Big John's

Oh where do I begin with this place? They can't speak English properly and they don't understand it properly either. I'm asian so if I'm struggling to communicate with them then I can only wonder what the anglo-saxon customers (who make up the bulk of the demographic in the area) must go through. The food is often cold or stale. The staff don't seem to understand that some people might not actually want salt and vinegar in every item they order - even after you've told them not to put it in they still put it in. When you tell them about it, they get annoyed and chuck the affected food back into whatever section it came from and let it get mixed up with the rest - shocking. Burgers - these are pre cooked from Allah only knows when and will come with salad, mayo and some watery ketchup whether you want it or not. They slap it in front of you literally 30 seconds after you place the order which makes me wonder if they have these already boxed up with all the extras pre-added. Attitude of the staff is horrible. In addition to being unable to speak English, I suspect some of them are incapable of speaking coherently in any language; they seem to mostly grunt at you or just stare with slack jawed amazement when they discover that a customer is asian and has come in wanting to eat fish & chips without salt & vinegar. Oh and this one time, I had an arguement with one of the staff about a 'donner kebab'. I asked for a donner kebab an dwhat I got was a box with donner meat, salad and some nasty sauces. I asked the man why the stuff wasn't inside a pitta bread and he responded that this is actually how donner kebabs should be and that there is no bread... what an imbecile. The WORST thing though is that they have the potential to be so good. All it takes is some fine tuning and attitude adjustment plus some customer service training (plus English language skills) and they'd be fantastic. The branch up at Bordesley near the Blues ground is great; that is how they should all be and it proves that the company isn't bad; it's the illegal immigrants they've got working at the Shirley branch that are ruining it for everyone else. I give this place 1 out of 5, and only because it's Ramadan and I'm feeling generous. The Bordesley branch on the other hand would get 4 out of 5 from me.