Food and Beveraaage!

[Wilsy]

People are still going to want food, and the new burger kitchen is already advertised in the plaza and will be on the map and the monorail.

And it's the same size as its always been, so would be a bit silly to just make it smaller because demand might not be as high.

 

[Ollie]

I think people will be pulled to the new outlets, many will have visited before so will know exactly where to go and will probably try the new outlets out. For others, the restaurants still look very professionally branded and modern so I don't think it will put anybody off.

 

[joelpagett]

I think people will be pulled to the new outlets, many will have visited before so will know exactly where to go and will probably try the new outlets out. For others, the restaurants still look very professionally branded and modern so I don't think it will put anybody off.

I agree, I like the modern interior and it makes it look appealing

 

[LiamC]

I would say that is an exception to the rule of brand pulling power we see at every other theme park and high street in this country.

I don't agree with the theme park rule to your point as the majority of UK parks nearly all use in house food now.

All Merlin parks are now in house catered as far as I know. BPB uses in house from what I can remember, as does Flamingoland, Drayton (I think) and Lightwater Valley from what I can remember.

Although some people do have their favourites, the majority of the general public, when at a park, don't really care where they eat in my eyes. I don't think the masses will feel disheartened that they can't get a whopper now in between riding Rita and Charlie

 

[GaryH]

I have to admit I am somewhat disappointed that the only large themed restaurant in Alton Towers is now, erm, no longer themed

 

[Dave]

I have to admit I am somewhat disappointed that the only large themed restaurant in Alton Towers is now, erm, no longer themed

It really wasn't themed before, it had some faded livery from 2 themes previous but that's about it. The outside of Burger Kitchen is themed which is nice. I would also argue that FCC is themed based on all the Oblivion graphics in there.

 

[Rob]

I don't see why a lack of high street branding will make a difference? The restaurant has always been busy and will no doubt continue to be as it sells much the same food as BK did. People aren't going to blindly wander around and starve themselves because they can't find a high street name...

Ignoring your excessive exaggeration, I don't accept the point that a franchise name has equal or less pulling power than in-house brand launching this year. If your Fried Chicken Co. example is accurate (in my view it isn't), I would say that is an exception to the rule of brand pulling power we see at every other theme park and high street in this country.

The CCL restaurant is very large indeed, all I was saying is that its potential may not be fulfilled by a new in-house offering.

The pulling power of outside brands has absolutely no relevance now. There are no outside brands (well Eastern Express apparently is but it's hardly well known). Therefore peope cannot and will not be pulled to outside brands. If you look at many of the big theme parks around the world, whether that be Disney, Busch, EP etc, they do not have franchise food outlets in their parks. Does this harm them? No. Does it even bother them? Almost certainly not. People do not need or demand McDonalds for example when they go to a theme park.

At the end of the day, people are going to eat. Now they have to eat on Towers/Merlin owned food outlets. So this means that all of the profits are retained, all of the produce can be assess by the park themselves for quality and you get the level of serivice that you come to expect from Alton Towers and that level of service is so much better than say Burger King service.

Also, FCC seemed very popular last year. Whenever I saw it there was nearly always a queue and most tables were occupied. They did do a lot of promotions for it but it looked very successful.

I have to admit I am somewhat disappointed that the only large themed restaurant in Alton Towers is now, erm, no longer themed

Well it's more themed now than it has been for the last few years. Externally it now fits in with the theme of CCL. And internally it looks nice and modern, ok not themed but it wasn't themed when it was Burger King so no complaints there. And as Dave said, they did theme FCC.

 

[GaryH]

I guess i'm just thinking back to the days of MaccyD's when you had the "road" on the floor, the different areas, clouds hanging above, etc. Oh, and the honk honk every few minutes, oh and the traffic lights which changed colour ...... little things! lol

 

[Spark]

Due to the size, surely an all you can eat would have been better than the pizza pasta buffet in KC

 

[djtruefitt]

The only issue I see with this new CCL burger kitchen is that the menu looks fairly limited (from what you can see on the screen), it basicly has a beef burger, chicken burger, veggie burger and some kids stuff. Compared to Burger King which had about 6 or 7 different burgers as well as extras such as onion rings, ice creams, etc.

