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?

Both my DS and I have visited the US different parts we both agree unless you are prepared to stump up a considerable sum the food is pretty grim. I visited the US with a group who regularly travelled there and that was their general opinion as well.
You need to go to Glasgow if you want independent restaurants and reasonable prices especially around the West End. I have never seen so many independent restaurants in my life till I went there and amazing cafes everywhere serving fabulous cakes etc.

16BrightYellowDaffodil spot on. It's the venture capitalists out to make a quick buck, and once they've sold out and pocketed their cash the chain is left to crash and burn.

It's the venture capitalists out to make a quick buck, and once they've sold out and pocketed their cash the chain is left to crash and burn.

Totally agree. A cafe/restaurant starts out as an independent and does well, opens another branch or two and does well still. Then they sell out to the venture capitalists and the next thing they have branches all the place but the quality and the good service and the love is gone. I'm thinking of you Bill's and Patisserie Valerie!!!!

Absolutely. So many times we've found a great new independent restaurant in London, gone there for a couple of years, then suddenly they're everywhere, quality goes completely downhill, menu is "revamped" so only high profit low cost items listed.

So we abandon it, find a new one and the cycle repeats.

On the cut there is:
Anchor and hope
A lovely Spanish restaurant I can’t remember the name.
Borough market: Padella
El Pastor
www.casadofrango.co.uk/food-menu-new

Earl’s Court :
Troubadour

Earl’s Court is really a bit of a crap area. It’s got so many chains because it’s so touristy. It has so many hotels and it’s where a lot of people stay. So personally I would avoid it.

It’s cost though
Only cote can afford 100k rent and rates in a small high street
No indie could

You can share and wrap to go in the US which really helps re value and re value I mean paying for food that is lovely, clearly not microwaved frozen from a supplier or the same from same supplier but with a diff garnish and just great food iykwim. Great atmosphere and service thrown in preferable.

NYC had hoards on TA we could have chosen but due to dollar exchange and teens we did limit it a bit. What we had was fab. Carmines Upper West Side was lovely. The portions are massive but are designed to share as a family and OMG it was delicious. We only had two dishes and salad between 5 and took some home for dinner in the apartment the next day. Lovely atmosphere and service.Juliana’s pizza in Brooklyn was the best pizza I’ve ever had, Pizza Express will never be the same. Very helpful re explaining sizes so again we shared. Price worked out the same for a PE meal in UK but on a different planet, Grimaldis was next door. Katz Deli was delicious. Dh and I shared a pastrami sandwich and pickles as huge, atmosphere just lovely and very NYC. Touristy places but fab. Dh and I are going back and looking forward to trying loads of interesting places. You can go on food tours. Hygiene ratings are clearly labelled everywhere. Wanted to go to to Pershing Square but the week came round too quick.

We had fast food In NYC on the go but the quality was sooo much better. The Chipotle veggie bowl is really good and filling. Joe’s Pizza by the slice is so reasonable and so good😍,Shake Shack at Madison Square Gardens, Papaya King( although I preferred the hot dogs you get in Copenhagen), even Chick Fillet and Dunkin.😱

Elsewhere some of what we had was as follows.In Boston Cambridge we loved The Border Cafe. Superb Mexican food, loads of interesting veggie options. Lovely atmosphere and service too.

In Maine( no chains anywhere) we enjoyed The Lobster Shack atTwo Lights,Side Street Cafe, Jordan’s Diner, Mount Desert Ice cream, Coffee Hound( best coffee I’ve ever had)... This was interesting as I live in a touristy rural area and there are chains everywhere and I’m afraid to say what we offer tourists is on a different planet. Good luck finding decent coffee and I can name one decent ice cream venue.

Was spoilt for choice everywhere( on the road for a month)from ice cream, coffee, fast food to restaurants. There were loads of interesting less teen friendly options DH and I could happily have tried and then some.

Only dud we had (I kid you not)was Taco Bell tortilla chips( what is that gunk on top)but even there you could get a very inexpensive but tasty meal.

Those of you who have said there are plenty of recommendations in the SW please share.

It makes me sad to see Bills listed as a chain. We used to go to the original when it was a one off, local restaurant. It’s gone massively downhill as a chain.

Focusing on the original question, though, I completely agree with the OP. I guess the comparison to the US will depend very much on where you are in the States. We travelled a bit and found a good range of fabulous independents in the NY, Washington and Austin areas, but less so elsewhere. We fell in love with Puerto Rican food, and had some of the best Italian (non-pizza, pasta stuff) outside of Italy. We also found some great chains in the US, such as Chopp’d (however it’s spelt) and Hale & Heraty, which although clearly mass-producing, offered healthier lunch choices (although it’s amazing how unhealthy you can make a salad there!).

