• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

2019: General Discussion

Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
Benzin said:
Some parks have at least edible quality food though, Towers and the other Merlin parks have steadily gone downhill over the past few years...

Most European parks have decent food, it's all about putting the effort in...
Click to expand...
Indeed they do - with the food offering often themed to an extent around the area of the park. e.g. at EuropaPark, the food offering varies by the section of the park / country you're in. Same at PhantasiaLand too.

Then move over to the parks hotels (4* Superior Standard, in general & not a pig-shed in sight!) The breakfast buffets at both parks are something else. Pastries, breads, preserves, cereals, cheeses, cold meats, cold fish etc - and then the full hot buffet selection. At dinner there is also an extensive buffet option available, or if you prefer, a-la-carte dining with full waiter/waitress service. I have even seen Roland Mack wandering round the buffet & restaurant in Hotel Colosseo one evening - an owner who takes pride in his park & product and wants to ensure standards are being maintained. So there is proof that decent food and accommodation can be done without a Disney-sized budget. All you need is the right owner with the right mindset.
 
One thing most theme parks lack in food is somewhere to grab a simple sandwitch to go.
Thorpe used to have a ready-made, stale baguette stall near Colossus. Pleasurewood Hils did some nice made to order baguettes when I last visited (ten years ago). And Canada's Wonderland has a Subway.

Other than those, I can't think of any "cold meat + cheese + bread" outlets I've found in a park over the years. Not everyone wants hot food for lunch!

Edit: "Earl of andwi" at DLP doesn't count, it's not in either park.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
One thing most theme parks lack in food is somewhere to grab a simple sandwitch to go.
Thorpe used to have a ready-made, stale baguette stall near Colossus. Pleasurewood Hils did some nice made to order baguettes when I last visited (ten years ago). And Canada's Wonderland has a Subway.

Other than those, I can't think of any "cold meat + cheese + bread" outlets I've found in a park over the years. Not everyone wants hot food for lunch!

Edit: "Earl of andwi" at DLP doesn't count, it's not in either park.
Click to expand...
I hope Thorpe and towers get a subway or a decent clone of one!

Sent from my Swift 2 X using Tapatalk
 
ihaveaspergers said:
I hope Thorpe and towers get a subway or a decent clone of one!
Click to expand...
Can't see a Subway happening for two main reasons...
1. It's a franchised brand, so Merlin would have to pay franchise fees & a % of sales to Subway. Shareholders wouldn't like that.
2. The most significant one is speed of service.

I too like Subway but they are not the fastest place to get something to eat if there is a queue. Even if it's a double-counter Subway it can take a while when it's busy.

If something like Subway did appear, it's be a Merlin-clone of one with lower quality ingredients, probably even slower service as there wouldn't be enough staff on, and with prices way higher than Subway.
 
GaryH said:
Food quality has definitely taken a massive hit at Towers recently. The breakfast sausages in the hotels are a prime example of this. Absolutely vile and no meat whatsoever in them.
Click to expand...
Isn't that something that could land them in legal trouble?

Sent from my Swift 2 X using Tapatalk
 
ihaveaspergers said:
Isn't that something that could land them in legal trouble?

Sent from my Swift 2 X using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I think in a restaurant generaly what you see is what you get, but there was a case where Frankie and Benny's got done for selling a crab dish that had more crab stick (no real crab) than crab.
 
Not ran by Merlin, but Eastern Express I have always found has nice, tasty and hot food. At a reasonable price too. :)

Sent from my LG-H870 using Tapatalk
 
I remember Legoland having a cold baguette store at a similar time. Chessington have a shop that sells posh ones, but if you just want ham + cheese then you're out of luck.

Eastern Express was very good at Fireworks. Used it the most, although when I did use Buggery Kitchen in Mutiny Bay it was surprisingly good.
 
Danny said:
If Merlin were to invite Greggs to have branches in all their parks, I would never have a negative word to say about them again*.

* subject to how atrocious operations are / poor new developments / etc
Click to expand...
Wetherspoon's for the win!

Decent 8 Oz Sirloin Steak, chips, peas, onion rings, flat mushroom, a sauce, a pint and a dessert with change from a tenner. I don't know how they do it!

If Leeds can have The Cuthbert Broderick and The Headley Verity, then AT can have...

...The John Wardley?
 
Last edited:
DiogoJ42 said:
One thing most theme parks lack in food is somewhere to grab a simple sandwitch to go.
Thorpe used to have a ready-made, stale baguette stall near Colossus. Pleasurewood Hils did some nice made to order baguettes when I last visited (ten years ago). And Canada's Wonderland has a Subway.

Other than those, I can't think of any "cold meat + cheese + bread" outlets I've found in a park over the years. Not everyone wants hot food for lunch!

Edit: "Earl of andwi" at DLP doesn't count, it's not in either park.
Click to expand...

What if, now hear me out on this one: In their app, you could: order a sandwich, pay for it, and be given a time to pick it up from a number of units around the park. I'm not a fan of Apps generally, but this is where their use can come into play IMO.

Subways etc. can be slow for service, but if you had an estimated pick up time then service would be as fast as it needed to be, and they could pre-prepare portions of meat, cheeses, etc to ensure they've always got enough to fulfil an order. They could even have robots make them out of said prepared portions.
 
Altonadvocate1 said:
Wetherspoon's for the win!

Decent 8 Oz Sirloin Steak, chips, peas, onion rings, flat mushroom, a sauce, a pint and a dessert with change from a tenner. I don't know how they do it!

If Leeds can have The Cuthbert Broderick and The Headley Verity, then AT can have...

...The John Wardley?
Click to expand...

Or... The Nick Varney.

No, sod that... The John Wardley it is!
 
I think Merlin see food as something they need to provide but they don't believe people want to have good dining experiences, only sustenance. If they cared about it they would have a range of outlets to suit different tastes and budgets.

Like many people I am prepared to pay more for a better quality product and for unique experiences. However I will not pay over the odds for poor quality and poor service. There's money to be made here if it's done right.
 
GaryH said:
Food quality has definitely taken a massive hit at Towers recently. The breakfast sausages in the hotels are a prime example of this. Absolutely vile and no meat whatsoever in them.
Click to expand...
That will be the Alton Towers Sawdust Sausage (TM) then! Unique to Merlin, who are of course, second only to Disney.

If Disney served up crap like that the Americans would be on their phone to their lawyer pronto - a sausage has to contain a very high meat % in the USA.
 
Sausages legally must be 30 per cent meat and if labelled as pork sausages then they must contain at least 42 per cent meat... you can assume these are as close as possible to those marks :sweatsmile:
 
Sorry to be devil's advocate, but last time I stayed in ATH, admittedly a couple of years ago, the breakfast, including the sausages were first class.

The evening meals though, were truly a thing of horror.
 
Status
This topic has been locked. No further replies can be posted.
Top