The Leeds branch of a food chain popular among celebrities hasn't been doing so well with customers recently.
Archie's in Trinity Leeds, which serves American fare such as burger, tater tots and milkshakes has received a spate of one-star reviews on TripAdvisor as customers criticise the service and wait times.
It's languishing around a 1.5 star rating on TripAdvisor right now, but on Google reviews the branch has received a much kinder average star rating of 3.1 out of five.
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To find out what the Leeds branch of Archie's is really like, I headed over there on a Friday lunchtime to try the food.
Just to recap - the main criticisms levelled at the Leeds branch of Archie's were 'rude staff', wait times hitting past 45 minutes and some complaints about not thinking the food was up to scratch for the prices.
Archie's has said it will be scrutinising the branch to bring it up to standard, and has also recently hired a new manager,
It was fairly busy in Trinity Kitchen, where Archie's is based, when I arrived, but the queue at Archie's wasn't huge, so I didn't expect to have to wait too long.
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I ordered to takeaway - and chose to try the peri chicken burger - which is chicken glazed with peri sauce, mayo and lettuce. I wanted to try the cheesy Cheetos tater tots, but they were out of Cheetos, so I ordered just the cheesy version instead, which also comes with jalapenos.
And finally, as several of the reviews mentioned milkshakes, I ordered one of the 'celeb shakes'. I chose the Mayweather, a milkshake designed by Floyd Mayweather that contains gold bar, toffee sauce, red sherbet and whipped cream.
Other celebs who have designed milkshakes for the chain include Rita Ora, Nas, and Kevin Hart.
The prices weren't too bad, in my opinion - I've paid a lot more for a burger than £5.99 (sadly). I was a bit scandalised to drop £5.99 on a regular milkshake though.
So let's first talk about waiting times. As previously mentioned, several disgruntled customers said they'd spent a long time waiting for food, with one reviewer saying they'd waited 25 minutes for milkshakes and 50 minutes for food.
Now, there's no way to know how busy it was when this person went - I waited six minutes for the burger and a further three to four minutes for the milkshake. So about 10 minutes in all.
So in my experience, the waiting times were absolutely fine.
In in addition - the staff members I interacted with were perfectly polite. They took my order, informed me there was no Cheetos, and wished me a nice day as I left. So I also can't back accusations the staff were 'rude' in any way.
And all that leaves us with is the food - really, the most important thing.
Now, as is probably fairly commonplace for most people in the UK, I haven't tried tater tots before - so I've no baseline to compare the Archie's tater tots to.
The little potato balls had a surprisingly soft outside where I'd expected (and hoped) they would be crispier. The flavour coating was good though, and them being bite sized makes it very easy to just keep knocking them back.
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I had no love for the American cheese sauce, though I suspect this is more of a personal preference, and for me, I'd order the Archie's tots instead if I was ever going to go again.
The milkshake was a lot.
Floyd Mayweather has put a lot into that milkshake, and it's incredibly sweet. I haven't had a Gold bar since I was at school, and am of the opinion it's one of the poorer chocolate bars, and that makes up most of the flavour here surrounded by toffee sauce and cream.
But I have to say, when I started it I was put off by the sweetness, but after a while I relaxed into it and it was actually... okay? I liked the cream a lot. Would I order it again? No. But if you've got a sweet tooth and have a particular nostalgia for Gold bars look no further.
However the burger, was actually just plain good from the off. The peri sauce had a nice spicy kick that contrasted with the mayo and just worked out as a really solid, simple burger.
I confess American cuisine like this isn't something I'm a massive fan of so I'm definitely not the target audience here - but if you like burgers, milkshakes, and fries, Archie's in Trinity Leeds is a perfectly passable place to grab a bite.
The bill breakdown
- Peri chicken burger: £5.99
- Cheesy tots: £3.99
- The Mayweather (regular): £5.99
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