Jamie Oliver's restaurants go titsup.com

Whitecat

LoFi said:

shrinkwrap said:

Went to an Ivy Cafe not long ago, spent a good deal more but it was well worth it. 

Interesting - one opened up in my town a year ago, and reviews have been mixed at best. While most people have rated the service and ambience, the general opinion seems to be that the food is "High St Brasserie" quality (think Brasserie Blanc or Cote), but significantly more expensive.

(Obviously, there are some idiots that think they're going to get food of the same standard as *The* Ivy, but I'm not talking about them)

By coincidence I ate at one of the Ivy chain spots just last week not two days after eating at a Cote, and the Ivy was *way* better. It might not stay that way forever, but so far was fairly impressed that they have scaled that up how they have. It’s not cheap, it’s definitely in the top half of the mid market tier but they did things very well. 

Re: Jamie’s, like others I have found them brutally inconsistent. Had a couple very good meals in Guildford, but had a terrible one in the original one in Oxford and another lousy one somewhere in London. 

Fifteen was fantastic but they got away from their original ethos - they didn’t employ kids in need of training anymore, they just donated some profits to places that did similar things, which all had a whiff of “we’re not in the press anymore so let’s see what we can get away with.”

Never did get to a Barbecoa as the prices were a pisstake (and I am not afraid of spending money on a good meal occasionally... just nothing they did made any sense!)

wibble

This would be a good opportunity for Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares to turn the business around. It would be the ultimate celeb chef tv mash up!

Dungus

Repeatedly failing upwards at the expense of his employees, he's worth an absolute fortune (£240m), so it has all worked out well for him regardless. Lots of people (1300 odd) will suffer badly because of this, but certainly not him, the wonky rich geezer twat.

Heartfeltdawn

And at the expense of his creditors. Lots of suppliers will be absolutely fucking shafted by this having previously been shafted by him. 

Snap

Hang on a mo.

Jamie Oliver - made his own success, hats off. The fact that he is v wealthy is his own achievement.

So, he creates a load of jobs by building a restaurant chain. Chain goes bust. Is he an executive director? Did he steer the chain into decline, or is it run by other people? I don't know.

Before slating JO, the reasons for the collapse need to be known - as in, is it down to him?

Lodious

Snap said:

Hang on a mo.

Jamie Oliver - made his own success, hats off. The fact that he is v wealthy is his own achievement.

So, he creates a load of jobs by building a restaurant chain. Chain goes bust. Is he an executive director? Did he steer the chain into decline, or is it run by other people? I don't know.

Before slating JO, the reasons for the collapse need to be known - as in, is it down to him?

Totally agree with this. JO has done a lot for food in the uk, and I think he's been pretty genuine about helping younger people. 

Dominic

I can't stand him.......I remember when he was a kid cooking at The Cricketers ,his mum and Dad's pub BUT his own success as a Chef and media personality and subsequent fortune has nothing to do with the collapse of a Shitty restaurant chain run by greedy Venture Capitalists that happens to effectively license his name and nominally employ him ( Directors are employees too ;especially in large concerns as opposed to closed companies ). He has no share of the blame ;the whole sector is massively over-subscribed and in free-fall .....Ziizi ,Pizza Express (now a Chinese Investment conglomerate ) etc. Jamie is no more to blame than the late Peter Boizot would be if Pizza Express goes tits up .
 The only thing he is guilty of is an appalling Estuary English accent and forcibly giving a shower to anybody unfortunate enough to converse with him at close range.

JezWynd

Kilgore said:

I love Italian food, I've been to the Po valley in March for Pick Your Own. Spaghetti is much better fresh from the tree.

Very true.

Shrews

Excellent independent Italian food in Shrewsbury, seem to fight off the chain competition pretty well. The Indian restaurants have always been decent and popular too. 


https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186368-d802122-Reviews-La_Dolce_Vita-Shrewsbury_Shropshire_England.html

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186368-d1075708-Reviews-La_Lanterna-Shrewsbury_Shropshire_England.html

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186368-d1883596-Reviews-Osteria_Da_Paolo-Shrewsbury_Shropshire_England.html

Nitefly

JezWynd said:

Kilgore said:

I love Italian food, I've been to the Po valley in March for Pick Your Own. Spaghetti is much better fresh from the tree.

Very true.

Fabulous - that was 1957!  Most people in UK had no idea what pasta was.  This was firmly "meat and two veg" land, and one of the veg was spuds.

I was talking to Our Maud about this, and we thought it was the hot summer and subsequent potato drought of 1976 that brought pasta and rice into the mainstream of English cuisine.  There were occasional Italian restaurants (in the north at least) but it was very exotic.

Fortheloveofguitar

joneve said:

Fortheloveofguitar said:

We had one in Cheltenham that shut a while back. Was very hit and miss and bloody expensive for what it was 

And everything on the menu had truffle oil lol 

Location didn’t help it either. 

We’re fortunate enough to have loads of decent eateries in Cheltenham nowadays 

The old courthouse building was lovely but yes the location was bad. Right off the high street and yob central Fri- Sun evenings

Everyone was raving about The Ivy opening at Montpellier but that was also very disappointing and vastly overpriced for the quality of food they are serving 

joneve

Fortheloveofguitar said:

joneve said:

Fortheloveofguitar said:

We had one in Cheltenham that shut a while back. Was very hit and miss and bloody expensive for what it was 

And everything on the menu had truffle oil lol 

Location didn’t help it either. 

We’re fortunate enough to have loads of decent eateries in Cheltenham nowadays 

The old courthouse building was lovely but yes the location was bad. Right off the high street and yob central Fri- Sun evenings

Everyone was raving about The Ivy opening at Montpellier but that was also very disappointing and vastly overpriced for the quality of food they are serving 

Indeed. I’ve got no inclination to go there, would much rather do 131 if I want to pay a premium for good food. There’s a few decent Thai/Asian restaurants and casual burger places now too. 

MagicPigDetective

I had the same experience, first time at Bath was excellent. Second time in Cardiff, not good.

Talking of JO; I used to hopeless at cooking, no idea at all. Then following a break up I found myself having to cook for myself every night. I bought his ministry of food book, aimed for cooking numpties like I was. That one book honestly taught me how to cook and gave me so much basic skills and confidence, I love cooking now. I’ll always be grateful to him for this. 

VimFuego

yup, for all his faults, he's a good cook and a good communicator on how to cook. 

stickyfiddle

MagicPigDetective said:

I had the same experience, first time at Bath was excellent. Second time in Cardiff, not good.

Talking of JO; I used to hopeless at cooking, no idea at all. Then following a break up I found myself having to cook for myself every night. I bought his ministry of food book, aimed for cooking numpties like I was. That one book honestly taught me how to cook and gave me so much basic skills and confidence, I love cooking now. I’ll always be grateful to him for this. 

+1 It was one of his early shows that made me realise I wanted to learn to cook. Just some dead easy "having mates round" sort of food, but it kicked off a love of cooking that's lasted what must be almost 20 years and counting.

Jalapeno

VimFuego said:

yup, for all his faults, he's a good cook and a good communicator on how to cook. 

Indeed.  WISd