Review for Friends Restaurant – Candolim Goa

Seeing the name Friend’s it automatically made me think of the old sitcom, Cheers.  ‘The place where everyone knows your name.’  

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

For a Tuesday night the place was certainly busy, thankfully our friends had arrived before us and grabbed a table.

STAFF

 We had numerous staff serving us. One guy who we never had a chance to know his name seemed pleasant, others just seemed to go through the routine of serving us without any passion for their job least of all customer service.  

SERVICE

The staff seemed very stretched, which I could not pinpoint down to either, too many guests or to the fact they had not been allocated set tables to serve. Consequently, they seemed to run around like headless chickens. Finally locating a waiter we inquired if we could order food, he obliged asking what we wanted, only to finish ordering he dashed off and came back with a notepad asking to repeat the order.  After waiting just short of an hour and seeing a table that came in after we ordered had food, I went to what I presumed was the owner and ask where our food was. With no word of apology he screamed to a waiter, and went back to his bills.  15 minutes later our food arrived.

HYGIENE

The restaurant was clean, so too were the toilets.

FOOD

Fish Chips and Mushy Peas Rupees 350/£4.08/€4.79/₽305.64/$5.14

An acceptable fish steak, chips and mushy peas.

Kingfish with garlic sauce with rice or chips and salad Rupees 350/£4.08/€4.79/₽305.64/$5.14

The fish was nice and moist, not a bid sized fillet and the sauce was good.

Tuna fish with Goan sauce with rice or chips and salad Rupees 350/£4.08/€4.79/₽305.64/$5.14

Sadly this was the worst meal out of the three. The tuna was well overcooked to the point of cremated. As for the Goan sauce, there was none.  The rice I have to say on the kingfish and the tuna was cooked to perfection. Please do not get me started on both the kingfish and tuna’s side salad. That was just an insult.

THE SCORES:

FIRST IMPRESSIONS 4/5

AMBIENCE 3/5

STAFF 2/5

SERVICE 2/5

HYGIENE 4/5

FOOD 2.5/5

OVERALL

 

 

 

2.25 Red Hot chillies 

 

WOULD I GO AGAIN?

Sadly to say no not for a meal. However a great place for a drink and meeting friends.  After my visit was Friend’s the place where everyone knows your name? Maybe some customers may know your name, but I doubt very much the staff would, and the owners? I got the impression they couldn’t care less.