Where are the Little Chefs going?

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RichardA626
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by RichardA626 »

Glenn A wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if Little Chef dies off totally by the end of the decade. Reading about them online, their so called Olympic Breakfast costs £ 7.99, with coffee and tea at £2.50, the portions are mean and of poor quality and the service is often terrible. In Morrisons, you can get the same breakfast for £ 4.50, and even if you have to pay for a drink, it would still be about £ 4 cheaper than Little Chef, although I'm sure tea and coffee are sometimes free with Morrisons. Also from what I read, the hygiene is terrible in some with a rat being spotted in the one in Halkyn.
When I've stayed at a travel inn & the like I've often gone to the nearest supermarket for breakfast if it wasn't included in the price, as the larger out of town ones tend to have a cafe.
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by SteveA30 »

They are nowhere near as bad as being painted, at least not in the south. Clean, friendly and warm. Individual grumpy staff members can bring a place down but, that applies to any café or shop. The main breakfasts are expensive, up there with MSA's but, cheaper alternatives are available, which are the ones I choose.
Not sure if putting part of the menu contravenes any rules. I'll know if it is deleted.
It shows the cheaper options, below the white box. £3.99 and £4.99 seems good to me. I have the Brealfast Wrap regularly. All the breakfast items, wrapped up.

I know Weatherspoons do everything much cheaper and, I use them as well but, you generally can't park right outside or, free of charge.
All that said, I can still see LC disappearing eventually. Only families, the elderly and some business people use them. Younger people avoid them like the plague, which suits me just fine.
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ais523
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by ais523 »

My experience with Little Chefs has been that they've been excessively expensive (maybe charging twice what I'd expect for the same goods further from a road) but otherwise reasonable; the food was fine when I ate there, and the price was really the only thing I had to complain about.

That said, I haven't been to many.
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by Fenlander »

I occasionally 'use' the LC off the A17/A16 roundabout south of Boston, I say 'use' because all I do is use the wifi and toilets when I'm buying food from the Burger King that's in the same building. If you enter the front door you turn right for BK or left for LC, the only toilets being at the bottom end of the LC so if you're sat in the LC eating there's a steady stream of people walking through the restaurant solely to use the toilets.
The typical LC customer seems to be elderly, it's almost as if there's some kind of age discrimination as you enter the building - max age for BK about the same as min age for LC.
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Brenley Corner
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by Brenley Corner »

As far as I am concerned Little Chefs time has come and gone and any remains of the chain are living on borrowed time. These days pubs, supermarket cafes, coffee chains, & fast food chains can do it all better, quicker, and cheaper. When I was travelling ten years ago for work, my boss would always carry a good pub guide in the car and we found some great pubs for lunch not far off motorway junctions that were simply much better than any MSA or Little Chef - and no more expensive.

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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by Boring82 »

SteveA30 wrote:They are nowhere near as bad as being painted, at least not in the south. Clean, friendly and warm.
That is certainly not my experience of the southern LCs, I stopped at the Barton Stacey one recently having not been in a number of years (we used to stop on the way to and from my aunt and uncles twice a year). The food was appalling, reminded me of a cheap greasy spoon with cheap sausages, rubbery bacon, horrible scrambled eggs (they couldn't do fried eggs, so presume they only had powdered eggs left) and beans with no sauce. The tea was horrible, cheap tasting and certainly not worth £2.49 and the coffee was cold, the manager tried to just re heat the coffee in the microwave, when a fresh mug was provided it was rancid, tasted like very cheap instant coffee, again not worth the £2.59.

I used to love going to Little Chef, but alas no more, if I need to stop for breakfast I will find somewhere else that serves breakfast instead, if that is an MSA then so be it, they provide better fare than LC does.
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roadtester
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by roadtester »

I'm always a bit torn on the subject of Little Chef.

Objectively speaking they are usually a bit rubbish but I'd still regret their passing if they disappeared completely as this would remove a degree of choice and variety from our roadscape and they're also a bit of a reminder of a slightly less homogenised world where British rather than American brands were seen more.

I suppose Little Chef is one of those things like Rover, Woolies and The Independent - there's always a bit of a pang when they disappear, but the harsh truth is that these supposed institutions have fewer and fewer people who are actually prepared to support them financially.
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by Fenlander »

roadtester wrote:I suppose Little Chef is one of those things like Rover, Woolies and The Independent - there's always a bit of a pang when they disappear, but the harsh truth is that these supposed institutions have fewer and fewer people who are actually prepared to support them financially.
I'd add Wimpy to that list, after only ever heard of them in the historical context we had one open in town a few years back, something happened over the franchise and it closed after a couple of years but I did make an effort to use it a few times whilst it was open.
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by roadtester »

Fenlander wrote:
roadtester wrote:I suppose Little Chef is one of those things like Rover, Woolies and The Independent - there's always a bit of a pang when they disappear, but the harsh truth is that these supposed institutions have fewer and fewer people who are actually prepared to support them financially.
I'd add Wimpy to that list, after only ever heard of them in the historical context we had one open in town a few years back, something happened over the franchise and it closed after a couple of years but I did make an effort to use it a few times whilst it was open.
They were still going in King's Lynn the last time I checked, and they were also in Newmarket but I think that one has now turned into something else.

