Where are the Little Chefs going?

[Bryn666]

The LC at Tabley presumably isn't going to survive the A556 bypass. It'll be in a cul-de-sac.

[James Heaton]

The new LC leaflet, shows a reduction of 16 in the list, compared with the previous list, from 2012.
Gone are Alcester,Balhaldie North, Barnsdale Bar both sides, Chicklade, Dreghorn, Harlow, Kinmel Park West, Lamberhurst, Raglan, both sides, Royston, Saughall, Sutton Scotney, both sides and, A34 Weston on the Green south. North survives.

Scotland is down to 1 LC, at Balhaldie South, which seems to do better than North.

A new tie-up is with Subway, who are now present in the LC's at Bere Regis, Markham Moor, and Talke so far.

Still in decline though, 74 remaining. In 1974, there were 126.

Raglan is closed and demolished; Euro Garages have bought the site and are redeveloping. So likely to be filling station, Spar minimarket, coffee shop and hot food site.

James

[Benny]

What opened my eyes was when I watched the show where Heston Blumental was drafted in, what we saw shocked me. Dedicated staff tired of working for a complete shower and leaving the business, a director who didn't seem to know the first thing about food and was blatantly 'in it for the money'. Heston came up with some excellent ideas which were openly rubbished by the Director but later stolen for his new menu!

[jedikiah]

... and later dumped saying they needed to get down to earth, which meant going back to the old menu and from the reviews of Popham, old ways.

[B1040]

They're too slow. Even a cup of coffee takes an age to appear.
Last time we stopped for a meal the food was as OK as expected, but the hour's wait was unacceptable. Insufficient staff, customers voting with their feet.
Irony was that Mrs 1040 told me not to pull off and find a pub because it was Sunday and the wait might be a long time.

[Piatkow]

I agree, the main reason that I avoid them is the speed, or rather lack of speed, of service.

[SteveA30]

They ironically, can't cope with being busy. When quiet, service is fast and friendly. More staff needed really, if there are enough customers, who may be put off calling in by slow service, due to lack of staff...

Still, LC don't have a monopoly on slowness. If the burger joints are busy, the service there can be slow, when queues are too long.

Self service is the most efficient serving method, from the customers viewpoint.

[B1040]

They ironically, can't cope with being busy. When quiet, service is fast and friendly.

Never found that. Sat in an empty restaurant where tables have abandoned cups and mysterious pools of brown liquid, and the staff are still too busy to serve you.

Also had to deal with grumpy daughter because no staff to be found in an empty restaurant to serve her with a pancake, by the time someone appeared we were so cheesed off we just wanted to pay and go. (Got a voucher out of head office for that one).

[Johnathan404]

I've been to quite a few Little Chefs in the past couple of years and the only place I remember having a problem with service was Popham. Most of the time I have been the only customer and found the service unfaultable.

[PeterA5145]

Most of the time I have been the only customer

Surely that says something to you...

[Johnathan404]

Yes. That my experience contradicts that of the post directly above me!

I wouldn't recommend the majority of them as commercial ventures.

[chris486]

It needn't be like this - all crappy and slow - the former site on the A595 heading out of Carlisle is now a fish and chip restaurant and it is always very busy with fast service. Very highly recommended too.

[Durham1950]

Returning from Cornwall to Hampshire yesterday I needed to find somewhere to break the journey around noon. Unfortunately the first place I found as 12:30 was the Little Chef at Bere Regis.

Service was very slow - took us almost an hour for a light bite.

My biggest gripe though is the car park. There were four marked disabled bays but these were all normal (or narrower) car sized, one was adjacent to a hedge so not possible to exit the car on that side even for an able bodied person. Without additional width it was imposssible for my handicapped pasenger to exit the car at all. Is there not some standard that disabled spaces need to have hatched areas between them to allow doors to be opened wide?

[shampooefficient]

Returning from Cornwall to Hampshire yesterday I needed to find somewhere to break the journey around noon. Unfortunately the first place I found as 12:30 was the Little Chef at Bere Regis.

Service was very slow - took us almost an hour for a light bite.

My biggest gripe though is the car park. There were four marked disabled bays but these were all normal (or narrower) car sized, one was adjacent to a hedge so not possible to exit the car on that side even for an able bodied person. Without additional width it was imposssible for my handicapped pasenger to exit the car at all. Is there not some standard that disabled spaces need to have hatched areas between them to allow doors to be opened wide?

To be fair, most LCs were designed and built when most disabled drivers had an Invacar...

[M19]

Returning from Cornwall to Hampshire yesterday I needed to find somewhere to break the journey around noon. Unfortunately the first place I found as 12:30 was the Little Chef at Bere Regis.

Service was very slow - took us almost an hour for a light bite.

My biggest gripe though is the car park. There were four marked disabled bays but these were all normal (or narrower) car sized, one was adjacent to a hedge so not possible to exit the car on that side even for an able bodied person. Without additional width it was imposssible for my handicapped pasenger to exit the car at all. Is there not some standard that disabled spaces need to have hatched areas between them to allow doors to be opened wide?

To be fair, most LCs were designed and built when most disabled drivers had an Invacar...

Yes but so are a lot of places with parking areas that have since been updated to provide full size disabled parking with the necessary hatched door zones.

Disabled parking or not, is it not beyond the wit of anyone to provide a door zone when a parking space is immediately next to a hedge, as the growth of the hedge usually renders the space too narrow, Businesses pay rates for the number of spaces they provide so why sterilise a space if it cannot be parked in?

[A5104]

Visited my first one for ages last week when passing through Talke on the A34 as the M6 was crawling. Service was as slow as the motorway, it was 12 noon with three other tables occupied but only one person serving. The Subway concession was doing a much better trade, though queues were forming there too by the time we left.

Nice to see some old classics back on the menu, but I'm not sure Chicken Tikka Masala really was a "1958 favourite"!

[Templehill4]

The one on the A69 near Hexham is still open. Enjoyed a nice, but very ambitiously priced breakfast there a month or two.

[Comstock]

The Barton under Needwood little chef on the Northbound A38 is now an indian restuarant. The one on the soundbound is going to be a kitchen showroom (?)

Both Travellodges are open still and aparently don't do too badly all told.

[shampooefficient]

The ex-LC on the A19, that became Mama Bs diner, is closed again. Have also noticed two have become adult stores, much to the entertainment of my missus, especially seeing my mums face as we pointed them out...

[Fenlander]

Put a, err, rabbit in your tank.