Embarrassing restaurants

[Simon Majumdar]

And liking the Little Chef All Day Breakfast makes you the perfect choice for what exactly, apart from a stomach pump and a handful of anti-psychotics?

Methinks the critic doth preotest too much. Are you fighting for your own honour or that of the rag. In both cases a lost cause, no?

Jay, sweetie, you are using the wrong analogy.

The equivalent would be to say that although I am paid to produce wonderful books, I have a penchant for really crappy novels, badly printed and bound and fit only for air travel.

Which as it happens, I do.

I think most people are being very unfair to The Little Chef All Day Breakfast. Such uniform egg frying must take years of training as a short order cook, surely?

S

[Charlene Leonard]

I think most people are being very unfair to The Little Chef All Day Breakfast.  Such uniform egg frying must take years of training as a short order cook, surely?

ok, take us through what it consists of..

[jayrayner]

Methinks the critic doth preotest too much.  Are you fighting for your own honour or that of the rag.  

Er, no. Im just looking for a displacement activty from what I should be doing which is working up a proposal for a book which will drive you nuts if it's ever published.

BTW - what's an analogy?

[Simon Majumdar]

I think most people are being very unfair to The Little Chef All Day Breakfast.  Such uniform egg frying must take years of training as a short order cook, surely?

ok, take us through what it consists of..

Here you go

I am a particular fan of The Olympian

S

http://www.little-chef.co.uk/

[Simon Majumdar]

Er, no. Im just looking for a displacement activty from what I should be doing which is working up a proposal for a book which will drive you nuts if it's ever published.

[Charlene Leonard]

actually that doesn't look half bad but those eggs do look a bit obscene

P.S what a fantastic website!

[Simon Majumdar]

actually that doesn't look half bad but those eggs do look a bit obscene

P.S what a fantastic website!

NEVER EVER DOUBT A MAJUMDAR BROTHER AGAIN

[Adam Balic]

Nice site, I really like the pretty lady saying "Little Chef satisfies me". Really now, isn't that trying a little to hard to be Gen-X, groovy, self -aware and cynical? Actually, why does such a pedestrian product/service have such a great web site?

[Miss J]

Nice site, I really like the pretty lady saying "Little Chef satisfies me". Really now, isn't that trying a little to hard to be Gen-X, groovy, self -aware and cynical? Actually, why does such a pedestrian product/service have such a great web site?

They have a good agency?

[Adam Balic]

Duh, I get that bit, what I am asking is

, if they can get people to produce this good site for the, why can't they improve the standard level of the product they are selling, which is what they are in the business of doing. It's all very similar to the Labour party if you ask me.

[Simon Majumdar]

Actually Adam

They have been working very hard at that and the Little Chef of now is very different from the Little Chef of five years ago ( thank god )

They have tied up some brand led partnerships and revamped the menu quite considerably

It is still fairly standard stuff ( although I am not entirely sure it is legal to have something called a "beef Clanger" on the the menu ) but by comaprison to service station food, it is fresh and well prepared.

It is a notch above the same offered in the US where Arbys, Dennys etc have a lot to learn

Where it really suffers is from its brand image and I guess this is where its revamp has originated. It is actually offering a not bad product to an audience that has memories of the grim food of their childhood. It is also now part of a bigger group, so I expect they have a much bigger marketing budget

unlike the Labour party, I suspect they wont be bankrupt any time soon

S

[peterpumkino]

I just love the 'greay spoons' in the US, they're really fantastic but, alas, they're becoming a dying breed as Americans prefer Denny's, IHOP's et al as they are sooooooo much cleaner and sterile. Shame.

[AdamLawrence]

It is still fairly standard stuff ( although I am not entirely sure it is legal to have something called a "beef Clanger" on the the menu )

That's appalling. Do they have Soup Dragon and Iron Chicken as well? Besides, as any Peter Firmin/Oliver Postgate buff will tell you, the Clangers were knitted from wool.

Adam

[Gary Marshall]

whatever happened to the recent little chef plan to turn themselves into 'french bistros' in the evening?

anyone going to admit to trying that?!

[Kikujiro]

Here you go

I am a particular fan of The Olympian

S

http://www.little-chef.co.uk/

That is one Flash-heavy website. (The lady also says 'Guess what I had at Little Chef last night,' and 'Fancy a bit on the side?') And one huge menu.

For those who don't have the time, highlights included Brie and Redcurrant Tart ("You simply have to taste this to appreciate it"); Smothered Chicken; 7th Heaven Cheeseburger (served with either one pineapple ring or two onion rings); scampi 'complimented by garden peas' ('Those are lovely golden breadcrumbs you're wearing'?) and ... oh, damn, it actually looks boringly reasonable and there isn't much to snigger at. No prices, though: do they vary regionally or something?

I remember the toasted teacakes from way back.

Nobody has yet mentioned the Fascinating Aïda song.

Little Chef, I hear you calling;

your free map is in ma car.

Cheery waitresses, in their nice blue dresses,

and your table mats show where ye are.

Oh dear. Should I crawl under a rock right now?

[circeplum]

They have been working very hard at that and the Little Chef of now is very different from the Little Chef of five years ago ( thank god )

do they still have the logo which looked - with the finger pointing down the throat - more like the little bulimic?

[Andy Lynes]

Speaking of Harvester, is Andy Lynes on holiday?

Yes I was, but now I'm back.

My last experience at our local Harvester (The Black Lion in Patcham), was truely dreadful and I will not be returning anytime soon.

I had a wonderful KFC takeaway in Orlando - an 8 piece meal with 4 "biscuits" (the Southern kind, very similar to scones really, but with a lighter more open texture), mashed potatos, gravy and potato wedges. The chicken was generous in size, nicely cooked, still juicy and the coating was nicely spicey without tasting too processed. In short, utterly different and infinately better (and much cheaper) than the horrible muck they serve up in the UK. Why, I can't help but ask myself, do they think we in Britian should put up with an inferior product when they can obviously do so much better? It really pees me off.