To wonder why so many of UK mid range restaurants are poor value chains

[Dr1ftw00d]

Spent a few weeks in the US over the summer and noticed how easy it is to get individual, decently cooked, good quality food and portions often in long time restaurants.

Near where I live mid range equals a chain. Microwaved stuff with no individuality and often poorly cooked.

Why is this?

Also in terms of the original AIBU I live in Brixton in South London, chains are very much frowned upon.

A Wahaca replaced a squat and some people were NOT impressed.

Also OP if you don’t already use them, Google reviews are your friend here.

People write some really useful stuff for a lot of places in London when you’re trying to work out if it’s your sort of thing.

Jay they really don’t near us and all worldwide cities have high rents.

Some of the wharfs on the south bank used to have some nice little restaurants - they may all be chains now though. Unless of course you want really nice, then there’s the Oxo Tower...

I actually quite like Pizza Express. I find a lot of the non-chain Italian restaurants aren't very good - style over substance.

It depends where you live I guess. We had a lovely restaurant in a neighbouring village but I found out the other week that it had closed down. It did really nice food for reasonable prices. Better than a local michelin starred restaurant everyone locally raves about, we weren't that impressed when we went for my birthday one year.

At least with chains you know what you are getting and which ones to avoid.

Unless of course you want really nice, then there’s the Oxo Tower

We're so different with tastes too, I think that's massively overrated.

But we went to Pied a Terre for my husband's 50th birthday and it was the best meal I think I've ever had in my life. It is a place for (very) special occasions though as it set us back about £150 for lunch (with wine)!

I live in rural Scotland and we have no chains. None. But a great selection of independent cafes and restaurants.

I spend quite a bit of time in Edinburgh, and while they obviously have chains, they have plenty of great places at a reasonable price too.

Found food in Florida just fast, oversized and lacking fresh vegetables.

It's easy enough to avoid chains in our town although there are a few of those too.
It's only a mid sized market town but most of the chain restaurants are in the cinema complex with the independents dotted around the town so they are there they just aren't clustered like the chains.
I'm glad to say independents seem to be fairing the death of the high street slightly better than the chains in our town. There have been some losses (a lovely high end boutique hotel and restaurant comes to mind) but apart from 2 very well known restaurants the chains in the cinema complex seem to have a lifespan of about a year before they shut up shop and are replaced.

You could try Porkys, I imagine a teenager would love it
porkys.co.uk/bankside/

Oxo Tower may not be Le Gavroche or anything, but in that area it’s one of the higher end options and I’ve enjoyed it when I’ve been.

Edge of south London here and there are loads of independents. Most of them cost about the same as the chains, so not massively expensive, but the quality of food, and the service is generally better. don't have a problem with the occasional Pizza Express, Zizzi's or Beefeater though!

Obviously if you want to pay more, you can, but those can be kept for special occasions.

OP are you just going on cost, or have you actually tried some?

I think they're there if you look. Where I am (fairly middle class, leafy spa town, but out of the South East) you'd think if you were a visitor and just walked down our high street and the new "dining quarter" that it was all chains. The nice small independents are there but due to costs on the high street they are all off on the side streets / the roads running parallel to the main street.

I have friends who own run a nice AA rosette standard restaurant, so probably what you might define as mid-range, where everything is made from scratch in house, and the menus are regularly changing according to the seasons, but the prices aren't much different to the chains. But they do struggle to get their message out as they generally don't have advertising budgets or brand recognition and a lot of people don't ever seem to venture past the main street so just don't even see that they're there. Also by virtue of being smaller they can get hit disproportionately hard by things like a single person with a gripe posting negative things on tripadvisor etc.

I think this is a Gov plug post to reassure 'the mums' that a trade deal with the USA will be a good thing... 😂

@superram where were you in Cali? Disneyland??!

Cali has some of the freshest most innovative and tasty food I've ever had!

I think that there are some excellent chain restaurants too ... I love Wahaca and Pho. They're not all Belle Italia.

@pumkinspicetime

It really depends where you live in the USA, there are a lot of suburban areas with very little but chain restaurants. Portion sizes are crazy, it is hard to keep weight off. Fresh vegetables can be hard to find and there are huge amounts of salt on everything.

This is how I feel about food in the UK. It’s hard to find a vegetable that’s not a potato in this country. 🙄 So much stodge in mid range restaurants too. Lately I’ve been having problems finding a properly cooked steak. Everyone’s been cooking them sous vide but not searing them so I’ve been getting barely warm greyish meat when asking for a rare rib eye. It’s dire. I’ve given up asking for steak for the time being until I can go to a proper steak restaurant.

