Bennigan's Restaurant Review: Food was Good as Always, Service was Below Average

My wife and I dined at our local Bennigan's on a recent Saturday night during the holiday season with our one year old son. We don't visit this restaurant as often as others but do go every two to three months. We have really never had any complaints about the food or service in the past. This time though I guess we should have been a little worried as we were seated.

There was a 30 minute wait when we arrived around 6:30 on a Saturday night which isn't unusual and is better than many local restaurants. We were confused though as we were seated because there were plenty of open tables around us but a lot of people were being told it would be a 45 minute wait when we were seated. As we were seated we heard the table of five next to us sounding very annoyed. We had been there close to ten minutes when our waitress came to their table and apologized and commented about some type of bill adjustment, she then told us she would be right with us.

I will say that when she came to our table she did offer to take our drink and food order. We did not order an appetizer as we figured the less we ordered the quicker we'd get it. I wanted to try the new Guiness Grill entrees they have and had the Guiness glazed shrimp and chicken while my wife chose the meatloaf off the normal menu. Unfortunately despite not ordering an appetizer it took close to 30 minutes to get our entrees. The food was very good though, which made up for the wait a little bit. My wife has ordered the meatloaf there before and always likes it she says they sort of grill it after cooking it so it's crispier than some places which is something she said is a nice touch. I thought the shrimp and chicken were both very good with the Guiness glaze and dipping sauce being similar to TGIF's but a little sweeter. Again though we had service problems, my wife's soda glass was empty for almost ten minutes before the waitress finally noticed. Finally, it took an extended period of time before our check was brought to us when we were done eating.