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Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

Woodcutters prices have gone through the roof and vegan options are now abysmal.

£15 for a small wrap that looks like it’s from Tesco meal deal and chips.

Or a single clump of stodgy rice with your curry .

Pretty miserable that this is the highest quality fare on offer
 
They have lost me as well as a food and drink customer. The prices are disgusting as is the food. It’s also the main reason I tefuse yo stay in the hotels anymore. I don’t see the point in staying on site only to have to drive to a pub in the evening just to get some decent food.
 
Being forced into a meal almost put me off a double cheeseburger on Saturday. Sadly it didn't as the heat-lamp dried specimen was hardly worth the cost.

Pizza & Pasta looked dead around 6pm, which surprised me. Maybe it shouldn't have at £21 a head. Possibly they have pushed prices too far now. As someone put it better than me, the response to Aramark woes has been "we are on a journey" - but the pricing suggests that a journey to quality is complete.
 
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Honestly have no desire to eat on park anymore, and I think it’s becoming the same for everyone.

Don’t get me wrong I love naff theme park food but not at the prices they are now set at - also hardly any of the concessions are available half the time. It’s pot luck which ones will be open so much easier to just take a £25 picnic in
 
Other than meals in the Rollercoaster Restaurant on hotel stays (the most recent of which was June 2022), I haven't eaten hot food on park in absolutely years. We tend to take our own packed lunch these days, and even when we can't do this due to having stayed in a hotel the night before, we normally buy sandwiches from somewhere and take them in. On our most recent trip, we bought sandwiches from the garage near to the Uttoxeter Premier Inn on our second day, and that suited us fine!

This isn't down to any previous dislike of Alton's on-park food offering, but we've just found that packed lunches represent way less cost and way less hassle in recent years. It suits us much better.

That will have to change at the weekend, though. We're staying on park until 8pm, so will be unable to have a proper evening meal in the hotel restaurant. Therefore, I'll be having my first hot meal in Alton Towers in quite some time at the weekend. I'm not much of a foodie myself, so don't expect a terribly comprehensive review, but if our meal is particularly noteworthy for any reason, then I might post about it. I'm aware that you all like a good food review since the Aramark transition, so if there's any particularly juicy tidbits from my experience, I'll be sure to write about them!
 
Do you think that the new company are simply hitting the "lowest common denominator" in quality and service?
They know theme park food has a reputation for low quality and high prices, and are simply flogging to the young and less "experienced" visitors...mug em quick and young...there will be fresh faces again next year.
Lots of customers are once a year visitors...they will know of crap quality for high prices, and simply pay up and accept duff food for a one off visit.
The more you visit over the years, and the more frequently you visit parks to make a good accurate comparison of provision offering, the more "fussy" we get, as we know better.
Last good, cheap, quality theme park food...early season roast chicken by Valhalla last season...then they put the prices up by about a fiver!
Most people don't do the Towers for food, they go for the rides...crap food in parks is something we tend to tolerate as routine.
 
I was comparing the quality of food in DLP to Alton yesterday and I can't believe that Alton is now more expensive than Disney! The food is far better (not perfect but better) a pizza, garlic bread and drink is £15. A full 3 course eat all you can buffet with quality ingredients and choice at PYM Kitchen (with drink) is £39. But when you look at the options compared to A.T. it's shocking.

With Paris you at least can walk to McDonald's.

I think what will happen is that in a few years Alton will once again make a huge thing about value brands arriving at the park. It will be a low investment year, but it will bring families back who last like felt ripped off.

If you look at the park maps then, they made a huge thing of McDonald's etc coming. I don't like BK or KFC but look how busy those branches are in TP compared to the rest! (And the teaming is better)
 
Time to put my sensible *Karen* suit jacket on. This is one of the times that voicing concerns and complaints to management will help.

