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Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

rickstar171 said:
BPB are definitely superior when it comes to food. And new things appearing this year like rotisserie chicken at Loki's bar and the new burger offerings. They're getting it right
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Are they though? When we went to BPB at the end of last season the food offerings were pretty dire. We were going to eat in Coasters but they were not doing food as they did not have enough staff. We ended up leaving the park and getting food elsewhere before returning!

Food at UK theme parks in general is miles behind what you can get at many parks in Europe and the US.
 
Do we know if the food stands in front of the Towers will return? I always found the food there infinitely better than the other options.

Regarding the food at Blackpool, I’ve never had an issue really. Yeh it’s not amazing but it’s at least edible. I usually get the fish and chips and they’re cooked fresh to order so no complaints.
 
The difference at Blackpool of course being that if people walk around they think the choice or price is poor they can leave the park and be presented with loads of other options. So it forces them to up their game.

At Towers, you’re stuck with it and they know it.
 
Rob said:
Are they though? When we went to BPB at the end of last season the food offerings were pretty dire. We were going to eat in Coasters but they were not doing food as they did not have enough staff. We ended up leaving the park and getting food elsewhere before returning!

Food at UK theme parks in general is miles behind what you can get at many parks in Europe and the US.
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Oh yeah miles behind US parks but that's a statement that can be swept across several UK service offerings. And Coasters apparently has food back on this year, as we always liked eating their, not just burgers or chips on offer! Not saying food is great at BPB but this year and previous what they offer is better and marginally cheap than AT
 
Katy said:
I think what annoys me about this (although equally applies to other parks and to pre-Aramark) - typically you'd expect the "main item" (burger or whatever) on its own to seem expensive, turn it into a meal and it's £1 more totalling something reasonable (given that chips and drink are extremely high margin), but they typically add much more than this at theme parks.
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The days of "cheap" upgrades to a meal are long gone in general. At my local McDonalds its £4.09 for a Big Mac and £5.49 for a medium meal. Its 70p more to go to large. So yes it is almost buy fries and get the drink for free, but not as cheap as it used to be. But also I think the sandwich price is overstated, a Big Mac isn't worth £4.09, but £5.49 for the whole meal seems fair.

At Burger King its £5.99 for a Whopper and £7.99 for the medium meal, but only an extra 50p to go large.

So although the £4.50 uplift at Burger Kitchen at AT from sandwich to meal is high, soft drinks have always been crazy prices at theme parks.
 
In shocking news, the price of a pint of Goose Midway IPA has fallen to £6.60 from previous highs of £7.20. When ATH changed from serving the 5.9% Goose IPA to the 4.1% Midway a couple of years ago, they forgot to lower the price. Thankfully, that has now been resolved.

Miracles do happen.

Also - what is funny with the Walkers is that a bag of Tyrrels is £1.65 in the hotel, whilst Walkers is £1.75 on park...!
 
The Aramark pricing makes no sense as you go across the park, you’ll find the same items at different prices across all their outlets.

Dark fruits in woodcutters £5.85, but it’s £5.95 in the welcom-inn. A bottle of water ranges from £2.80-£3.50 depending on the outlet.

Mozzarella sticks £3.30 for five in woodcutters, but £3.60 for three in burger kitchen. It’s as if they just make up the prices in each outlet as they go along

You are lucky to even find a price on most of the items in the coffee lounge.

Then what makes it worse is items towers sell in retail are cheaper, Pringles are £1.50 in towers ran outlets, £1.65 in Aramark outlets, same for chocolate bars.
 
It's like they hit the shuffle button for pricing. It's not even like any of the outlets (bar RCR if you want to be pedantic) have their own individual draws to warrant the premium pricing.

On the subject of priced menus, this article states:
All pubs and restaurants should display their prices clearly to their customers. Restaurants must show prices with their menu at or near their entrance so people will know how much they'll be charged.

Bars should display prices for their whole range of drinks.

Restaurants, pubs and bars that don't do this may face a fine
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Whilst it isn't necessarily legal to not display a priced menu, it'd certainly improve experience and increase customer confidence.

Maybe they'll repurpose the weird "red-button number-guessing win-a-free-meal"* game from Just Chicken into a price generator.

*Meal may not constitute as food.
 
Obtaining food and beverage at the park is no longer an enjoyable part of the experience. In fact it hasn’t been for a few years now. Whilst in years gone by it would have been a nice part of your day to grab some waffle fries from the Courtyard BBQ or nachos from Mexican Cantina with a beer, it’s now an expensive, risky and anxiety-filled debacle to even attempt to obtain any sort of decent food.

Whilst BPB has its problems with speed of service in many parts, the quality and value of the food in general is far above what Towers now offer.
 
I’m glad to read that it’s not just the theme park enthusiasts who are not happy with the pricing and quality this year. The reviews coming in are dreadful from all areas of the resort
 
In Woodcutters yesterday we were spread across two different tables, however all ordering at similar times within minutes of eachother. Some people's meals turned up in 20-25 minutes, others (even on the same table numbers) turned up 45 minutes after ordering. There was a table next to us who ordered 5 minutes before us, theirs didn't arrive until 5 minutes after the last meal on our table turned up. These were all similar meals too, our other table had steaks and so did the table next to us - yet theirs was last to arrive.

Now for us who've done the park to death over the years, spending over an hour in Woodcutters isn't perhaps an issue. But for occasional visitors like those next to us - spending that long in there topped with a probably 15+ minute wait for a table, that's a huge chunk of the day missing when topped off with shoddy ride availability.

The quick service places like Burger Kitchen and Just Chicken just looked messy, the queues at the loaded fries place in Valley were large yesterday too. The self service conversions in the large Burger Kitchen and Just Chicken basically makes them look like Argos outlets. As mentioned in other topics, yesterday was a quiet day too - if they're struggling now, peak days are going to be a nightmare.
 
Woodcutters used to be great but was dreadful last year and to think it’s even got worse this year is just incredible.
 
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The food I had in Woodcutters was perfectly okay. However we were in there for around 11:30 which might explain why the service was half decent
 
Poisson said:
The food I had in Woodcutters was perfectly okay. However we were in there for around 11:30 which might explain why the service was half decent
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Service seems slower than ever in woodcutters, I can only assume Aramark have cut staff in there as the menu is pretty much identical to last year. I did notice the burger buns have gotten worse and so have the onion rings.

It shouldn’t be taking them 55 minutes to serve a burger and chips.
jon81uk said:
That one it’s obvious they just added the 10% when the Aramark contract started.
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Yeah at the start of the season almost all items in Aramark outlets just had a 10% price rise added, now the season is coming on the price rises seem to be none stop and just random.

I saw earlier than the pizza place has gone up in price for the 3rd time.

I imagine now at towers we’ll see price rises every month or so across F&B.
 
djtruefitt said:
Yeah at the start of the season almost all items in Aramark outlets just had a 10% price rise added, now the season is coming on the price rises seem to be none stop and just random.
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But if AT retail don’t raise the prices it’s gonna get silly with differences between shops/kiosks and bars/restaurants.
 
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