I live near a small town (recently in the news due to a dam evacuation). Within walking distance of my house I have one of the the best pub / restaurants I’ve eaten in and within a 5 mile radius there are at least 7 good independent restaurants of various denominations. There are no chains, not even coffee shop chains, close by.

I think sometimes you don’t find good independents in bigger towns because of the higher rents and because they are catering to higher footfall, you need to get out to the sticks and there are loads of them.

It’s hard to find a vegetable that’s not a potato in this country.

Where the hell have you been eating?

Maybe now that (at last) a lot of the mid range restaurants are closing down or struggling, we will see an uptick in the number of independents. The market really became oversaturated, I was walking around Manchester a few days ago and they have 3 yes 3 Gino Dicampo eateries literally opposite eachother. They had a new food area inside the shopping centre with a Wolf restaurant and Barburrito next to eachother, both empty on a Saturday lunchtime. Madness.

We’ve come to expect such a variety of choice that now we don’t want it. I’m more than happy to stay in at home with the M&S Dine In for £12.

Is it worth taking another look at your local pubs? Just thinking that most places we eat at are restaurants attached to pubs, or what you'd probably call a 'gastro pub'

We also have lots of Indian / Bangladeshi restaurants near by.

I think food can be very subjective though - one person likes a fresh salad whilst another likes deep fried chicken and dirty fries .

I agree OP. I visited west coast of the USA last year from Santa Barbara to San Francisco. The food was generally very good - fresh and lots of variety. Even in NYC it was easy to get a healthy lunch with lots of delis and convenience stores that had hot counters. Obviously there were plenty of fast food places too, but I think there is quite a sizeable amount of American's who are health conscious and that drives the market.

In the UK the chain restaurant is king. Probably because of how expensive rents and business rates are, the economies of scale really help. Even in Manchester alot of the bars and restaurants are part of bigger business groups (e.g. living ventures run alot of stuff) so there are few truly independent places they just appear independent as everything these groups own have different names.
Personally I am not a fan of Pizza Express, Frankie & Bennys, Cafe Rouge etc. I am not sure why they do well but maybe the deals and groupon offers help.

All dependent on where you are and where you go.

I was warned before visiting England how bland the food was. I didn’t find it bland, however I was shocked by the amount of takeaways and the portion sizes. I constantly hear how big our portion sizes are but I often see that it is still similar and sometimes bigger than what we have in the States. Even some of the McDonald’s portion sizes are bigger than ours. Restaurant-wise I tend to stick to places with short menus because they tend to taste better and have healthier portion sizes where I don’t feel guilty not being able to finish it all and wanting to take it away only to be told they don’t do that 🙄. American adaptations in the SE (unless they still keep the same recipies from the States) are usually horrendous and borderline offensive where I try not to hope too much that it actually taste on par or better. Big Luke’s American buffet springs to mind where I actually felt a touch offended and most British American-style diners can’t cook a decent f-ing American pancake. I often wonder if I should just open an American food truck just to show how it’s done.

Anyway, I find cities are great but as another poster said, stay away from touristy areas for food which I tend to do anyway. Read reviews via Google and Trip Advisor. Try places that are seemingly in the middle of nowhere because they are somehow staying open despite no foot traffic.

Whomever mentioned Mowgli is spot-on! Indian food was usually last on my list until I ate there and I have a better appreciation of it thanks to them.

US big cities are great for independent eating and street food but away from the coasts its hard to find anything decent in smaller cities except campus towns. However with a bit of research you can still find mom and pop diners - it won't be gourmet but its usually cooked fresh and its tasty.

In the UK outside of a few cities, I would normally pick either a local Italian or an Indian. Its really hard to find decent quality pub grub unless you're paying gastro prices- and even then it's likely to be pre prepared and reheated. It fantastic that we have embraced a whole world of cuisines but when a village pub has Thai red curry, Tikka Marsala, Lasagna and fajitas on the menu, you have to suspect it's not home made....

In our Manchester Suburb the chains have really struggled to survive. Its a popular eating place but La Tasca, Cafe Uno, Cafe Rouge, Burger Kitchen, Zizzi, Prezzo, and Chiqitas have all failed. Pizza Express, Wagamamas and Nandos are the only one's that thrive- I think because they are seen as been freshly prepared and aspirational;. I'd love a Wahaca

@phoenixrosehere hear hear about the faux American food in the UK that’s over the top and gross. BBQ sauce that’s sickeningly sweet, overuse of bacon and maple syrup, etc. I avoid “American” style restaurants for the most part now.