bread, i like  ciabatta  so asked for that.  The reason we were here was to try the new menu but it was hard to understand what was new as it looked pretty similar to the old menu, maybe they could of added a NEW flash on their new items.  However we did notice a lot of new items on the dessert menu.

It took 35 mins for our food to arrive which i think is to long to wait.  Sophie's food was a nice portion size for a little one and she tucked into the burger and enjoyed it very much, when i had a bite it reminded me of the Wimpy burgers from the 80s.  When Ali and I placed our order they asked how we wanted our steak i asked for rare and Ali asked for medium, what we got was Ali rare and me medium, we wondered if they got the orders confused.  Ali said that doesn't matter where you go they always get the steak orders wrong, and you need to go to a dedicated steak restaurant to make sure you get your steak cooked they way you want it.

Ali's steak had a lot of sinu through it and by the time he finished he had a lot of steak he could not eat left on his plate, but he said the small bits he did get they were tasty.  My steak burger was the most impracticable thing i have ever eaten, it really didn't work as you bit into the steak with the  ciabatta  the meat was not tender enough to take a bit of like with a burger, and the whole slice of steak just came out of the bread leaving it hanging out of my mouth and me holding a very soggy  ciabatta with a lettuces leaf and tomato in my hand.  i looked like some crazy cave woman, so i gave up trying to eat it as a burger and ate it as a steak and ate only the top of the  ciabatta  as a side bread order, as the base was to wet to eat.  The steak was awful it was so chewy and i spent ages on each bit chewing flavour of the steak out and spiting out all the inedible bits and hiding them under my soggy bread. My teeth genuinely ached after and i didn't eat it all and only got half way through before giving up.  i was very disappointed we sat around for another 30 mins as i was waiting for daddy to negotiate around his sinu.

I started to feel a bit odd so i went to visit the bathroom, this was a bit bizarre i would give them a 7/10 for cleanliness, there were two locks on my toilet door which confused me at first and i soon realised that one was for an old door that was removed but they hadn't removed the lock that went with it.  What was bizarre was playing in the bathroom they had on a French lesson recording not the sort of thing you expect when going  into a restaurant bathroom.

I joined up with the family again in our booth and Sophie was dancing on the seats and Ali had given up on his main.  We agreed this wasn't the sort of restaurant you should go to for a steak as the meat was poor quality but then for the cheap price what should you expect.  We remembered the burgers we had 3 years ago and knew they were nice, and wondered if we should come back in a few weeks to give the restaurant a second chance and steer clear of the steaks.  We appreciated what Frankie and Benny's are trying to do in these tough times when people are tight on cash and to eat out is a rare treat these days, so by making it family friendly and affordable is important to encourage people out and spending for the economy.

We placed our desert order, and Frankie and Benny's do deserts well.  Sophie asked for a chocolate ice cream with chocolate buttons.  The desert arrived but Sophie's chocolate buttons came in a bag which we both thought was odd, they should of just put the buttons on the ice cream and served it that way.  I chose a pecan cheesecake which was nice but i didn't eat it all as i was feeling a bit worse.  Ali choose a Eton sundae which he said was tasty and it had lots of meringue in it which was also good, but the desert was just to big it was more like a desert for two to share and we just felt it was a bit over the top and a waste of food as well.  I ordered a double espresso but was given a single with a dirty spoon and when i asked for another i finally got a double.

We had to ask for the bill as by this time our waitress was finally getting round to clearing all those tables we were greeted with when we arrived.  She took part of the payment and then said she need to go and get the card machine but went off and cleared more tables 20 mins later she finally came back after i managed to catch her eye and remind her we still needed to pay the balance of our bill.

By the time we left it was around 9pm and i was feeling really sick and when i got home i spent the night throwing up i had defiantly got a dose of food poisoning and although i have nothing left to throw up i'm still feeling pretty darn sorry for myself.  It was such a shame as i have fond memories for Frankie and Benny's, and i guess im unlucky to get food poisoning which is weird because out Ali and i i am the one with the cast iron stomach and he is the one that gets ill, but you don't expect to go out for the evening and come back feeling worse.

Overall we found the restaurant unorganised so it appeared probably more dirty than normal, with the many cluttered tables and food on the floor, attention to detail on our orders was poor.  Service was friendly but poor in the time it took to serve us throughout the meal and if we had been paying we would have definitely got up and left.  The meat in the meals was also poor quality but i have no idea how you can test for that, so stick to the burgers.  They need to relook at the French lessons in the bathroom.  But we thought the kids activity bag was really good and Sophie's meal was also brilliant.  This is a great restaurant for kids, its just a shame that as a reviewer i had such a bad experience.