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Food and Beveraaage!

The restaurant in CCL should be turned into something to match the old Steampunk concept art for various attractions but with added colour rather than metallic colours to fit with C&tCF and the rest of CCL. As to what food they should serve, I'd say something along the lines of regular pub food but not big, fat or greasy, just simple and tasty (nothing like the Towers Street restaurant). The menu could even have some Wonka inspired dishes, such as a Sunday lunch based on the flavours of his infamous chewing gum, and other deserts. :p

I loved it as a Dinner when it was ran by McDonald's (who didn't love the hotrod style seating? :p ) but I don't know if they could turn it into a Diner when Woodcutters is close and sells steak, ribs, burgers, etc...


Failing that idea, maybe something like Beverly Hills Boulangerie at Universal Studios in Orlando:

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My favourite place has to be the Mexican Cantina, although I haven't been there in a while. It's pretty good value for money, and delicious. I'm a big fan of Mexican food.
 
I do love Pizza Pasta, but only when its not rammed full, as you end up waiting in queues to get pizza and its not great, but at the same time you dont want to do it when its too quiet as the pizza is cold.

I do love the fish & chips at towers, they are really nice and fairly good value. However they have the worse staff in the whole park, I have never seen more than 2 tills open in there (they must have 4 or 5) and there are usually more staff in the kitchen at the back chatting away rather than serving. Also for some reason they have the slowest service on park, for some of the easiest meals to produce, the fish and chips are always ready, yet the queue moves so slow.
 
I think Pizza Pasta is great value and good food, I also really like wood cutters. The worst food outlet for full meals has to be the courtyard BBQ you could hammer nails into walls with the bread they serve there.
 
I have really fallen in love with Woodcutter's this year (especially the vegetarian platter - as many of you will know :p), I'd eaten there before as Rita's but it really is a great outlet! The only real shame about it, as we've found on many a cold day, is the entire lack of heating, leaving us sat huddling around the table and cursing everyone who dared use the door! :p
 
I like the Fish & Chip shop near Nemesis, & in front of Ripsaw. It is fantastic value with a Merlin Annual Pass, & tastes great. However, I agree with DJtruefitt, in that they never have all the tills open, which slows everything down drastically. Also, they seem to neglect changing the syrup in the drinks fountains, & will only do so when several customers have queued again to complain! I had pure soda water last week, along with 7-8 others that had purchased drinks too, & got the same! Whoops!

Having said that, it genuinely is good food, cheap, & in a Theme Park that is trying to squeeze every single penny out of you, I can't complain.

Spiffing!


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Woodcutters is, in my opinion, the best place to eat. The food is great quality, reasonably priced (especially with an annual pass), and often arrives at the table before you've sat down with your drink!

I'm not a fan of much else on park, but I'll extend to a panini or Fried Chicken if I'm too broke to splash out on Woodcutters.

I'd love CCL Burger King to change into a large, sit down table service restaurant to replace Woodcutters, with the disused building then becoming a burger outlet in the new style.

Has anyone noticed the lack of vegetarian options on the menus of the new outlets? Fried Chicken doesn't have an veg option, Roast and Relish at Thorpe doesn't... anyone got any insight into the Blackpool Burger place having a veg option?

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Roast and relish! That's what I was trying to think of when I was thibking what could replace the BK outlets... A roast and relish in FV? Yes please!
 
I ADORE Roast and Relish!!! Most certainly the best food outlet to come out of this new in house branding yet.

I just hope they can make it more high capacity if its done at Towers - Thorpes struggles sometimes even on quiet days.

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Woodcutters, Pizza and Pasta and Fried Chicken Co satisfy my park based food desires quite well, while the rest are sub-par.
 
Pizza and Pasta is my favourite of all the on park restaurants, but it does leave you with 'pizza belly', but after a couple of spins on the rapids or Duel this seems to subside.

Towers St Restaurant is very dated inside, and on a cold day can be very cold inside as well, but the food is very inexpensive with an annual pass and the staff are very friendly!

I tried the Nemesis Fish and Chips the other day.. £4.23 for x2 chips and a portion of beans and a portion of mushy peas isn't that unreasonable, but I wish they'd let you put your own salt and vinegar on. Portions of beans and chips could do with being a tad bigger as well, they're hardly that expensive!

I'd love to see a Subway style sandwich chain come to the park, and perhaps a refresh of the Towers Street Restaurant, but other than that I'm a happy chap.
 
I love Woodcutter's, but on a busy day it usually wastes quite a lot of time, and can mean you get on at least 1 if not 2 less rides, so I haven't been there recently. I usually just go to Pastry Co in Mutiny bay, and always get a sausage roll which I don't actually like that much but I always forget that until I've bought it, and taken a bite. It's usually then followed up by a Crepe which is eaten on the way to FV and go into the air queue, so it has gone down by the time we get on air itself. Yeah, I have a routine with it because it's the easiest thing to do I've found. The Crepes are lovely and I highly recommend the Banana and chocolate one, the thing that makes it so good is that they actually have chocolate which is melted on, rather than a sauce. The bananas are fresh too, you usually see them peeling it and the crepes are very good quality. They don't cost a lot compared to crepes elsewhere either. In fact, I've had crepes which are a lot more expensive in cafes. I really think Alton have done well with the crepes, they're brillaint quality, delicious and a very reasonable (if not cheap) price.
 
Swimming against the tide... I'm really not a fan of Woodcutters. It's fine if you're looking for somewhere to have a mid-afternoon drink, but when it comes to eating every time I've been the food's been all right (Wetherspoons-ish I would say), but the place has been packed to the rafters and freezing cold.... throw some straw on the floor it'd be something akin to eating in a cattle barn.

I'm also not keen on Courtyard Tavern. I think they by and large sell food which is inappropriate for the venue/style of service. Plastic cutlery on a plastic plate is in no way ideal for eating a half roast chicken. I would love to see the place turned into a proper Al Fresco cabaret venue... loose the big marquee (replace it with a more attractive solution), make more use of the buildings and turn it into a really nice venue for both shows and dining.

My favourite restaurant on park would have to be Explorers at the moment, it's especially good value for money for decent quality food in pleasant surroundings... you just need to catch it when not too busy.

Outside of that, I've been impressed with the quality of Fresh Fish and Chips. Corner Coffee, is nice to grab a coffee in, though the decoration these days is especially bland and Refresh@Ripsaw is good to grab a bite, so long as you don't leave it too late in the day.

I like how everyone has somehow danced around the issue of Towers Family Restaurant, AKA "The Restaurant That Shall Not Be Named" or indeed dined in. I don't think anyone seemed to fussed when it was announced it would be closing after breakfast earlier in the season, mainly because it has an awful reputation, and last time I looked a menu that could be entirely purchased elsewhere in the park in nicer surroundings. I suspect it was a really nice place to eat in the 80s... it just seems like no improvements have been made to the venue since then, just papering over the cracks.

In an ideal world, I would see Nat's all you can eat buffet style restaurant take the place of Towers Restaurant, with Woodcutter's moving into the CCL Burger King (with an expanded menu and heating), leaving the Fountain Square Unit to be turned into a Burger Kitchen. I'm not convinced loosing both the other burger outlets would be the ideal for a park the size of Alton, so I would think it would be better if the Generator became a combo Burger Kitchen and Roast and Relish (perhaps swallowing up the neighbouring Info Kiosk and Forbidden Treats as well), whilst the Mutiny Bay unit gave way to some sort of Subway style counter.
 
To be brutally honest I don't think they need a resteraunt on Towers Street at all, mid day Towers Street is dead. Turn TFR into corporate hospitality (they already have conference facilities upstairs) and reclaim the land corporate hospitality currently has for ride space. Then sell breakfast Baps out of the hotdog stand.
 
Unless I had a really strange dream (it happens), or I've mixed my memories up (this also happens), I could have swore I saw a breakfast bap stand at the bottom of Towers Street a few weeks ago? Complete with Heinz branding for the saaaauuuuce!

My only gripe with these stands is that there's no Annual Pass discount :-(. Best pancakes ever. Until you have to pay full price.
 
Agreed with TFR - doesn't need to be there, it's in a bad position considering it's dead. Use as conference, or open it up and have a range of "to go" options for the way home.

As for BKs - CCL should become burger kitchen I think, you need a restuarant to be a high throughput food consuming machine. Pirate Galley BK should become roast & relish style thing, and Generator BK should.. well, god knows what to do there. Maybe turn it into a place similar to dark forest. As much as I hate generic hotdogs, pasties, pies etc.. there's not an amazing amount they can do with it.
 
Whether I eat at Alton or not really depends on who I'm with, if I'm going with friends we just eat in queues to save time, but if I'm with family then we'll eat in a restaurant.

I do like most of the restaurants at Towers, though I'm not a massive fan of Corner Coffee as whenever I go in there, it's really dirty with spilled drinks and rubbish everywhere.

Explorers is good value and I would say overall the best restaurant, as the food quality is always good and it's always clean and well heated.
Woodcutter's in nice, they have quite a range of vegetarian options, but with the door open, it's not really a place to eat in if it's not summer and I often find it's not worth the wait for a table.

A little traditional cafe in the Gardens selling cream teas and whatnot would be a lovely idea although I'm not sure how viable the concept is, as I'm unsure as to how much footfall the Gardens receive and if most of it is people taking a shortcut.
 
Vicky said:
A little traditional cafe in the Gardens selling cream teas and whatnot would be a lovely idea although I'm not sure how viable the concept is, as I'm unsure as to how much footfall the Gardens receive and if most of it is people taking a shortcut.
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That would be lovely. So quaint and it reminds people that they are in the middle of the countryside. If they put an advert on the map and around some areas of the park, then have a proper map so people could find their way through the gardens to it. Then I think it would work very well. I think it would be nice to have something traditional, but it wouldn't work anywhere but in the gardens. They could use the old restaurant (was it a restaurant?) building too. :)
 
Although many people would love to see something like this, the problem is these days is that Alton Towers only attracts guests for the rides. It's not like it used to be, when guests could see shows, the odd animal, parades, exhibits and tour the Towers and Gardens, or enjoy some of the quainter rides such as the old train or the Swan boats. :/
 
But for families with small children it could work, or the 'bag holders' as I like to call them, it just needs to be clear enough where it is and I think it could work, it wouldn't be the busiest place, but that would add to the charm of it, I mean who wants to go to a tea room that is totally packed :)
 
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