Did anyone ever like eating at Little Chef?

[PacificOcean]

It is a bit of a shame the only option now is a shite burger place.

How is a burger place any worse than the true awfulness that is the overpriced Little Chef?

I ate in one once and I really haven't tasted worse food anywhere in my life(including dodgy places in Thailand) and they had the cheek to charge a fortune for it.

 

[Onket]

If I'm going to eat shite food I'll have an overpriced gammon steak with pineapple on top that'll fill me up rather than an overpriced whopper or whatever that leaves me just as hungry half an hour later.

 

[PacificOcean]

If I'm going to eat shite food I'll have an overpriced gammon steak with pineapple on top that'll fill me up rather than an overpriced whopper or whatever that leaves me just as hungry half an hour later.

Try a Burger King XL Double Whopper with Cheese and Bacon with supersize fries and you won't feel hungry for the rest of the week

 

[Onket]

Ha! You're probably right there!

 

[cyberfairy]

I am suprised tbh they ever got in such financial straits. They relied on captive customers, many on expenses and many forced to pay as screaming kids etc and no-where else to go. They always seemed busy and were damn over priced.

 

[hendo]

For a long time its been possible to see the writing on the wall for these places just by driving up the A1, or any other big long A road; the sites for them have been left vacant as they and the rest of the plasticky fast eating crew gradually get shut down.

They're part of the pattern of Britain being beastly to its drivers, which isn't repeated anywhere else in the developed world. I think they're a victim of being a chain, underpaying the staff who then demotivate, and probably the fact that Brits hate tipping. That stops us from having the lovely collection of tasty diners with cheerful service that the US can boast, even in the most out of the way places.

Still, when I was driving hundreds of miles a week for a living and on expenses they were a bit of a god send. I remember one frozen Sunday morning back in the 80's finding one in the outback in Bedfordshire, and having a lovely breakfast looking out at the mists in the fields. And some years ago I nearly got snowed in in Derbyshire and ended up having pancakes in a Little Chef on the A6, which was comforting to say the least. The staff always seemed to be nice and you could see the food being cooked. It was pretty miserable driving all the time, and I used to look forward to a Little Chef someone else was paying for.

The press are saying Little Chef has fallen victim to trends in healthy eating, like McD's which is also showing a decline in profitability. The product is wrong; people want better value for money, and more and more they don't want to stop on the road; in those harshly lit places why would you? They're not open late either, as I understand, so you can't even break up with your girlfriend and go and sit in one.

Nostalgia aside, they're just a part of rip off Britain.

 

[Auberon]

or were.

 

[cyberfairy]

For a long time its been possible to see the writing on the wall for these places just by driving up the A1, or any other big long A road; the sites for them have been left vacant as they and the rest of the plasticky fast eating crew gradually get shut down.

They're part of the pattern of Britain being beastly to its drivers, which isn't repeated anywhere else in the developed world. I think they're a victim of being a chain, underpaying the staff who then demotivate, and probably the fact that Brits hate tipping. That stops us from having the lovely collection of tasty diners with cheerful service that the US can boast, even in the most out of the way places.

Still, when I was driving hundreds of miles a week for a living and on expenses they were a bit of a god send. I remember one frozen Sunday morning back in the 80's finding one in the outback in Bedfordshire, and having a lovely breakfast looking out at the mists in the fields. And some years ago I nearly got snowed in in Derbyshire and ended up having pancakes in a Little Chef on the A6, which was comforting to say the least. The staff always seemed to be nice and you could see the food being cooked. It was pretty miserable driving all the time, and I used to look forward to a Little Chef someone else was paying for.

The press are saying Little Chef has fallen victim to trends in healthy eating, like McD's which is also showing a decline in profitability. The product is wrong; people want better value for money, and more and more they don't want to stop on the road; in those harshly lit places why would you? They're not open late either, as I understand, so you can't even break up with your girlfriend and go and sit in one.

Nostalgia aside, they're just a part of rip off Britain.

I am suprised they went under. They had a captive audience of business men/women on expences or harassed families who had nowhere else to go unless they, like my family had stale sandwiches in clingfilm. They charged through the nose for cheap pre-prepared produce and always seemed to be busy.
And have to admit, if i was starving at a motorway services, still feels somehow better 'value' to spend £5.99 on a crappy sit down meal than four quid for a burger and chips in a bag.
I'm not sure about the healthy eating thing though. Don't see many people enjoying a cous-cous and aubergine picnic by the side of the M4. I have been annoyed when desperate to find something healthy and non-fattening at a motorway services to find sweet fuck all but reckon people really into healthy eating would never have stopped at Little Chef to begin with and people who are trying to be healthy on a trip down the motorway, don't continue on a quest to find marinaded tofu but just probably think 'fuck it', bring on the jubilee pancakes!
And after a festival, their prices seem the most barganatious on earth!

 

[hendo]

Jeff Randall in the Telegraph hits it on the nail thus:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/...WAVCBQWIV0?xml=/opinion/2007/01/05/do0501.xml

 

[pembrokestephen]

It was rank, but I remember astounding my mum when I was 9 or so by munching my way through a full Little Chef mixed grill.

I'll miss 'em - not for the food, but as an institution.