I can’t be arsed to read 7 pages of comments and someone else has probably already said it- but it’s labour costs. Restaurants don’t pay servers, the customer does. It’s also that most people who frequent Cote/Bills/Zizzi et.al. think it’s good. They wouldn’t know what to do with well-seasoned well-cooked food and certainly wouldn’t pay for it.

Saying that, there are good independent restaurants in the UK and they’re not all expensive. I’m in North Leeds and I can walk to at least 5 excellent restaurants (including the best sushi I’ve ever had outside of Jiro’s in Japan) in less than 30 minutes. So you’re not looking hard enough.

@Elision
You went to jiros!! I want to cry I’m so jealous

Also where is this other sushi place

In London overheads are so high it’s hard for any independent to survive.

For the food client I had to visit the food park things where it’s a cinema and 8 or 9 low cost chains and nothing else. Had no idea.

@Watchingthyme yes I was lucky! Sushi place is Hana Matsuri in Meanwood.

@Elision
Thanks!

My nearest town is a rural market town, it has Pizza Express and Weatherspoons, all other places to eat are independent. Mainly pubs, but not the standard Greene King (for example) menu- it’s their own choice. Naturally, the price and quality varies- from £15 to £100 for 2 people- but it’s nice to have some options.

However, I can’t buy teen boy clothes or trainers and clothes for me that I wouldn’t see on every other smart-casual woman in town.

We only have independent restaurants round here unless you go to the nearest city. Most chains are shite but also found most food in the US to be fucking awful and coasted in sugar and honey.

Plenty of really good local pubs, small ice cream producers and restaurants, breweries round here so maybe you just need to open your eyes and walk past all those horrible chains.

Elision yes I am. All the good places seem to be in the North. Have yet to read one place recommended in the SW which is a pretty big area. Happy to be corrected as I’d like to eat out. “Gasto” pubs selling the same old, same old and chains just don’t do it for us anymore. If I want to spend money on a treat I don’t want a cookie cutter experience, Id like my teen boys full and I want good cooked food on the premises. An interesting menu with a few veggie options too.

We went to Bella Italia for the first time in my life last night. Never again.
Place was nearly empty but they had to faff around to find a table for five.
Music was a random mix from the Chemical Brothers, through Erasure to Gloria Gaynor at top blast.
So many lights, fairy lights, illuminated signs, glitter balls, lava lamps.
Primary colours, like a 5 year old had designed the interior.
Complete and utter sensory overload.
Left with a migraine.
And the food was crap.

Can we have some of these recommendations? I live in a key ice cream area.There is one decent venue near me. You are then stuck with a thimble full of extortionate ice cream( limited flavours)sold on beaches from the same albeit ok manufactures.

Maybe we have different taste buds OP. We had delicious, very healthy food at Leon the other day for £3.99 each, really filling, no tax. Instant service (though not with a smile.) I've never found healthy food that cheaply in the States. It sounds like you shared plates a lot. That does sound sensible but I know my tall DH and DC (older teen boys) can eat a pizza a yard wide and have room for dessert so no chance of sharing a deli sandwich with any of them which does increase the price.

My boys eat hoards. Honestly they were stuffed in Juliana’s. We were merrily ordering a pizza each until the waiter pointed out the size. They had hot dogs in Katz which were reasonable.

I’ve had the beans pot thing in Leon for breakfast before the Chunnel. It was good but tiny( ditto the bacon rolls my dc had)with an extortionate orange juice and we queued for ages and got to sit on a plastic dirty table. Service without a smile too. Has put me off trying Leon elsewhere.

I live in a tiny town on the Welsh coast. We have a few chain 'restaurants', but also a number of popular and thriving independents that are extremely good value. I find it hard to believe that they can't he found in London, have you tried looking further afield and at - gasp - so-called 'ethnic' restaurants? When I was regularly travelling to London, we would always seek out that type of place, almost unfailingly excellent food for a reasonable price.

It's rubbish isn't it. We had a meal at a chain pub the other day, I chose the most indulgent burger they did it was almost 15 pounds. It came and was so disappointing, two previously frozen burgers slapped together on a bun with a blob of greasy tasteless cheese, a scrap of bacon, no sauce no flavour to any of it, oh and two onion rings. I'd have felt less robbed if Dick Turpin had jumped out at me and grabbed my handbag on the way home.

No gasp needed with ‘ethnic’ dh, dd and I are v adventurous eaters and love every kind of cuisine. Teen boys not so much. