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Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

Mattie boy said:
The cups isn't as such down to the staff unless the bins are overflowing...its the public who made the mess or who are too lazy to use the bins..

Milk can be left out longer than you think like that.
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It is ultimately the responsibility of the staff to keep the place clean irrespective of guest behaviour.

It’s why they have litter pickers and toilet cleaners too. Guests shouldn’t pee on the floor, but they do.
 
Yes, I’m not sure the sure the public’s attitude to cup disposal has radically changed over the last 12 months. The service provider at Corner Coffee certainly has though.
 
Friends of mine visited for the first time since the takeover of Aramark, they commented straight away about the reduction in food offering, quality and price you pay for it. Saying the burger was “the worst they’d ever had” and the service was awful too. F&B goes a long way towards a customers experience, and my friends say it has definitely put them off returning soon. They really need to get hold of this, it’s embarrassing… but the signs say they don’t care.
 
As there was a long queue for Woodcutters last Sunday afternoon, we ended up risking Burger Kitchen in whatever area of the park it is in these days (CLL/Walliams/Fountain Square, CCL music still plays inside). I went for the chicken burger meal, and it was fine. Nothing special, and far from the worse I've had at Burger Kitchen.

The main issue really was the price. Before discount the regular size meal comes to over £14, and this is for a cheap fast food burger and chips. It's ridiculous overpriced to be honest. The choice on the menu is also now very limited; it was never amazing but I think there were just 3 burger options.
 
I’m currently at the Resort having attended the run yesterday. The weather was awful, very cold and miserable, so everyone wanted a coffee to warm up. The queues at Corner Coffee were INSANE. Not surprised it was chaos in there.

To add to my Aramark food experiences. We had lunch at the pizza and pasta buffet and it was fine. Same as Pizza Hut buffet really. I had a coffee from the unit outside Wickerman and it was fine.

We’ve spent the night at the AT hotel. Had dinner in the Secret Garden. I had a burger, my wife had the steak and halloumi salad. They were both really nice and tasty and well presented.



I’ll report back on breakfast later.
 

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Problem is all of the food is “fine” but they are charging premium prices for it. I will say though I do think the burger kitchen chips are OK, better than whatever KFC have to offer nowadays. Burger patties are like bar coasters though.

Only food I think that is justified in the price and even then only post-discount is the Alton manor ice cream shack.
 
Mattie boy said:
The cups isn't as such down to the staff unless the bins are overflowing...its the public who made the mess or who are too lazy to use the bins..

Milk can be left out longer than you think like that.
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All the bins in there were overflowing. So it’s no surprise the guests just left cups and rubbish everywhere. God knows when the staff last wiped down the tables or swept the floor in there. It’s the worse F&B I’ve ever seen at towers to be fair, in terms of mess.

I mean it literally takes 2 mins to go and empty a bin.
 
djtruefitt said:
All the bins in there were overflowing. So it’s no surprise the guests just left cups and rubbish everywhere. God knows when the staff last wiped down the tables or swept the floor in there. It’s the worse F&B I’ve ever seen at towers to be fair, in terms of mess.

I mean it literally takes 2 mins to go and empty a bin.
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While I agree it should be done more often, if you are serving customers it would take longer that 2 minutes to get the new bag, empty the bin, put the bag in, take the rubbish out to the skip and then most importantly, wash your hands before going back to serving customers. They should have a dedicated member of staff just doing table clearance and bins etc (so that person doesn't need to return to handling food/drink), but I think many staff in those sort of places don't remember their food hygiene training and wash their hands before going back to making drinks/food. Proper hand washing and drying will take 30 seconds on its own. Also far to many people seem to think "but I'm wearing gloves so I don't need to wash hands" when they used those gloves to touch the bin, door and everything else then keeping them on to serve drinks again.

Sorry that's a bit of a rant, but I think those working in places like coffee shops far too often thing that same "it will just take two minutes and I'll go back to serving" without thinking through the hygiene implications.
 
Without delving into the ins and outs of how long it takes to change a bin bag etc, at a high level it’s pretty plain see they didn’t have enough staff in that coffee shop to cope with demand. There should be enough folks to serve, keep the machines clean and empty bins etc.

Those pictures aren’t the result of 10 mins where someone hasn’t emptied a bin, that kind of mess has been building up for a while.

It seems reading accounts of the weekend than the whole resort was generally staffed to a lower level that needed. Parking was a nightmare by all accounts for example. It just seems like they weren’t prepared.

It’s odd since for a private event they will know the numbers ahead of time to staff accordingly. Perhaps they were trying to save some cash by having less staff on, perhaps they let too many go at the end of the season, perhaps too many left and wouldn’t stay on so they couldn’t staff the place to the level they wanted, or perhaps all three?

Whichever way it needs sorting, as it is just not a good enough customer experience.
 
Is there any hope next season that the food being offered will be of a higher quality and lower price. Maybe they should open another cafe that has healthy choices like salads etc instead of all fast food.

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karl.stubbs said:
Is there any hope next season that the food being offered will be of a higher quality and lower price. Maybe they should open another cafe that has healthy choices like salads etc instead of all fast food.

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Higher quality/choice...we can hope.
Lower price...very unlikely!
 
jon81uk said:
I don't think customers actually want another cafe with healthy choices.
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I would, but I'm fed up of eating bits of stale burger buns all day. So are my goosey cousins.

It's not that I'd like to see a healthy food outlet as such, it's more than I'd like like to see a food outlet without unhealthy options, if that makes sense?

I don't want dry hot dogs. I don't want beige chicken tenders and chips.

Give me some wraps, or burritos. Give me fresh sandwiches, or subs, on wholemeal or artisanal bread, with a decent portion of filling and maybe even, shock, mayo. Give me New York or Roman style pizza by the slice. Give me a rice box or pot. Give me fresh fruit. Give me a chicken salad etc...

I'm not asking for the wheel to be reinvented, and I'll happily pay a premium for quality. Just don't give me what is essentially McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut, or their impersonations.

Also why does the only outlet which will do "healthier" options have to be in Cbeebies land and not replicated anywhere else? It makes it uncomfortable for those without goslings.
 
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Agree with the post above, I’m happy to pay for quality food and it would be good if Alton open a decent quality restaurant where the choice isn’t just burgers
 
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