I would have prefered a few other fast food options in there as well.

 

[CoasterCrazyChris]

I'm not too bothered that they did not theme the interior of the Burger Kitchen in CCL, because when it was a Burger King it was themeless anyway so its not like they stripped it of anything (like Burger King did which was criminal). It has actually improved marginally inside it looks smarter and the exterior is better themed too if a little tacky.

I do not consider putting up a collage of pictures of a ride on a wall as 'theming' as in the case of the Fried Chicken place, especially when everything else as been made to look like a 50's diner. But again, it was an improvement on the previous look.

I do worry though that these places are just like the high street brand equivalents that they replaced, but without the branding and with a more limited menu.

 

[Poisson]

I'd rather them do a few things well then lots of things awful....

There really is that many mistakes in my posts?! Damn this Tapatalk milarky!

 

[Dave]

I guess i'm just thinking back to the days of MaccyD's when you had the "road" on the floor, the different areas, clouds hanging above, etc. Oh, and the honk honk every few minutes, oh and the traffic lights which changed colour ...... little things! lol

I don't disagree those sort of things would be nice.

 

[CoasterCrazyChris]

I guess i'm just thinking back to the days of MaccyD's when you had the "road" on the floor, the different areas, clouds hanging above, etc. Oh, and the honk honk every few minutes, oh and the traffic lights which changed colour ...... little things! lol

I don't disagree those sort of things would be nice.

The annoying this is that Cred Street Diner was a perfect fit for Cloud Cuckoo Land, it was a bit dated yes and needed some modernization but was still great.

 

[Dave]

I just find it hard to criticise too much as 5 years ago they wouldn't have even bothered, they would have just changed the signs.

 

[Scott]

Whilst it would be nice to have an immersively themed restaurant to take over from BK, this refit looks smart, modern and functional and at least has a really nice facade which fits in with the area it is located. The inside and outside look much better than BK's generic branding and I definitely look forward to trying the place out!

It is also likely that the outside has been themed to CCL with the inside being fairly generic in order to aid transition if the restaurant changes brand again or, more likely, to help when CCL next changes theme - as only the facade and not the whole restaurant would need retheming.

 

[thefatone]

They're seemingly going for the high street look and feel inside - maybe to give that quality image, that theming may not perceive?

As for the diner being too big, it was built and used as an internal restuarant in the first place. This is no different, I imagine it'll be just as busy.

 

[Dean]

It seems The Burger Kitchen staff can only serve one person at a time, so if your there waiting for your food, they can't sever the next person until you have your food.

Last Monday I watched two staff chatting while they waited for there order to be prepared, this will have to change come peak time... :/

 

[Stevie]

I was displeased with the service I had at CCL Burger Kitchen on Tuesday.

The staff all around the restaurant were not interested in customer experience at all, just standing around having a chat. Those behind the counter, I have to say, looked very bewildered about the concept of 'customer service'. It took forever for them to put my order through and then it seemed like a huge effort for them to actually get it to me. I must have been stood there for about 10 minutes whilst they faffed around, dropping things all over the floor, having a chat, giving off a totally unprofessional feeling. The girl behind the counter was nice enough but I had a sense that she wanted me out of the way as quickly as possible and not engaging in the obligatory "Having a nice day?" and "Enjoy the rest of your day".

I personally think they staff haven't been trained enough, which needs sorting out. I heard guests complaining under their breaths regarding the service. I hope this was just a one off experience, if it isn't, it needa rectifying.

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[badlydrawnkelBel]

I agree, on the opening day meet we decided to try it and they were so slow at taking orders. Then instead of taking more they just stood around waiting for the food to be sorted. Although the girl who served us was pleasant it wasn't quick enough at all xx

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