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Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

Cheers, think my son would want the fish and chips and I’d probably go for a burger though not too fussed so if it was busy could go with anything. Think we will give it a go and see, will report back what we think. My son is just 1.4m but won’t be doing the X Sector rides this time I don’t think, he enjoys just watching The Smiler so that will pass the time while we wait for food I think.
 
geo4chg said:
Cheers, think my son would want the fish and chips and I’d probably go for a burger though not too fussed so if it was busy could go with anything. Think we will give it a go and see, will report back what we think. My son is just 1.4m but won’t be doing the X Sector rides this time I don’t think, he enjoys just watching The Smiler so that will pass the time while we wait for food I think.
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The entrance for Oblivion is just next to the food trucks. With a little distraction, before you know it, you're both at the front of the queue and... "Oh how on earth did we get here? I guess we'll have to go on now."

Enjoy your visit! 🪿
 
Our little un loves RCR and so we opted to eat there on Saturday night. We set our expectations low as not to be too disappointed.

First off the phone ordering system - what an absolute faff that is. Given I have a gluten allergy I had to wait for a "chef" to come down and give a 2 second talk about how to use the ordering system. The "allergy menu" had 3 items on it. No starters, no desserts, just 3 mains. Which were something like Spinach burger, gammon and chips, or feta salad. I queried again with staff if that was it, and waited again for the "chef" to come down. He advised they could do a Hunters chicken so I opted for that. The rest of the party then ordered their food, the whole process took about 35 minutes. It could have taken 5 minutes if the allergy menu was better, and if staff were taking orders rather than doing it on our phones.

Mine came first, consisting of a pot full of chips, and a pot filled to the brim with BBQ sauce, 8 pieces of bacon, loads of cheese and 2 large chicken breasts. Now, I cant complain about the size of the meal that's for sure, though it was a bit BBQ sauce and bacon overkill! 10 minutes later came my partners lukewarm curry, followed another 10 mins later by our little ones Cheeseburger, complete with a pot full of baked beans.

We had a coke, cranberry juice and J20 and the whole lot came to about £70 which felt too much for the quality of the food. We didn't bother with deserts but these were about £8.50 each, plus there was nothing on the menu I could eat for dessert. I couldn't even risk the ice cream as I was advised it contains wheat!

I'm not going to say it was bad, because the portion sizes were HUGE (too big if anything), but it was very average for the price - which, it always has been really.

One positive were the staff walking around clearing the tables, they were very attentive.

The allergy menu really needs addressing though- we went to another restaurant off site the next day where they had their own menu I could choose from with about 10 mains, 5 starters and 5 deserts to choose from.
 
GaryH said:
The allergy menu really needs addressing though- we went to another restaurant off site the next day where they had their own menu I could choose from with about 10 mains, 5 starters and 5 deserts to choose from.
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Do you mind sharing where you ate off site? My sister and I are gluten free and struggle with getting meals when we go to towers.
 
Aramark are poor with anything even slightly out of the ordinary. And I’ve found Towers customer services less than helpful as they see it as an Aramark problem, not a towers problem. Which really isn’t how this should work. As a customer of Towers it is not my problem who does their catering - I should have a single point of contact who should actually do something.

The gluten incident which caused Aramark to refuse to cater to allergy diets was December 23 - it has been plenty of time for Aramark to get a grip of proper allergy controls by now.

Unfortunately, the fact they still haven’t suggests they probably won’t. And Towers don’t seem to be too bothered about getting their sub contractor to perform. Disappointing doesn’t quite cover it.
 
GaryH said:
First off the phone ordering system - what an absolute faff that is. Given I have a gluten allergy I had to wait for a "chef" to come down and give a 2 second talk about how to use the ordering system. The "allergy menu" had 3 items on it. No starters, no desserts, just 3 mains. Which were something like Spinach burger, gammon and chips, or feta salad. I queried again with staff if that was it, and waited again for the "chef" to come down. He advised they could do a Hunters chicken so I opted for that. The rest of the party then ordered their food, the whole process took about 35 minutes. It could have taken 5 minutes if the allergy menu was better, and if staff were taking orders rather than doing it on our phones.
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Rollercoaster Restaurant was always ordering on tablets for the food to come "magically" down the track, there never has been staff to take orders. Or have they removed the tablets and you have to use your own phone?
 
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jon81uk said:
Rollercoaster Restaurant was always ordering on tablets for the food to come "magically" down the track, there never has been staff to take orders. Or have they removed the tablets and you have to use your own phone?
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The tablets were removed quite a while back I think.
 
