• 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.

Food and Beveraaage!

I went to Burger Kitchen today (I'm posting from there right now), and this is my order:

661BB7F0-909D-42E3-A0B6-220629FEC90B-8247-000003B7885745E6.jpg


I've gotta say, it's nowhere near as bad as some people have been made it out to be. Quality is on par with McDonalds and Burger King. The burger was very reminiscent of a McDonalds quarter pounder, and fries were like Burger King. Obviously not amazing, but certainly ok.

It's important to remember that this place is new and they are still learning. Give it time and it should improve.
 
AshleeKel said:
I've gotta say, it's nowhere near as bad as some people have been made it out to be. Quality is on par with McDonalds and Burger King. The burger was very reminiscent of a McDonalds quarter pounder, and fries were like Burger King. Obviously not amazing, but certainly ok.

It's important to remember that this place is new and they are still learning. Give it time and it should improve.
Click to expand...

Have to totally disagree with you Ashlee, of course if you like it then I wont disagree with your personal preference, but I find those fries are like a cheap copy of (the REAL) BK, and the chicken I had was FA like Maccies and horrifically expensive.

The presentation, and "fast"/speed (distinct lack thereof) can improve of course, but the quality of the ingredients (or again, lack thereof) wont be improved though no matter how much more familiar the staff become.
 
Food should be an enjoyable part of your trip to a theme park, but in the UK it's just overpriced cardboard crap that you shovel down your throat to keep you going for the rest of the day.

The very fact that these new BKs are marketed as a premium resturant and your food comes in a takeaway box is enough to annoy me.

Some of my most vivid memories of WDW are actually of the food. Huge portions served in fully themed sit-down resturants, with no need to scoff as quickly as possible since you can rely on sensible opening hours to enjoy the rest of the park.
 
Novas said:
The very fact that these new BKs are marketed as a premium resturant and your food comes in a takeaway box is enough to annoy me.
Click to expand...

And why exactly do they feel the need to give you a small box of fries and a couple of pieces of chicken in a paper suitcase?

What was wrong with a tray with something for the kids to colour in? Total waste. Imagine how many of those are given away?
 
Novas said:
The very fact that these new BKs are marketed as a premium resturant and your food comes in a takeaway box is enough to annoy me.
Click to expand...

They aren't bring marketed as a 'premium restaurant'. They mention 'premium quality' but that's the same as every big name takeaway - McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Subway and so on are all the same in that respect, they all say their stuff is amazing quality when we all know otherwise. It's a marketing ploy which isn't really expected to be taken seriously. People can see through it, but it's better than saying 'our stuff is cheap crap'.

The aesthetics are done in a way that the place looks nice and clean, and are quite reminiscent of modern day KFC. Again, they aren't pretending its better than it is, but they just want it to look nice.

The biggest issue I have is with the price. With the annual pass I paid around £5.20 for my meal. But that's what they should be selling it as in the first place! £6.50 for a quarter pounder meal is a joke when you can pay a little extra and get a better burger at Courtyard Tavern. And the 'two nugget meal' is an insult, and I have no doubt that with enough noise they will add a bit more to it.

Some of my most vivid memories of WDW are actually of the food. Huge portions served in fully themed sit-down resturants, with no need to scoff as quickly as possible since you can rely on sensible opening hours to enjoy the rest of the park.
Click to expand...

The best theme park food I've ever had is at Universal Orlando. It's virtually the same - huge portions, great themed restaurants, and thanks to late ride closed you could take your time and enjoy your lunch. The quality there was amazing, too. I'd love Towers to go down that route, but I doubt they could keep the park open late enough.
 
Didn't get a photo but the main sign on the Mutiny Bay burger kitchen is really starting to peel off (it's been held up with a drawing pin in one corner and the other one's flopping) and I saw similar problems on some signage in the CCL one... Hopefully that'll be sorted soon! :)
 
A few updates to menus and prices I have noticed this season. As well as the very small cups in the new burger kitchens, you now also have the tiny cups in Fried Chicken Co. and Fresh fish and chips (maybe other places as well, but they are the only two I have been in). In fresh fish and chips you can pay 20p more to get a medium drink (what you got as standard last year), or 50p more for a large drink! Im guessing its the same in Fried chicken co.

Plus prices seem to have gone up alot this season, for example a fish and chip meal deal is now £6.95!
 
Perhaps they think that with the free tickets they give away they have to claw back the money somewhere. It's ridiculous that they can get away charging such high prices
 
Alton Towers F&B management seem to have missed a few of the crucial tips for running the style of outlets they run. You want to offer HUGE soft-drinks with your meals. post-mix is dirt cheap (probably about 2p per large drink) and the cups are cheap (3p a cup). So a large soft drink costs about 5-10p yet fills people up making them feel more satisfied about their meal.