Wimpy has a complicated history - I think I'm right in saying that the South African bit became successful and severed its links with the UK parent and then came back in and the UK bit is now subordinate to the SA bit, or something like that anyway!
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by Ritchie333 »

There's a Wimpy in Tufton Street, Ashford and one in High Street, Colchester. I've been in both - they are refreshingly different if you can convince your kids who HAVE to go into MacDonalds / KFC / Burger King to try something else.
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by Boring82 »

Fenlander wrote:
roadtester wrote:I suppose Little Chef is one of those things like Rover, Woolies and The Independent - there's always a bit of a pang when they disappear, but the harsh truth is that these supposed institutions have fewer and fewer people who are actually prepared to support them financially.
I'd add Wimpy to that list, after only ever heard of them in the historical context we had one open in town a few years back, something happened over the franchise and it closed after a couple of years but I did make an effort to use it a few times whilst it was open.
The one in Basingstoke is going strong.

However, that is another place that has lost its market, it used to be a fairly fast café, but not quite fast food, serving slightly better quality food than a greasy spoon but at the same prices. The one in Basingstoke serves burgers at a higher price than the two Weatherspoons but they are of a lower quality. Its only saving grace is the milkshakes, but even they are at the same price point as the Shakeaway and nowhere near as good.

One of the big killers for these places is to me the diversifying of pubs, the pubs that have survived have had to change and do different things, either open for breakfast, provide better quality of food for lower prices, provide tea and coffee and children's drinks or all of the above.

I went up to Grimsby in April to see my Aunt and Uncle, we had to be there early and my brother was driving, it was a friend of mine's wedding the day before so I was sleeping off my hangover in the back when we stopped at a five bedroom inn about 5-10 minutes off the A34 south of Oxford. They opened for breakfast at 7 in the morning and did a full English for about £7 or £8, including tea or coffee and toast. The food was fantastic and the service was superb, they had no issue with the child that was with us and we were served within about 15 minutes and back on the road after about a total of 50 minutes. (My brother had been there on business and said it was very good). On the way back the next day we stopped with my parents to show them, we arrived at 7 on the Sunday evening and had a light evening meal, the staff couldn't do enough for us!
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by frediculous_biggs »

There's a Wimpy in Strood. One of the little games we play on the coach back from away games is to guess how many people are in Wimpy. It's never been more than 5 (mind you, this is at about 10pm on a Saturday).
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by RichardA626 »

I went to the Wimpy in Marlow a few years ago with my old girlfriend.

I remember a lot of them became Burger Kings in the late 1980s.

There's one in Huddersfield where I sometimes meet up with my current girlfriend but she can't get her wheelchair inside.
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by roadtester »

RichardA626 wrote:I remember a lot of them became Burger Kings in the late 1980s.
If I remember correctly, what happened was this.

Some of the Wimpy outlets had been converted to McDonalds style fast-food counter service without plates, knives and forks and so on. Those went to Burger King. The older ones, which still had table service, carried on as Wimpy.

Confusingly, until fairly recently there was a Wimpy at Strensham southbound which was a fast-food style outlet rather than table service.
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by RichardA626 »

roadtester wrote:
RichardA626 wrote:I remember a lot of them became Burger Kings in the late 1980s.
If I remember correctly, what happened was this.

Some of the Wimpy outlets had been converted to McDonalds style fast-food counter service without plates, knives and forks and so on. Those went to Burger King. The older ones, which still had table service, carried on as Wimpy.

Confusingly, until fairly recently there was a Wimpy at Strensham southbound which was a fast-food style outlet rather than table service.
Right, I can't remember many around after the early 1990s, I was surprised to see one in Northamptonshire in 1998, which I guess was a table service one.
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by SteveA30 »

There were roadside Wimpy's until 1980. The few I can think of are A31 St Leonards, which became a HE, then a windows showroom (I think). A30 Rockbeare, which became Noshers Diner until 1999, when it was bypassed. Some on the A1, although I can't recall locations.
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by RichardA626 »

SteveA30 wrote:There were roadside Wimpy's until 1980. The few I can think of are A31 St Leonards, which became a HE, then a windows showroom (I think). A30 Rockbeare, which became Noshers Diner until 1999, when it was bypassed. Some on the A1, although I can't recall locations.
I remember at one time the only Wimpys I saw were at motorway services, which I presume were on a franchise.
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by trickstat »

There is still a Wimpy in Peterborough city centre.
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by DavidB »

There's also a Wimpy at Beachlands on Hayling Island but I prefer to eat at the local chippy which does really good haddock. :D

Meanwhile this morning, BBC Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine has been tweeting about Wimpys, he asked if it was true that Huddersfield had the last one? He was duly corrected by his followers:

https://twitter.com/theJeremyVine/statu ... 1417997314
https://twitter.com/theJeremyVine/statu ... 8253677569
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Re: Where are the Little Chefs going?

Post by roadtester »

DavidB wrote:There's also a Wimpy at Beachlands on Hayling Island but I prefer to eat at the local chippy which does really good haddock. :D

Meanwhile this morning, BBC Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine has been tweeting about Wimpys, he asked if it was true that Huddersfield had the last one? He was duly corrected by his followers:

https://twitter.com/theJeremyVine/statu ... 1417997314
https://twitter.com/theJeremyVine/statu ... 8253677569
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