Jamie Oliver's restaurants go titsup.com

ICBM

Strat_a_tat_tat said:

p90fool said:

The excitement that went around Mid Wales when it was confirmed that a Nando's was going to be opened in Hereford had to be seen to be believed, it was truly depressing. 

Dear god... that is depressing!

To be fair, it's still the 1970s in Herefordshire so it's probably a bit like Moscow getting its first McDonalds...

RaymondLin

joneve said:

Strat_a_tat_tat said:

p90fool said:

The excitement that went around Mid Wales when it was confirmed that a Nando's was going to be opened in Hereford had to be seen to be believed, it was truly depressing. 

Dear god... that is depressing!

Hereford you say? If you want an absolutely incredible burger, head to The Beefy Boys in Hereford. Their food is incredible. 

Ha, I live 15min walk away.

It's good but I am impartial to a Rule of Tum as well.  I don't think Beefy Boys burger is that special.  It is good but nothing that i can't do at home myself.

My favourite burger joint is 7 Bone down in Southampton, they have a few different ones now and expanded but everytime i am near there i make a slight detour to visit.

My 2nd favourite burger place is this random one i visited in Vienna.

joneve

RaymondLin said:

joneve said:

Strat_a_tat_tat said:

p90fool said:

The excitement that went around Mid Wales when it was confirmed that a Nando's was going to be opened in Hereford had to be seen to be believed, it was truly depressing. 

Dear god... that is depressing!

Hereford you say? If you want an absolutely incredible burger, head to The Beefy Boys in Hereford. Their food is incredible. 

Ha, I live 15min walk away.

It's good but I am impartial to a Rule of Tum as well.  I don't think Beefy Boys burger is that special.  It is good but nothing that i can't do at home myself.

My favourite burger joint is 7 Bone down in Southampton, they have a few different ones now and expanded but everytime i am near there i make a slight detour to visit.

My 2nd favourite burger place is this random one i visited in Vienna.

7 Bone is also amazing. Will have to check out Rule of Tum. 

My favourite thing about Beefy boys is their bacon fries. And I'm shit at cooking, so definitely couldn't do that at home myself, hence why I like it. haha. 

Axe_meister

Italian Restaurants should be run by Italians, just like Greek should be run by Greeks. One thing i love about Germany is you get authentic foreign food cooked by the right nationality.
But a good pizza is not hard to make, last Jamies Italian I had was at Gatwick airport, all greasy dough with very little filling.
Pity 15 is closing though feel sorry for the kids  

schrodinger1612

beed84 said:

I imagine Jamie is thinking “What a motherpukka!”

Get out...

randella

I wonder how much of it is to do with high street rents.  There's an Italian near me, good food, buzzing little place - the absolute business for a nice meal out.  If it moved to the high street I suspect, in order to maintain the viability of the business, they'd have to cut corners on the grub or put the prices up significantly.  Either way everyone will just go to Pizza Express instead because brand familiarity is a safe bet.

It's hard to understand how the pizza can be so mediocre in these places though - I've had better at the onsite 'snack' at every French campsite I've visited in the last few years.  Some of the high street places get it right, some are downright pisspoor with no apparent reason for the variation.

Axe_meister

Next episode of Ramseys Kitchen Nightmares: "What the Fuck Jamie, how can you serve such fucking crap, you are nothing but a shit Sandwich"

Grumpyrocker

I don't know if it's still the case. But I remember a year or so ago comparing the nutritional information of his restaurant's kids meals with McDonald's Happy Meals. The Happy Meals were lower in fat and salt content. Which seemed off given his school meals crusade. 

p_jay78

I remember when Jamie's Italian first opened, they didn't do pizzas - which I thought odd. Apparently he refused to offer them without the site having a proper wood fired pizza oven, which I thought was a brave and admirable decision. I went back to the Gunwharf Quay one a few years later and they were doing burgers....just what everyone has in mind when they picture Italian food.  Giving the people what they want I imagine...

