Tigers Catering Feedback.

[trendylfj]

Like to echo the thanks to all who trying to improve the bars and catering. I have only one comment to make about the game against Nottingham. I use the ABC before the game and the manager behind the bar had quite a number of staff on duty and the drinks came quickly but why oh why do they have staff who clearly have never drunk a pint of beer in their lives serving beer and starting to learn how to pull a pint and operating a till without prior training. I ordered a pint of lager shandy for my son - on the till was rung up a pint of lager price + half a lemonade - I watched on in amazement when he start to pull a pint of lager before turning round to ask what was shandy??? Nice enough lad but prior training one hour before the bar opened whould have helped.

I am fearful for the operation on day one of the home
league season

[Tiggger]

Having been at the Nottingham game I am struggling with paying £2.20 for a bottle of diet coke in the Captain's bar. I'm sure that last season the price was £1.90, that's almost a 15% price increase! It's also £1 more than the corner shop just over the road!!

Doubt I'll be drinking soft drinks in the bar this season!

[Bill W (2)]

Having been at the Nottingham game I am struggling with paying £2.20 for a bottle of diet coke in the Captain's bar. I'm sure that last season the price was £1.90, that's almost a 15% price increase! It's also £1 more than the corner shop just over the road!!

Doubt I'll be drinking soft drinks in the bar this season!

A 100% mark up is quite normal in bars. For wines and spirits it is often significantly more. Whilst I never shrink from being critical of our Caterers their prices compare reasonably with similar establishments.

[Davewilko]

Well arrived at ground approx 20minutes before kick off today. Captains Bar full but no signs of speed bar being open despite long queues. Doesn't bode well for the new, better organised approach. Bar outside clubhouse looked very busy too

[sapajo]

Hot day and roasting in the Cat I needed some cold water so I naively thought that I just had to go to the gents and fill my now empty bottle of water that I had bought earlier. WRONG!!! no cold water in the gents indeed as I soon discovered the only repeat only way to get cold water is to ask at the bar.

I duly joined the long bar queue just to get some water but just how pathetic is this situation! Why on earth is there not any unrestricted access to cold drinking water for us paying supporters ?

Seems the drive for profit making out of us fans has really sunk into the deep abyss.

Pathetic at best criminal at worst

[Bill W (2)]

Arrived at ground at 1330. Usual cheery greeting from steward at car park. No queue at burger bar where double cheeseburger *with onions" was speedilly and cheerfully delivered. £4.50 not bad value.

Onwards to the Captains Bar. Instant service for my pint of cask. And similarly 20 mins later for a refill. But alas, by 14.25 with no more staff being deployed (and the speed bar not being openned) chaos resulted.

Happily in the Mark Bar there was "normaal service" abd so I had a pint of Guinness!!

[Tigerpete]

Well first I have to say well done tigers with today's win. However when it comes to the bars etc well words almost escape me. At half time today, within 2 minutes I was in a queue for a pint in the upper CAT stand, about 10 in front but hardly moving. I then made the huge mistake of changing queues and joined the "Express Lane" for beer only. There were 8-10 people in front of me, the beer, Lager etc was already poured but it took an absolute age for the people behind the bar to deal with the customers. I got my pint and looked back at the large queue behind me and went back to my seat just in time for the second half to kick off. I had spent the whole of the half time waiting for 8 people to be served at a bar that already had the beer poured. :censored: does not summarise my thoughts. Either the queue behind me missed their beer or missed their rugby. The club had loads of pre poured beer that would not have been sold.

The problem pure and simple is the people behind the bar. Where on earth do they find them. They were so slow and incompetent it was untrue. Before the match I was in the Swan and Rushes and the bar staff there would pull pints and serve about 10 times faster.

This has gone beyond a joke and someone should seriously be given a kick over this. The Fans are getting a very poor service and the club are losing money as a result. This is absolute amateur night.

[Old Hob]

The problem is that the place is run by caterers.

It is a big pub with food, not a food tent with beer

Get Wetherspoons to do it.

[Tom Tom]

Final whistle at 14.10 wasted another 5 minutes waiting to get served. There were 2 in front of me, 1 already being served and went quickly. The 2nd ordered 2 pints of hand pulled and asked what pies they had. The woman (older than the students around her) went away and came back told them what was available and took their 2 pie order. Then she pulled the 2 pints. All this took over 5 minutes evidenced by the fact that my Mrs had time to go to the loo and was waiting for me when I got back!
There appeared to be plenty of Bar staff but little organisation.

A couple of friends turned up @ 14.25. He stood in one of the lines to be served. He was 9 back from the bar. It took over 10 minutes to get his 2 drinks. Same number of staff as earlier.

I therefore regret TigerDad that there is no apparent improvement despite all your efforts and meetings which are very much appreciated by us on here.
I have to say that unfortunately you are wasting your time - it has not been improved. We are in our 4th season in the CAT and I can't see it ever will be.

No one with the authority to sort this out once and for all can be bothered or is interested enough to do it.

[benn]

2pm final whistle, no problem getting served
walked round to the crumbie at 2.30pm in order to get drinks for the game. went to captains bar as the outside bar had a huge queue. inside were 3 very long lines of hot and thirsty fans (why don't they ever open the windows, i would tell you what the barman said in answer to that ? but fear i will get censored).
anyway 25 mins later we got served... in that time we could have drunk a pint and had another... must be losing sales due to the poor service. no evidence of pre pouring in the captains.

[Northenlad]

Second home game of the season and even the staff were complaining that there were not enough staff.

Upper CAT was embarrassing, queues were totally unacceptable and staff were clueless!

Quality of the beer however was acceptable!

Lindleys & Matthew Nicholson must surely be on a final written warning???????

[Bill W (2)]

It would seem to me that Lindleys, Matthew and Jason have still to get to grips with staffing logistics. Half an hour before KO there will be a rush on the bars. So catering staff (no longer preparing or serving food to hospitality clients) need to be redeployed. Maybe even management could participate? The Tesco's cry "all supervisors, managers and multiskills to checkout - assist the one in front" rings true! Might Peter (Tom and Wheeler) even pull the odd pint?

[Tiger_Dad]

I met up with Jason (Lindleys stadium manager) an hour before KO to have a walk round and have to say Lindleys have pretty much stuck to what they said they would do at the end of last season.

The new food outlets in the CAT operate well and the food tastes great - bigger hot dogs, fresh domino's and fried chicken... They've installed the four hot beverages kiosks, two on each floor.

It looks like we might have the Mark as a permanent fixture to the ABC public bar which continues to operate smoothly. The hog roast was a big hit and very delicious. The curry and rice are consistently good but the portions are huge.

The Captains did struggle and not sure why the speed bar wasn't in operation as this really helps reduce the queues. I spoke to a number of people after they had been served who all said they have waited 20 mins+ which at 2.30 is not acceptable.

Good to see back the speed bar at the side of the Goldsmiths but I can't comment on the service of the various bars. Anyone?

There is a definite improvement in the consistency and quality of the food products and prices are there or thereabouts and certainly inline with other stadia.

I agree there are some staffing issues and other areas that need improving but we'll keep at it and try to improve.

[Northenlad]

Nick, your commitment to this is unquestionable and very much appreciated.

Unfortunately, public perception appears to be that Matthew, Jason and Lindleys are not even half as committed! Perception is reality to use a cliché. Especially as they are now into their 3rd season and hare still falling short of an acceptable mark.

Total match day experience, not just pitch performance, is what we should be providing as a club and we are not. We have failed to provide this for two seasons now. Let's hope Lindleys are not allowed to detract from the match day experience for an entire third season.

[Harp_s45]

I have give myself a week to think about the experience from the Worc game as after attempting to get a beer from the captains bar I was a little annoyed and was set to properly rant on here about the experience,a week on (nearly) Im only going to slightly rant .

As the two posts above show, the catering has moved along at tigers and has made some great leaps forward (and big thanks to those who have worked hard to get things changed , the progress in the last two yrs has been V inpressive!), but some people still have a poor perception of our catering. I think the perception will change when ALL areas run at a basic level of acceptable service. At the moment the consistency of service across the areas is not good.

The Captains bar on Saturday was far from acceptable and an example of how a new visitor to the ground could get a very bad opinion of the catering services(well...refreshments). We waited the entire length of the half time stood two people back from the till while the bar staff looked around at each other, to solve what seemed to be a decision about who was operating the till !! I don't mind waiting and did so patiently (well for 5 - 6 mins before the few in the considerable que got a little annoyed!)

The Staff problem seemed to be resolved just before the kick for the start of the second half and then we managed to get a beer or two and a fruit based drink for the lady .... !!

This plus staff not having a clue what they were doing behind the bar didn't provide us with the best experience , and one that was very different to how we were treated in the CAT and ABC bar.

If anyone has the chance to discuss this with tigers catering I would like to know why there seemed to be a complete lack of organisation (generally in he captains bar) or willingness to solve the problem amongst the 4 people stood around behind the bar.