I too ate at RCR on Saturday and was ordering with a gluten allergy. Much as @GaryH described, having declared your allergy you are visited by the chef who explains the available options and also takes your name which they write down on a sheet. You are then asked to order through the app like everyone else but to include your name in the order notes so they can match it up with the allergy information you've provided them. Then all diners - not just those with allergies - must tick a box when ordering to confirm that no allergies have gone undisclosed, the text of which also explains that allergy orders are labelled and any allergy order received without a label must be rejected. I can see that they've tried to put safety protocols in place here - but it is a very convoluted process and feels like a very reactionary response to whatever went wrong in December last year. There were also only a few mains listed under 'Allergy Meals' but when I enquired about the vegan curry (which sounded identical to the one I often have in Woodcutters) was told this was also gluten-free, yet it wasn't listed as an 'allergy meal'. So the phone menu is useless for actually telling you what allergens each dish contains, and as far as I could tell there was no detailed allergy matrix available other than through asking a staff member.

I ordered the NGCI vegan burger and chips in the end, dutifully including my name and the details of my allergy in the notes. Despite putting my order through only minutes after my dining companion, my food arrived about 25 minutes later than theirs, which I presumed was related to it being an 'allergy order'. This was a shame as it meant we couldn't actually eat together. The food itself was fine - the plant-based burger was quite tasty plus it's now possible to request a vegan and gluten-free bun, which was a lot nicer than the dry, very hard gluten-free bun I had been given in RCR three years ago.

So definitely some improvements to the food quality and the availability of specific gluten-free alternatives - but the ordering process felt like a mess and wasn't really reassuring that Aramark have any confidence in their own food safety standards. The cost is also much higher than the quality of the food would merit; obviously you are paying for the novelty of your food arriving by track. It was nice to change things up but I doubt I'll eat there again this season as Woodcutters is usually a much better value proposition.
 
Given they had Gluten free buns I was tempted to ask for a burger with a gluten free bun...... but then of course remembered the Aramark burgers are not 100% beef are they! Silly me!

sock said:
Do you mind sharing where you ate off site? My sister and I are gluten free and struggle with getting meals when we go to towers.
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The Star at Cotton. About 5-10 min drive from the park. Need to book in advance as its a popular place. GF menu:

 
GaryH said:
Given they had Gluten free buns I was tempted to ask for a burger with a gluten free bun...... but then of course remembered the Aramark burgers are not 100% beef are they! Silly me!



The Star at Cotton. About 5-10 min drive from the park. Need to book in advance as its a popular place. GF menu:

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Thank you! The only place I knew had GF near towers was the fish and chip shop, so this widens our options.
 
sock said:
Thank you! The only place I knew had GF near towers was the fish and chip shop, so this widens our options.
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Quite a few pubs do now. It’s getting much better. Even one of the burger vans on the lawns at AT during Scarefest last year had Gluten free baps and 100% beef burgers.
 
GaryH said:
Given they had Gluten free buns I was tempted to ask for a burger with a gluten free bun...... but then of course remembered the Aramark burgers are not 100% beef are they! Silly me!
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They’d get flack if they labelled it 100% horse unfortunately.

On a more serious note, Aramark never got back to me regarding my complaint about the pricing discrepancies in RCR either (stuff on the menu at one price and another in the basket).
 
Leigh said:
They’d get flack if they labelled it 100% horse unfortunately.

On a more serious note, Aramark never got back to me regarding my complaint about the pricing discrepancies in RCR either (stuff on the menu at one price and another in the basket).
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Based on the fact they have shown themselves to be a wholly incompetent, not just at Alton Towers but around the world, time and time again, they probably have not got a clue how to answer.

Surely though, Alton Towers are the ones who would need contacting and answering regarding that, not Aramark. That could be a reason why they have not answered.

Sub contractors are usually never liable to answer queries or complaints, because they are well, sub contractors.
 
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When I contacted Towers about an Aramark thing they gave me an email address for Aramark and said it was nothing to do with them. I emailed that address in March, chased it twice and still haven’t had a response.

You are right that Towers should be dealing with these queries/complaints but they do not. They hide behind their contract with Aramark and deny any responsibility.
 
DistortAMG said:
Surely though, Alton Towers are the ones who would need contacting and answering regarding that, not Aramark. That could be a reason why they have not answered.

Sub contractors are usually never liable to answer queries or complaints, because they are well, sub contractors.
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GaryH said:
You’re right that Towers should be dealing with such issues and not passing the buck.
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Devil's advocate for one moment. These are outsourced outlets. If they were branded / operated to an established entity, Greggs for example, who would you consider should be dealing with the questions and issues then? Alton Towers, or Greggs?

In a service station, if you have an issue with an outlet, do you take it up with the outlet or Welcome Break / Moto / Road Chef?
 
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