Shame about Fifteen though. I went there shortly after it opened in 2002 and it was excellent 

peteri

Axe_meister said:

Italian Restaurants should be run by Italians, just like Greek should be run by Greeks. One thing i love about Germany is you get authentic foreign food cooked by the right nationality.
But a good pizza is not hard to make, last Jamies Italian I had was at Gatwick airport, all greasy dough with very little filling.
Pity 15 is closing though feel sorry for the kids  

Sorry I need to challenge the German bit, I've had truly bad Indian, Chinese and Japanese food across Northern Germany, the food looks right - very accurate, but just tastes wrong - the food gets adjusted much more for the local palette in my experience.

Friends coming to London can't believe the breadth and quality we have in non-native food.

Back on topic, can only agree - ate at a Jamies once, very, very generic, average pasta.

He's talking about how they disrupted the mid-priced sector, they did nothing of the sort in my opinion - Bella Pasta when it first launched was night and day better for example.

I hope the workers find jobs, and I wish him no ill - but really as others have said - if you really love food (as he says he does), that just doesn't line up with the experience in his restaurants. The worse food I've ever eaten in Italy was night and day better than anything his restaurants put out

Hootsmon

I read that original post line as titsoup.......yuk no wonder he's broke

Axe_meister

peteri said:

Axe_meister said:

Italian Restaurants should be run by Italians, just like Greek should be run by Greeks. One thing i love about Germany is you get authentic foreign food cooked by the right nationality.
But a good pizza is not hard to make, last Jamies Italian I had was at Gatwick airport, all greasy dough with very little filling.
Pity 15 is closing though feel sorry for the kids  

Sorry I need to challenge the German bit, I've had truly bad Indian, Chinese and Japanese food across Northern Germany, the food looks right - very accurate, but just tastes wrong - the food gets adjusted much more for the local palette in my experience.

Friends coming to London can't believe the breadth and quality we have in non-native food.

Back on topic, can only agree - ate at a Jamies once, very, very generic, average pasta.

He's talking about how they disrupted the mid-priced sector, they did nothing of the sort in my opinion - Bella Pasta when it first launched was night and day better for example.

I hope the workers find jobs, and I wish him no ill - but really as others have said - if you really love food (as he says he does), that just doesn't line up with the experience in his restaurants. The worse food I've ever eaten in Italy was night and day better than anything his restaurants put out

Guess I should have qualified southern European where most of Germany's immigrant population comes from. Lived in Munich for 12 years and pizza was always very very similar to what you get in Italy likewise Greek and Turkish.

peteri

ah - different place entirely then

Danny1969

I spent the whole of last week eating in Spoons, sometimes twice a day Curry and a beer for £7 etc. Very keen on the triple chicken feast too at the moment. I know it's all Brake brothers fodder but it's actually OK and amazing for the price

Jalapeno

peteri said:

ah - different place entirely then

Indeed, another country !

EricTheWeary

Danny1969 said:

I spent the whole of last week eating in Spoons, sometimes twice a day Curry and a beer for £7 etc. Very keen on the triple chicken feast too at the moment. I know it's all Brake brothers fodder but it's actually OK and amazing for the price

It is what you expect it to be which is fine. I get the sense with Jamie's Italian that what you paid for and what you got didn't really correspond. 

thermionic

jonnyburgo said:

I’ve never been to one of his places, something about his big fat tongue puts me off me food.

He doesn’t actually work in them.

prowla

The one in Reading ripped me off on my bill and I only realised later.

Despite making contact they never refunded me and I never went to another.

Good riddance to them and their crappy staff.

boogieman

Went to Jamie’s place in Kingston once..... and that was once too many. Terrible overpriced food, crappy service and my pet hate : food served on bits of wood. 

SouthpawMark

Deserved to fail. Ended up trading on his name and forgot about the food. The same will eventually happen to all restaurants where there’s a “name” above the door, but said name has never set foot inside the place. People are waking up to the fact that it’s all a bit of a con, and refusing to pay top prices for average food, cooked by someone just out of catering college.