Overloaded Restaurant - Revolution Liverpool

Whilst on holiday recently my wife and I visited Liverpool's Albert Dock area.  As lunch time approached we checked out the various eateries and selected the Revolution Bar which had a promising menu and being a Monday they were running an offer of half price on all food which was good (though to be fair some of the others offered similar offers so it was not unique)

Entering the bar it certainly seemed popular but not what I would call full and we had no problem finding a table.  Shortly after taking our seats we were approached by a waitress whose opening greeting was 'It is about a thirty minute wait for food, as we have the Monday offer on'.  This was not a promising start but we decided that that would be acceptable as we could have a drink and relax after much walking.  She took our drinks order and disappeared.

Foolishly we expected she would shortly return with the drinks and then take the food order - how wrong could we be!  After about half an hour we had still not received any drinks and there was a distinct absence of staff to assist us.

Given that we had been warned it was a thirty minute wait for food, and our order hadn't even been taken we decided we had had enough and went to find another bar to eat in.  As we were leaving we heard an American couple commenting as they were paying their bill that it had taken two and a half hours for them to get a 'quick' bite to eat.  Another table were also complaining that the thirty minute delay appeared to be somewhat under quoted.

I should have checked with Trip Advisor or other review sites before we went, as the reviews are somewhat mixed and it seems to be rated highly for drinks but somewhat lower for food.  In particular there are a number of people who commented on the wait for food and in some cases they had to send it back as it was cold or had some other problem.

Given that the next bar we went to also had a deal on for meals but was able to serve them in a reasonable timescale (and the food was good)  it is clear that it can be done.  Revolution needs to get it's act together and if the offer is to continue they should make sure they can cope with the increased custom. 

The availability of sites such as Trip Advisor (to which I have no connections) mean that where once poor service was reported by word of mouth, now it can spread much faster and wider.  In future I will check even for bars and restaurants - easy with modern smart phones - and not just for hotels and holiday destinations.

Lesson learned!