High standards? (TGI Fridays)

Member Name: josollsam

Product:	TGI Fridays
Date:	21/04/01 (133 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good food, friendly service, clean

Disadvantages: May be becoming complacent, allowing standards to drop

around 7 years ago I was a waitress in the Covent Garden TGI Fridays. I had previously worked in a number of restaurants and considered myself a very experienced waitress.

However, I have to say that the training I received at Fridays was probably the best and has served me well at restaurants I have worked in since then.

All waiting staff at Fridays have 2 weeks training before they are allowed on the floor, memorising every ingredient of every dish, memorising every ingredient of every cocktail, learning to carry around 8 glasses, 4 in each hand (you try it!), how to carry 6 plates of food without a tray, etc.

If you watch the staff as they work you will notice that taking your order and bringing your food to your table is not the only thing they do. You should see them milling about, helping out other waiting staff, carrying food to and fro, cleaning, clearing etc.

Cleaning at the beginning and end of each shift ensures that the restaurants are maintained to a high standard.

The approach of waiting staff to thier customers should be done within 3 mins of your sitting at a table, the food should reach you within 15 mins...everything is calculated to ensure the customer is satisfied.

Saying all this though, I have since returned to a Fridays and felt that the service I received was way below what I had been taught to give, and the place was very dirty. I also noticed that the portions of food were no where near as huge as they used to be...not necessarily a bad thing as so much food used to be chucked out each shift.

I would go again, to see if the last time I went was just that particular restaurant that had gone downhill. I hope this is the case as I do think Fridays had a good future if it stuck with the standards I have since based my customer service skills on.

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