Patisserie Valerie- not surprising?

[MyOtherProfile]

Just heard on the news that Patisserie Valerie is in trouble. Frankly I'm not surprised. For me it has always missed its target. It sells nice patisserie like a posh cafe but looks like a cheap diner. As much as I'd like to go for the coffee and cake they're not pretty or comfy places. Anyone feel the same?

My local Sainsbury’s have a patisserie that sell pat val cakes. Bought them a few times and they’ve always been nice, although a little pricey! Looks like that’ll be going soon then!

I've only been to Patisserie Valerie when it was a cafe in Soho. Crowded but fab. I'm not surprised that examining it failed. Half the pull was being in Soho, being in the mix.

Another one here who’s looked in the windows but never actually been inside one. Maybe we’ve hit on the problem here.

We’ve got a nice Thornton’s cafe in our local shopping mall, it seems much nicer inside and is always rammed.

It started in soho as an independent and was wonderful they baked above the shop. This was 20 years ago when we used to visit

Sold out and it went down hill sadly..

But like ASK after it sold out

Hospitality run by accountants is like asking a fish to paint

In Edinburgh PV’s always stuffed to the gunnels with tourists -they’re not relying on repeat business so don’t need to be any good. Agree with previous poster, Mimi’s Bake house in Edinburgh is far better (although not cheap - it’s rare treat territory for us but worth it).

We’re lucky to have half a dozen excellent independent cafes and tea rooms in our area - good cakes and coffee, reasonable prices and good service because they need the repeat business from locals (and because they’re run by nice people who, yes, want a successful business but also want to serve nice cakes in a clean and comfortable environment and make their customers happy, not just make lots of money.)

Just seen that the finance director has been arrested.

There's obviously a lot more going on here than poor service and second rate cakes if directors are being arrested.

The food it just mass produced. No finesse.
It's a shame though as there is a definite lack of table service cafes/restaurants and as a middle aged lady, I can remember when everywhere was table service. Hell I can remember when I used to pull up to a petrol pump and ask the man for £5 of petrol. I never left the car!

Borntobeamum that’s how it started, table service and wonderful fresh pastry’s etc. You went and sat at a table and they put a basket of croissants on the table.

It’s the same company that owns druckers that own VP

cheapest possible products and cheapest possible service happens when you get greedy investors trying to bleed the assets dry before they bail.

Assets include the brand name, which they trade on for as long as they can hoodwink the customers.

The FD being arrested is something else again. Who knows what they’ll find there.

@TheHauntedFishtank

Some might say he's in... custardy

Oh dear! And I only need one more stamp on my card to get my next free coffee & "cookie" - horrible word.
They'd better not close just yet....

The one local to me has nothing that is dairy free so we can't go there as a family because our granddaughter has a dairy allergy.

I used to go there when they were a lovely little Soho cafe and cake shop. I remember going there after a Marcel Marceau show, it was like living in Paris!

ivykaty44
'......hospitality run by accountants is like asking a fish to paint.'

Giraffe is another with the potential to go the same way
Gail's is still great but expanding fast, I fear for my cheese straws and cinnamon buns

When I first went to PV in London many years ago I thought I'd died and gone to heaven - those amazing cakes ! But sadly they expanded and the quality dropped massively.
They've opened in a Debenhams in Dublin and I thought it was cr*p when I paid a visit.

Another place that went down the pan years ago was pancake place. There was one on the royal mile and I was amazing. And one in Stirling. I guess I was in the pancake loving minority though 😬

There's one at a services just off the A1.

I'll admit I like a gander at their displays and they do a good takeaway hot chocolate if I'm in the mood, but I can't ever imagine sitting there for afternoon tea.

As others have said the service is poor and slow. I can get a cuppa from McDonald's and nice biscuits (and something for dinner) from M&S in less time than PV take to notice they have a customer.

I went once with the kids, the cakes look lush but all 3 cakes we ordered tasted horrible. Tables too close together , noisy, staff not remotely interested and got our order wrong twice then we had to wait ages to pay. While they chatted amongst themselves.

Even a costa or Starbucks is better as it's not pretending to be something it's not!

luckycat007
I love pancakes too - and waffles.
I'd love if International House of Pancakes or whatever they're called now or Waffle House would open on this side of the pond.

@beanaseireann damn right being back the pancake place!!!

Generally speaking with cakes though I think indies tend to offer better tasting ones.

My old firm always used to get cake from PV for someone's birthday. The filthy rich lawyers used to rave about the cake. The cake always looked amazing but 9/10 they tasted like they had been defrosted/still frozen and they just were not that tasty.

I think there are too many posh bakeries now and PV either has or looks like their standards have gone downhill. Not to mention the dodgy financial dealings.

Well, I walked past my local one earlier and there was a queue out the door, so they must be doing something right. Maybe people just wanting to try it before it goes forever.

The main thing I think of when it comes to Patisserie Valerie is the story a few years ago when someone took a photo of a mouse running around the display cabinets and the staff said “oh, we have loads of nice. That’s normal”.

I frequent the Ivy pretty often for work client lunches in the City and they (so far) are consistently good. Beautiful fit-out. Food is pretty good, service okay (but by no means the worst). My only gripe is that their drinks are horrendously expensive. I think they will be OK.