To think Jamie's Italian failed due to being shit rather than brexit

[Ll81]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5377965/Jamie-Olivers-Italian-restaurant-empire-racks-debts.html#article-5377965

Brexit is going to cause lots of problems for many years to come, but it's just a cheap shot blaming brexit. I've eaten in his Italian places twice and it was pretty shit food and bad value. Brexit or not I'm sure it wouldn't make much difference to his buisness this quickly.

You could never get a table at the one in St Albans at a time you actually wanted to eat - and if you did get in there then the menu was a disaster for anyone with gluten intolerance, so after two miserable visits I gave up. Whereas Pizza Express, another Italian, manages to do GF versions of many of its dishes - and for a fraction of the price.

Went once, never again.

My meal was bland and watery, my husbands had so much salt it was inedible and DD refused to eat hers. Very overpriced for food that is inferior to the cheaper Italian chains. Pizza Express or Zizzis far better value for average Italian food. My children love Pizza Express and the staff are friendly. They were boardering on hostile in Jamie’s!

There are pictures of JO everywhere and videos of him on all the screens.... then to top it off - a timeline of his life, starting from conception at Southend pier

Please tell me that is a joke?! 🤢🤢🤢

Glad it's not just me, sounds like the food might have been just about worth the high price at the start but after that it's nothing more than vastly overpriced fast food and cheap ingredients.

A small group of us went early evening on a mid-week day. We didn't have a reservation but the place was less than a third full. They huffed and puffed and eventually 'made room' for us on an upstairs table next to the toilets. Terrible service, stupid slices of wood instead of plates meant half our food ended up on the table and too much clutter on the table in various tins and jars. We never went back, we go to carluccios instead.

One of my DCs is Coeliac and they are very, very good at a) gluten free options and b) showing that they do properly understand about cross contamination etc. So for that reason alone I have a soft spot for Jamie's and am sad they're struggling. From the sounds of this thread though I've been lucky in that my local Jamie's has good service and is pretty OK.

starting from conception at Southend pier

As an aside, I'm always confused by stories like this. I would imagine that people who would shag at Southend pier probably have a lot of sex, so how do they know their baby was conceived there? It's unlikely isn't it, that the only time you had sex during your fertile window was at Southend pier? Perhaps it was so exhausting that it really was.

Beautiful looking surroundings but average food and tiny portions

Tried to go with a group of friends when it first opened. I use a wheelchair as does one of the others in the group. We knew from friend’s DSis that part of the restaurant was up a couple of steps. And they were adament that we couldn’t book as policy was only groups over a certain size could be booked. No exceptions. So we went elsewhere.

I also found it hugely overpriced. The children's meals on particular were awful and we had to send back the 'slider' children's burgers because they were fridge cold in the middle. They replaced it with a 'lunch box' which was just awful value. In the end the two not fussy children ate garlic bread and chips. They were also needlessly aggressive about telling us that theyd need our table back. Yes we know so get on with bringing us food that we ordered the minute our bums hit the chair. We waited 35 minutes for starters. It was bruschetta. I've never been back.

Nice olives though!

So many chains do it better and cheaper, and brexit is clearly impacting on terms of food prices but based on what people are saying here I don't think it's all brexit is it!

Next one is Carluccio's surely? Also bland food, terrible service in a beautiful environment

YANBU. I don't understand why anyone would choose to go to them.

I went there once with friends. Never again.

It was horrendously overpriced, tasteless crap. I seasoned my food 3 times and it was still flavourless and insipid.

I can make a better bowl of pasta for myself for under £1.

I can't abide JO, he's a smug arrogant fucker, hopefully this might be a much needed reality check.

Went to the one in Victoria last week, dire dire cocktails. And I tried six of them to be sure.....😂

The problem with Gatwick airport is we didn’t chose to go, it’s Jamie’s or some other horrible place calling itself a restaurant.
The one in Greenwich took up about 4 shops, no doubt pushed up the rent for the other shops & was hardly ever open - not very impressed with Jamie for that!

I ate there with my friend. One time only. The food was grim. We had to send back a main course and the waiter was incredibly rude.

I'm not surprised it's failing. It's horrible.

Guess I won't be going then

Ate at two of his Italian restaurants. The first experience was terrible. One dish out of three was good, others were toby carvery level. What made it worse was the terrible service.

I was willing to give them another go, after all it's not his fault we had a ride waitress. Went to another one. Nope, even worse. Food so bad I did the very un British thing of complaining. They couldn't give a shit and I got the impression they got a lot of complaints....

I am really not surprised they went tits up.

Over hyped and expensive for the generic rubbish served. Blaming Brexit haha, the restaurants have been racking up debt for years previous to the current political situation

Recommendation... Loch Fyne! (Except the one in Oxford lol!)

Henley - super and the kids meals are great.

Pretty rich of the Daily Heil to start printing anti-Brexit articles when they were so pro-Brexit and 'taking back control' in the first place.

As for a JO restaurant, nope. We went to the Prezzo in Glasgow just down the road once we saw how much they were charging for the wine.

So many stories of rude waiting staff. Perhaps Jamie's philosophy of "giving people a go" sucks. Perhaps the hiring criteria is a bit shit?

I find loch fyne hit and miss. Like the Winchester one, Windsor/Woodside one was a bit meh.

I agree.

The menu read really well but the food was shite.

I went once, the place was almost empty yet they told us we'd have to have a drink at the bar while they found us a table. We explained we were in a hurry so did not have time and asked if we could go straight to the table but they just said sorry, no. We left and ate at the place next door; when we came out it was still empty

I think Jamie Oliver thinks his name will sell any old shite and, in all fairness, it sometimes has but maybe people are wising up

Damn, I feel smug right now. Our village Italian has just done us 8 pizzas, 3 garlic breads, 5 pastas and some rosemary chips for £120. Restaurant menu, half price takeaway before 1900. All of it cooked on the spot. 30 minutes from phone call to collection.