to wonder why the hell someone would CHOOSE to go out for dinner at Frankie & Bennies

[GetOrfMoiLand]

It has got to be the worst restaurant on earth.

And it's not even cheap.

Vile food, and every 20 mins the lights dim and 'happy birthday' gets sung out the loudspeakers.

It's up there with Harvester and Bella Pasta in my opinion.

My line in the sand is Toby carvery.

I am not STANDING THERE waiting in line for vile turkey and ORANGE (what do they put on them? Fake tan?) roast potatoes.

Doodleydoo, Wacky Warehouse? haven't even heard of that one. must go and google it.

Me and DP went into a Harvester as we had 30mins to spare before meeting someone - we had a sharing platter.

Cue plates of unidentifiable brown foodstuff.

Looked like New Years Eve at Kerry katona's when she had teh Iceland contract.

It's absolutely shite.

All the ingredients are the lowest quality 3663 crap.

Bella Pasta is the same.

Generic and disgusting.

Oh yeah, bring me my dinner, don't expect me to get up and get it myself, you lazy bastards.

I like Frankie and Bennies. I like the sticky pasta. Yummy.

Mind you, I don't mind the Harvester either for a cheapy family-friendly meal.

The nadir was reached re Toby Carvery when I watched a droplet of sweat fall from chef's head onto plate of gammon of woman in front of me.

I didn't tell her.

GetOrfMoiLand, have you considered a career in marketing? loving your descriptions.

[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNGFOcaJnjY A bit like this GetOrf?!}]

I went on Friday after not being for 10 years after a bad meal. Yes Happy Birthday was sung - just the once tho.

I had the skins with bbq chicken and cheddar - gorgeous and the chicken and prawn alfredo.

Also 2 x strawberry shortcake cocktails which are fab.

It is expensive tho, hubby had a main, starter and a bottle of beer and the bill was £45 !!!

Could have a curry for £25, but was for a friends leaving do so had to oblige !

Enjoyed the food tho!

Dammit

You are right about the lack of veggie choice Belligerent althought their garlic bread and cheese is one of my favourites anywhere.

Me and mates sometimes meet here for a couple of cocktails before we hit the town.

DS2 picks it quite a lot on his turn to pick a restaurant. For a while that meant once every 4th week because he loved it that much. When we tried to pursuade him to pick somehere else he just jsued to reply that it was his turn to pick as agreed and when it was our turn we could go to where ever we wanted. (fair point I suppose I'm just glad he has a new favourite!)

I stopped going to the Toby carvery around the corner when I ordered sausage and mash for DS and the sausage was...LITERALLY, and I mean that LITERALLY...as hard as a fossillised donkey dong.

oooh - now you see I love it! Our local F&B's is great - really fast service (much appreciated...), friendly staff who are used to dealing with children, prices aren't too bad - much cheaper than TGIs, wide range of choice so both ds's and me (Coeliac) can find stuff on the menu, and good music in the background

I'd choose to go to F&B's over TGI's/Pizza Hut/Burger king/McD's any day of the week. Would probably prefer to go to Pizza Express admittedly, but I can only have a salad there anyway, so it gets a bit boring...

If you're 12, it's cool apparently.

Personally I think nine out-of-tune renditions of happy birthday are enough to deliver terminal indigestion

F&Bs is horrid where I live.
Slow service and rubbish food. What is a Harvester? Don't think we have that pleasure up north.

Total shite.

Massive puking episode a few years ago, i will not be going ever again.

Rather eat McDs at least the food is consistent.

What is it? A theme restaurant?

I"ve never even heard of it..

Sounds like one not seek out!

I was out on Friday and was stood outside (looking like a lonely loser admittedly) looking inside at all the tables of revellers in F&B.

It looked like a vision of hades.

YABU. It's one of DD3's favourite places ( she's 18). In fact we all like it here and find that it's not expensive. They always have a good choice of vegetarian options for MIl not like other places we've been and she has only had 2 choices.

God, my half sister is comming up in a few weeks with all her children.

She is such a bloody snob about all the food places mentioned above. It's a nightmare when we are out, I feel like screaming at her.

Her family came down a few years ago and dh inncoently booked a table at pizza hut for us all. She nearly cried. I will always remember her dramatically wailing "don't you even have a Zizzi in this hell-hole?!"

I think she thought we were trying to pioson her children. Or heaven forbid, make them sit in a room with common people.

FWIW, I quite like Franie and Bennys, Harvester etc.

No it's not expensive per se for a meal out, but it is expensive for what it is, which as a poster said above is lowest common denominator shite catering food.

You could spend about teh same in a gastropub (urgh hate the term but you know what I mean() and get a lot nicer meal.

It's that bastard light dimming and blaring music every 5 minutes that gets me! Never again!

Have you ever been to a Harvester before PCJ?