At the moment they are charging extortionate prices for what at Burger Kitchen is basically slop and making it damn obvious your getting very little for the money by reducing chips and drinks portion sizes. That is all well and good but people come away feeling short-changed and still hungry.

Think i may stick to eating in woodcutters or as a protest Eastern Express as that isn't run by the park. It's ironic that just a couple of years ago Merlin offered some of the best theme park food around at reasonable (for theme parks) prices. Now they offer poorly presented gloop at high prices.
 
Dave said:
Think i may stick to eating in woodcutters or as a protest Eastern Express as that isn't run by the park. It's ironic that just a couple of years ago Merlin offered some of the best theme park food around at reasonable (for theme parks) prices. Now they offer poorly presented gloop at high prices.
Click to expand...

You wouldn't be doing yourself a disservice there, considering Eastern Express serves probably the nicest food of all on park.
 
Alastair said:
Dave said:
Think i may stick to eating in woodcutters or as a protest Eastern Express as that isn't run by the park. It's ironic that just a couple of years ago Merlin offered some of the best theme park food around at reasonable (for theme parks) prices. Now they offer poorly presented gloop at high prices.
Click to expand...

You wouldn't be doing yourself a disservice there, considering Eastern Express serves probably the nicest food of all on park.
Click to expand...

Very true.
 
Yesterday I made my first ever complaint to the park, in relation to the Burger Kitchen in Cloud Cuckoo Land. We went in there towards the end of the day, the queue was too the door and there was only one till open with one person serving. However there were at least 6 or 7 other staff members in there not really doing much, one or two were mopping the floors, one was folding paper bags behind the counter, while the others were chatting or not doing much. I even got a photo (which I may upload later) showing two staff members chatting to each other behind the counter and another girl having a drink. The staff all just seemed to lack any customer service skills.

Also where are the managers? Surely any manager would see you have a queue to the door and you would open more tills, yet they don't.

I will be interested to see if/what Towers will reply with.

I suggest if you have bad service/bad food, fill in one of them touch screen surveys (there is now one in CCL Burger Kitchen), there are a few questions about eating on park.
 
We complained about the slop we got served as a burger a few weeks ago, never got a reply and the burgers are still slop but people should keep complaining.
 
djtruefitt said:
Plus prices seem to have gone up alot this season, for example a fish and chip meal deal is now £6.95!
Click to expand...

In general Fish and Chip terms, that's a bargain. However, once again, I don't feel the prices in FF&C reflect the quality or portion sizes you are given in any way. I've always found the chips to be particularly dry yet the Fish is always really soggy and grease heavy.

I think the food on offer this year, bar Woodcutters which seems to be consistently good, has been some of the worst for a long time. I've always felt that food offerings are an integral part to a day out at a theme park and shouldn't be presented in such a poor fashion like Towers are doing at the minute.

People need only look at places such as EP and Disney to see how parks can take their food seriously :)
 
I only know of Woodcutters, The Courtyard and FCC this season.

FCC was just about ok. Woodcutters and The Courtyard however are great! The ribs I usually have taste great and no people I have been with have complained about their meals from there if my memory serves me right.
 
Woodcutters and Courtyard Tavern are both fantastic. Especially the ribs! Definitely my favourite places to eat on park.

Mexican Cantina isn't as good as it was a few years back, but that has nothing to do with the quality or the service - they've just stopped doing the things I loved from there (steak tacos, chicken burrito and Mexican chicken burger were all great). Still worth going to, and it's just good that they have variety. Burger Kitchen is average, as far as I'm concerned. When I ate there it was ok, certainly not the train wreck some have made it out to be (maybe I was there on a good day?) but for a little bit more I could eat at one of the better restaurants. Burger Kitchen really needs to drop in price.
 
Ribs <3 that is all. They're actually pretty good value for the portion size, or at least were last season...
 
The husband and I went to AT yesterday...with a horrific hangover after a wedding on Sunday! The first thing we did was get a panini from the coffee place on Towers Street (sorry I don't know the name). Despite the appallingly slow service, it was really nice. Then later on we saw people getting jacket potatoes in the Dark Forest which looked really good too.

My point is, we went to Orlando on our honeymoon in September 2012 and found the food in the parks to be awful. As far as we saw, it was all unhealthy junk. I'm not a health food nut at all, I eat my fair share of crap, but sometimes I need something fresh and healthy! It's nice that in AT there is some variety. I found in Orlando there was no variety really, to the point where I pretty much cheered when we were given a salad on our flight home!

Amy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top