Complain by phone, and then follow-up complain via email with easily ctrl+f-able terms in the title: ‘Aramark’ ‘food’ ‘gluten-free’ ‘bigger rip-off than those £100 bolts’.

It appears that Bianca and the team are taking guest satisfaction more seriously and want to make on-park experiences more enjoyable. Give her the ammunition to force Aramark into stricter KPIs (options, quality, price) or activate a break clause in the contract and convince Merlin into an F&B rethink.

If any correlation can be found between on-park profit and the food service, Merlin will want to act.

They’ve just had a huge opening weekend and thousands of people will share the enthusiasts position regarding the food, and surely this is gettting back to senior leadership.

Returning to brand partnerships feels like the right move now. It would be PR-worthy to highlight high street chains serving food at AT, and could make the GP rethink their packed lunches. Even if the Greggs retheme of Glactica is garish.
 
My issue with the food/ visiting at anywhere like Towers is the unexpected cost it inflicts. If you are a family that only visits every few years - the unexpected cost is truly ridiculous.

"Let's go to Towers for the day"
"Great idea. It will be £150 for tickets"
"We will pick up something to eat at the park. I know it will be pricey, but can't be too bad"
"That'll be £84 for pizza buffet. By the way, it's not very good either!"
"The kids will be thirsty"
"That'll be £30 for refillable drinks for two."
"The rides are ridiculously busy. It's almost like they don't have enough. Smiler is at a 2 hour wait"
"There is always fast track for the coasters... it's only £55 each. So that's £220 please"
"There can't be anything else you are going to charge me for!?!?"
"Well, you parked in our car park. That's £10 please."

So, in total an average-ish family (2 adults and 2 kids), on a busy day would realistically be expected to spend around £500 for a day on park before merch. I'd love to know what the spend per head is. I'm assuming the target must be around £100pp.
 
Controversially, I quite enjoyed the quick service food before Aramark. The fried chicken was no better than supermarket frozen stuff, certainly not KFC standards, but was tasty enough. I always liked the chips with a bit of vinegar and the burgers weren't half bad for cheap theme park fayre. It was always motorway service station prices but you expect that.

I've had the odd table service meal now and then at Scarefest or when staying over, but I live a significant distance away and often visit when the park hours are measly. When the park shuts at 4 or 5pm, that's a lot of ride time wasted eating if you go for table service. So edible quick service is very important to me.

But now I can't do that, I tend to just buy a Magnum during the day and just eat on the way home. I won't do that at Thorpe, I'll eat a Burger King instead and get the kids a KFC because I know what it'll taste like. At least you'd get that with brand franchises.
 
ScottishChris said:
My issue with the food/ visiting at anywhere like Towers is the unexpected cost it inflicts. If you are a family that only visits every few years - the unexpected cost is truly ridiculous.

"Let's go to Towers for the day"
"Great idea. It will be £150 for tickets"
"We will pick up something to eat at the park. I know it will be pricey, but can't be too bad"
"That'll be £84 for pizza buffet. By the way, it's not very good either!"
"The kids will be thirsty"
"That'll be £30 for refillable drinks for two."
"The rides are ridiculously busy. It's almost like they don't have enough. Smiler is at a 2 hour wait"
"There is always fast track for the coasters... it's only £55 each. So that's £220 please"
"There can't be anything else you are going to charge me for!?!?"
"Well, you parked in our car park. That's £10 please."

So, in total an average-ish family (2 adults and 2 kids), on a busy day would realistically be expected to spend around £500 for a day on park before merch. I'd love to know what the spend per head is. I'm assuming the target must be around £100pp.
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Then the tight pass holder turns up for his weekly visit, bottle of water in bag, tinfoil butty, total cost of trip fifteen quid including parking.
This is why Mandy had her big dig at passholders.
 
It is noticeable that Aramark have significantly jacked up lower end food prices this season.

Hitting the poorest hardest.

Sounds familiar.

Rollover up £2.35 from £7.15 to £9.50.

