Jamie Oliver: Every picture tells a story

[Shearwater Missile]

Another thing is : Because we have decent meals at home and usually cooked and presented well, we expect the same when we go out. Sadly that is not the case or at least always the case. Many a time have we been out and said that we could have eaten better at home. We are not food snobs or anything like that. We just like a tasty meal that looks good and without being too expensive. In fact we gave up eating out in the evenings a long time ago. Instead we will have lunch out or just a snack and eat when we get home.

 

[Dave7]

Another thing is : Because we have decent meals at home and usually cooked and presented well, we expect the same when we go out. Sadly that is not the case or at least always the case. Many a time have we been out and said that we could have eaten better at home. We are not food snobs or anything like that. We just like a tasty meal that looks good and without being too expensive. In fact we gave up eating out in the evenings a long time ago. Instead we will have lunch out or just a snack and eat when we get home.

I agree with you there. I know someone who earns good money and likes to show off his expensive cars and hifi etc. He also like to tell people that they go to 'fine dining' restaurants and pays stupid money for chateau nuff de crap. So there are people who will do it.
If we eat out its normally late afternoon/very early evening and 2 for a tenner sounds good to us.

 

[Kempstonian]

I had fish & chips at Wetherspoons on Thursday. £5.99. It was very nice. I just want food, not 'two mouthfulls and its gone' fancy pants plate decoration.

btw I was only eating out because I met my sister in town. I eat at home and cook my own food most of the time, or indulge in a very occasional takeaway.

 

[mjr]

So what it boils down to then is that they don`t need a chef once up and running, just someone who knows how to use a microwave. There can`t be many people who don`t !

Or rather they do need a chef but don't have one (or don't have enough to serve freshly-cooked food to enough seats?) and so they lose their trade back to local independents who do. I mean, The Waffle House (which is not like the US chain!) ain't nouvelle cuisine, but I'm pretty sure they're making most of their own sauces and salads there, as well as pouring the batter into the rather impressive line of irons.

 

[mjr]

I had fish & chips at Wetherspoons on Thursday. £5.99. It was very nice. I just want food, not 'two mouthfulls and its gone' fancy pants plate decoration.

Whereas I'll pay a bit more for fresh food that doesn't come in premade on a chilled truck to be nuked or flashed. You can barely get fish and chips for that takeaway from a chip shop doing a decent volume of turnover with that as its main dish, so surely you must know some corners are being cut for Mr Brexit to serve it eat-in as a minor menu item for that price?

 

[Kempstonian]

Whereas I'll pay a bit more for fresh food that doesn't come in premade on a chilled truck to be nuked or flashed. You can barely get fish and chips for that takeaway from a chip shop doing a decent volume of turnover with that as its main dish, so surely you must know some corners are being cut for Mr Brexit to serve it eat-in as a minor menu item for that price?

Well to be honest that doesn't bother me. It was a one off meal. As I said, I normally buy and cook my own food.

 

[PK99]

*Tut*
It's called Sous Vide!

Quite right, the very best Boeuf bourguignon I have cooked was done Sous Vide at 60C for 24 hours. Large chunks of butter-tender pink Ox-cheek with a crispy crust.........

(Virtually) All top restaurants use sous vide to some degree. (deliberate pun)

 

[PK99]

Another thing is : Because we have decent meals at home and usually cooked and presented well, we expect the same when we go out. Sadly that is not the case or at least always the case. Many a time have we been out and said that we could have eaten better at home. We are not food snobs or anything like that. We just like a tasty meal that looks good and without being too expensive. In fact we gave up eating out in the evenings a long time ago. Instead we will have lunch out or just a snack and eat when we get home.

I agree.

We find these days we won't pay restaurant prices for things we can do better (or just as well) at home.

Lunch in the garden yesterday with a good friend was a 600g piece of Rib Eye, crusted in an iron skillet, butter basted for 10 mins with garlic and herbs direct from the garden and finished in the oven at 150C for 5 minutes. Jersey Royals gently steamed and drenched in nice butter with a sprinkle of sea salt flakes, heritage tomato salad with toms from the farmers market and a crunchy green salad.

Total cost £30

A local steak house would have charged us (each) £20 for the steak, and £8 for the sides = £28x3 Total price £84 + service.

On the other hand, we have been known to spend stupid amounts of money on fine-dining. But are just as likely to head out to the local Italian Trat (Al Forno in Wimbledon)

Jamie's error (IMHO) was to charge significantly more than the local Trat without giving either better quality or the same familial experience. The local Trat is one of my go-to places, I can't imagine the formulaic Jamie's ever being that.

 

[Markymark]

Jamie oliver sat in the crappy middle. Either go to a great independent Italian and have amazing pasta or pay 5 times the price and have an exquisite meal.

Jamie’s offering were neither. You just ended up paying double a decent independent for bland mass produced rubbish.

 

[PK99]

Jamie oliver sat in the crappy middle. Either go to a great independent Italian and have amazing pasta or pay 5 times the price and have an exquisite meal.

Jamie’s offering were neither. You just ended up paying double a decent independent for bland mass produced rubbish.

You don't even need to do that.

https://www.theorandall.com/

Through Bookatable: Three course (exquisite) menu with lots of choice, £33 incl a glass of prosecco , petit fours and coffee

Cheaper than Jamie... and the most exquisite pasta I've ever had!

 

[Globalti]

People went there because they thought they were getting something different. We did but after two disappointing meals of nothing special served by an over-stressed waiter in a noisy restaurant run by a computer we didn't go back.

 

[StuAff]

The restaurant business is hard at any level, even in the best of times, but the middle market chains are the ones getting squeezed the worst. Intense competition, wafer-thin margins further eroded by discounting because they need to keep the punters coming in, rent & business rates going up and up. If the likes of Pizza Express and Wahaca are struggling, there's not much hope for the mediocre or failing.

 

[vickster]

The restaurant business is hard at any level, even in the best of times, but the middle market chains are the ones getting squeezed the worst. Intense competition, wafer-thin margins further eroded by discounting because they need to keep the punters coming in, rent & business rates going up and up. If the likes of Pizza Express and Wahaca are struggling, there's not much hope for the mediocre or failing.

I don’t think Wahaca is nearly as good now as it was when it first started (my most local Wimbledon one is poor).

And Pizza Express is just blah (and they allow, nay even encourage children in )

 

[NorthernDave]

And Pizza Express is just blah (and they allow, nay even encourage children in )

I'd agree that Pizza Express are not up to much at all and we'd be happy never to darken their doors again.

 

[lane]

It's a fairly well established business theory that the middle is the worst place to be in most industries. Aldi and Waitrose both doing better in groceries for example.