Jamie Oliver restaurants goes into administration

I went to the one in Nottingham.

In all honesty it was OK, but the service was bad, (I am sure they have off days)

Still sad to see them go, I think his heart is in the right place maybe a case of over expansion.
 
Used to like the one in Reading, but a few years ago the service dropped off dramatically. And this seems a common complaint with all the stores. Jamie can keep making excuses about how hard it is on the high street, but when every other restaurant was packed in Reading, Jamie's was half full. Bad service is down to bad management, nothing more.
At their price point people expected reasonable service, but this was lacking. People forgive mediocre food, but not bad service.
 
I liked them. Richmond was good service. So was York and Cheltenham. Also been to a few in central London and they were fine as well.

Since they closed Cheltenham, I'm not near one so haven't been for some time now.
 
Went twice- overpriced, average food, shockingly poor control of the restaurant. (london canary wharf one - holiday weekend in london with my family) - A large group of Russians were in spending money on the food and wine, all whilst allowing their kids just running around the place, throwing cutlery & food at each other and the manager said nothing he could do about it. (he was scared of them you could tell despite loads of customer complaining) - Complained to head office about the lack of control in the place and what went on.

Got offered a free meal in my local place in Glasgow - all booked for me via the area manager to hopefully improve on my first visit. Cold starters, wrong drinks, full bill came with nothing taken off. Took another 30 minutes to contact their area manager (Despite me having his email showing that it was to be a free meal which I show when we arrived) - basically held us in the restaurant until it was all confirmed.

Won't miss it at all - sorry for all the jobs that will go.
 
I feel sorry for the staff, some of whom have probably worked their nuts off in his restaurants for not a lot of money (min wage?)
People seem to like Oliver, but I've always thought he was an arrogant ****.
 
Uther said:
I feel sorry for the staff
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indeed - hopefully pension fund is OK.

jo had already been macheovelic with the re-purchase of some of his restaurants that went into recevership - afaic. - earlier thread here too.
... I think I would prefer forthright Gordon as a business partner.

Franchise restaurants, like jo's, seem to be surviving in the USA - no ? which has not had this social media lead fanzene/culture for new tastes/themes/experiences -
too much discretionary cash in the uk amongst 20-30 yr olds ? .... a well executed pizza still has space in my stomach.
 
200sols said:
I think the problem with a lot of these places is they are overpriced for what they offer, it only works for so long and then people realise.
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I disagree that they're overpriced as these places generally have quite fixed margins on food/drink in order to stay afloat and if they could charge less they would. The big issue with larger chains is what has been touched on in other posts: inconsistent quality across different locations, high fixed cost base and lack of differentiation between them and their competitors.

I also think the mid-market has been really squeezed in recent years. People would sooner eat cheaply (McDonalds etc) or pay for something much nicer than pay £10-15 for a pasta dish or pizza they could make almost as competently at home. It's similar to the supermarket scenario for Tesco/Sainsburys/Asda where some people buy most of their stuff from Aldi/Lidl and a couple of nice things from M&S/Waitrose/local butcher etc rather than paying a bit more across the board for average produce.
 
Uther said:
I feel sorry for the staff, some of whom have probably worked their nuts off in his restaurants for not a lot of money (min wage?)
People seem to like Oliver, but I've always thought he was an arrogant ****.
Click to expand...

Thee issue with Jamie Oliver is his appeal is to lower classes. The working class and lower middle class.

He thinks he is upmarket and above them. So his target market for his restaurants was middle classes and higher with his locations and pricing. I mean the one in Glasgow was right on george square. probably the most expensive location in the city centre. So he had upmarket locations (with high rents) and high prices which puts off his main target market. They saw it as a special occasion place somewhere you would maybe go once a year or once in 2 years.

The menu was the same everywhere which as a chain you can't charge high prices for. Who is going to keep going back to eat the same thing at eye watering prices? Only someone who really likes that 1 dish and he can't get it elsewhere. The staff had no decision over menu changes or recipes. So after churning out the same crap everyday your morale takes a pounding and quality drops.

He should have made cheap healthy restaurants and targeted working class families. He thinks he's the pinnacle of cooking when in all honesty he is nothing and is only so popular because of his personality rather than cooking ability. he's done well for himself but he got this one completely wrong. he should have also made his restaurants buy local produce and have control over some of the menu.
 
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