New hotdog stand by WM pushing £13 an item.

No individual items sold at BK/Chicken/Generator.

It stinks.
 
BSwiss said:
Time to put my sensible *Karen* suit jacket on. This is one of the times that voicing concerns and complaints to management will help.
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This. Every business is run by metrics. If they can demonstrate that poor F&B options, quality and pricing have a negative effect on guest satisfaction and revenue then they can do something about it. Complaining here is all well and good, but we all need to be raising these complaints directly with the park and Aramark.

Individually we will be ignored, many of us will never get a response, collectively it might JUST make an impact.

I'm not suggesting or encouraging compensation / freebies demanding complaints, I'm suggesting level headed and passionate, good quality customer feedback.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
This. Every business is run by metrics. If they can demonstrate that poor F&B options, quality and pricing have a negative effect on guest satisfaction and revenue then they can do something about it. Complaining here is all well and good, but we all need to be raising these complaints directly with the park and Aramark.
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Whilst you are correct, you have got a major part of this wrong. The vast majority of those who use the catering facilities are a one-and-done spend and as such they can get away with maximising income by having high retail prices and product with low procurement costs. Guest satisfaction is of fairly negligible consequence... because they don't need to chase a return visit.

I'm assuming most people on here have an AP. The fact they can afford to give a 20% discount, still make a profit but yet the majority of u still sees their offering as very poor value speaks volumes.

Aramark don't care about your satisfaction, because they don't need to. All they want to do is hook you in to get you to spend.
 
I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I did grab a Rollover at the weekend. Was so hungry after the huge wait for Nemesis that I just wanted something quick and easy, and did not even look at the price before ordering. Then when I did see what I was paying I did think it seemed rather a lot, even after discount.

It sounds like Woodcutters does remain reasonably priced for what you get, but most other things across the park are horribly overpriced and the quality does not stack up. Sure, everything is getting more expensive these days, but Towers/Aramark are really taking the mick with it.

As Dan says, they are really exploiting those who want to go for the cheaper options, by making them anything but cheap. And why on earth can you not get single items in the fast food places!?

F&B needs a complete overhaul.
 
Have the feedback tablets all conspicuously gone missing? Those would be a good shout.

Will see on my upcoming visit. With a little one it's hard enough deciding on food when eating out (that isn't just nuggets and chips, she's not quite old enough to demand that every time so we do try to variate) and Towers' options seem to be lacking more and more. Pizza Pasta at Chessie last year was fine but not much else to crow about.

Might be a CBeebies Land lunch.
 
I seem to remember last year their tripadvisor ratings plummeted but that obviously had no impact whatsoever.

The complaints have to go on X/Twitter and Facebook and be seen by the wider audiences
 
They (Aramark) won’t care about the ratings. You only have to see all the complaints against them in the US to realise this. But Merlin will care about profits. Annual passes are much cheaper than tickets because these parks make their money from profits on food, drink and retail.

If more and more people take their own food in to the park this profit will start to dwindle and they will be forced to act.

They could workers reduce the prices, ditch Aramark or enforce a “no food or drink in the park rule” with security checking people’s bags at the entrance. Though I think the latter would cause absolute uproar so I don’t think they would do this.
 
GaryH said:
They (Aramark) won’t care about the ratings. You only have to see all the complaints against them in the US to realise this. But Merlin will care about profits. Annual passes are much cheaper than tickets because these parks make their money from profits on food, drink and retail.

If more and more people take their own food in to the park this profit will start to dwindle and they will be forced to act.

They could workers reduce the prices, ditch Aramark or enforce a “no food or drink in the park rule” with security checking people’s bags at the entrance. Though I think the latter would cause absolute uproar so I don’t think they would do this.
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Knowing Merlin/Aramark they will go along the thought train of "profit from F+B is dropping because people aren't buying. I know, let's raise prices to keep the profit levels up"
 
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