My guess is that's probably what they've been trading on for a long time. That, and a near-monopoly position as the only non-fried-food roadside operation.

But they're shit. I've been about twice in my life - once about a year ago - and they epitomised everything about the cheapskate pennypinching lowest-common-denominator outfit that we've grown to know and hate.

 

[pembrokestephen]

You are obviously from a less thrifty family. I had to make do with cheese and pickle sandwiches, ready salted crisps and Trio biscuits eaten whilst illegally squashed with all my siblings for five hours in the back of a second hand Datsun.
My mum would still never dream of eating if not in the house or not prepared by her or anything costing over 99p

I realise that this is in danger of turning into a Secret Policeman's Ball sketch, but "thrift"? With crisps and shop-made biscuits?? With us, it was just the sandwiches, and orange squash made up in the bottle. Family of 6, crammed into a superannuated Triumph Herald (nice car, but not when it's packed to the gunwales with siblings on a 250 mile journey somewhere where you KNOW it's going to rain all week and the tent WILL leak). We knew better than to even suggest going to a roadside eatery, but one day my mum must have miscalculated - we were going with some other people, they were ahead of us, and pulled in to a Little Chef. So we had no option but to follow them - I'll swear my mum was making the sign of the cross as she entered the place, and the whole episode was conducted through gritted teeth. Probably cost more than the rest of the week's holiday, too. I had an omelette - to this day, I can remember it, as it was full of uncooked eggsnot, and I had to pick the bits of ham out of it. Blech.

And that would have been 30-odd years ago, so if they've deteriorated much since, god help us.

 

[cyberfairy]

I realise that this is in danger of turning into a Secret Policeman's Ball sketch, but "thrift"? With crisps and shop-made biscuits?? With us, it was just the sandwiches, and orange squash made up in the bottle. Family of 6, crammed into a superannuated Triumph Herald (nice car, but not when it's packed to the gunwales with siblings on a 250 mile journey somewhere where you KNOW it's going to rain all week and the tent WILL leak). We knew better than to even suggest going to a roadside eatery, but one day my mum must have miscalculated - we were going with some other people, they were ahead of us, and pulled in to a Little Chef. So we had no option but to follow them - I'll swear my mum was making the sign of the cross as she entered the place, and the whole episode was conducted through gritted teeth. Probably cost more than the rest of the week's holiday, too. I had an omelette - to this day, I can remember it, as it was full of uncooked eggsnot, and I had to pick the bits of ham out of it. Blech.

And that would have been 30-odd years ago, so if they've deteriorated much since, god help us.

Ewwww. The omellettes always seemed an unnatural hue of yellow.
I can beat you on the parental stinginess though at the riskof derailing my own thread! My mum and dad took me to Wetherspoons a few years ago. I requested the pasta and said I hated the spicey veggie burgers. But! The spicy veggieburgers were part of two meals for a fiver so had to have one whether i liked it or not. There was only three of us but mum was determined to have the two meals for a fiver deal so ordered four meals and one fish and chips was slung into her handbag 'for later'

 

[Onket]

I had both of the meals in the 2 for a fiver deal not too long back.

Bargain.

 

[cyberfairy]

Jeff Randall in the Telegraph hits it on the nail thus:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/...WAVCBQWIV0?xml=/opinion/2007/01/05/do0501.xml

i am somewhat terrified that I agree with something in the Telegraph!
Maybe they are just bitter cos Little Chef always gave away The Daily Mail

 

[pembrokestephen]

Ewwww. The omellettes always seemed an unnatural hue of yellow.
I can beat you on the parental stinginess though at the riskof derailing my own thread! My mum and dad took me to Wetherspoons a few years ago. I requested the pasta and said I hated the spicey veggie burgers. But! The spicy veggieburgers were part of two meals for a fiver so had to have one whether i liked it or not. There was only three of us but mum was determined to have the two meals for a fiver deal so ordered four meals and one fish and chips was slung into her handbag 'for later'

You win!

Blimey, and to think I've pretty much disowned my mother anyway...and she never did anything like that!

But yes, you're right about the omelettes - I do recall it as being almost primrose yellow. And disgusting.

 

[cyberfairy]

You win!

Blimey, and to think I've pretty much disowned my mother anyway...and she never did anything like that!

But yes, you're right about the omelettes - I do recall it as being almost primrose yellow. And disgusting.

I would say they were more violently yellowed hued. It was the damp texture that did it for me....mmmmm....damp texture......

 

[fractionMan]

Littlechef has been saved by some other company.

Boo.

 

[cyberfairy]

Littlechef has been saved by some other company.

Boo.

Think of the possibilities of them entering a brave new dawn. Microwaved paninis! Olives in the Jubilee pancakes! Wallpaper* magazine free for all customers!

 

[pembrokestephen]

I would say they were more violently yellowed hued. It was the damp texture that did it for me....mmmmm....damp texture......

Well, it was a long time ago! And I was somewhat distracted by large quantities of clearly uncooked egg albumen floating around inside *goes off to heave*

I would have thought, though, that without getting too crazy about it, the captive, often expenses-funded, road cafe market would be a licence to print money, without necessarily resorting to burger chains and fried everything...clearly there's some aspect to this business model I've missed