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Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

The buffet at Chessington when I visited this year was awful. The second night in Zufari was much better. The chicken curry in particular was excellent.

Still amazes me though that in a hotel which charges up to £500 a night they can’t have proper chefs!
 
GaryH said:
The buffet at Chessington when I visited this year was awful. The second night in Zufari was much better. The chicken curry in particular was excellent.

Still amazes me though that in a hotel which charges up to £500 a night they can’t have proper chefs!
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Did a member of staff take your order?

When I last ate at the Zufari restaurant in January I had to order everything through the website on my phone. Nothing smacked of dining in a quality hotel restaurant like ordering my drinks and food, one course at a time, having to enter my card details and paying up front each time...
 
Alsty said:
Did a member of staff take your order?

When I last ate at the Zufari restaurant in January I had to order everything through the website on my phone. Nothing smacked of dining in a quality hotel restaurant like ordering my drinks and food, one course at a time, having to enter my card details and paying up front each time...
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Goodness me, I didn't realise it had gotten that bad.
 
I don't want to sound like an old fart (again), but do you starve if you haven't got a mobile?
Keep getting caught out at some of the (lesser) bars on the beach...card only, but if I had to order by phone, I would have to finally accept the twenty first century exists.
 
Giving away control of the catering at the theme parks seems absolutely mental to me. It should be such a huge part of the offering to guests, a way to please them, provide some sort of wow.

What's happened at Chessington shows all that this contract can bring, which is the supplier delivering the bare minimum to maximise profits from a captive audience at the expense of any even attempt at quality. This can only ever be brand damaging and out of the parks hands to be able to fix. It disgusts me really.
 
Alsty said:
Did a member of staff take your order?

When I last ate at the Zufari restaurant in January I had to order everything through the website on my phone. Nothing smacked of dining in a quality hotel restaurant like ordering my drinks and food, one course at a time, having to enter my card details and paying up front each time...
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Isn’t that what Wetherspoons does? Each to their own, of course, but I quite like the app-based ordering system myself!
 
Alsty said:
Did a member of staff take your order?

When I last ate at the Zufari restaurant in January I had to order everything through the website on my phone. Nothing smacked of dining in a quality hotel restaurant like ordering my drinks and food, one course at a time, having to enter my card details and paying up front each time...
Click to expand...

No that was the only big disappointment. Staff standing around doing nothing while we struggled with an app for half hour. (Same as woodcutters)
 
Matt N said:
Isn’t that what Wetherspoons does? Each to their own, of course, but I quite like the app-based ordering system myself!
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And Pizza Hut restaurants and Nando’s have mobile web order systems now (not app).

They are not four star hotels. Pizza Hut and Nando’s are valid comparisons for Merlin foodservice.
 
jon81uk said:
And Pizza Hut restaurants and Nando’s have mobile web order systems now (not app).

They are not four star hotels. Pizza Hut and Nando’s are valid comparisons for Merlin foodservice.
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To be fair both of these will still let you order at the till if you don’t want to order on your phone. However I imagine a large amount of the guests who visit these restaurants will happily use the app or mobile to order.

Back to the topic of Aramark, if it’s anything like Thorpe and Chessie then expect a pound or two adding on to every item.

The likes of Thorpes pizza pasta used to always been a couple of quid cheaper than towers, last season it was a couple of quid more, the same for the chicken place at chessie.

I hope they might have learnt what when we’ll and what didn’t go well down south and then when it comes to next season towers will have the good bits and not the bad bits. But we will see.
 
djtruefitt said:
I hope they might have learnt what when we’ll and what didn’t go well down south and then when it comes to next season towers will have the good bits and not the bad bits. But we will see.
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Genuine question, what good bits?

Food quality down
Menu choices fewer
Prices up
Even staff attitude and customer service down

All of these universally and significantly. I can honestly say I have not seen a single improvement as part of this.
 
This is the month. So low down on the priority list has food been at Alton Towers in recent years, contrary to its resurgence at many major resorts across the globe, that it's now been siphoned off to a catering conglomerate who specialise in school meals, Ohio state prisons and some arenas/sports venues in the USA. To be fair to Aramark, It can't sink much lower beyond the Farley Gates, as 'choice' has largely become Basil Fawlty's Duck Surprise with outlets permanently shuttered and options reduced - but it does go to show what food means to Merlin. Hoping to be proved totally wrong but based on evidence so far in Surrey, I am unsure what revolution (if any) we'll be treated to.

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Most Alton towers trips me and my friends will treat ourselves to food on park as it's not that badly priced with Merlin pass, my usual choice is just chicken, I've never had a issue myself always hot food and really fast service.

Towers has been a lot better for food than somewhere like Drayton manor just down the road where I will always try and get a meal deal beforehand because of the ludicrous prices and dire quality.

I have really low expectations for Aramark, would like to be proven wrong but think it'll always be a Tesco job before Towers from now on.
 
Been on picnics for many years on express parking.
It the food be hot, and service fast, but the cost is usually high, and the quality low.
 
I'm rarely at Towers long enough to eat on most of my visits because they're crappy 6 hour days. When I am at Scarefest and possibly for a trip in the summer, it's the outside ran food vans I use.

In other parks such as Phantasialand, Efteling and Europa, I was happily buying food and drink all day because the food options were plentiful, interesting and of good quality.

I ate at Chessington twice under Aramak in the summer and I really wish I'd just bought a Magnum and packet of crisps and just got something to eat on the way home. It made me wish I was in CCL Burger Kitchen at Towers.

The margins in prepared food are absolutely massive. A good park operater uses merchandise, food and beverage options to make money. Surely farming food out to a prison and army camp caterer is a new low for Towers in this regard? How can they be so bad at running such a potentially lucrative and fundamentally important part of their business that they have to resort to this?
 
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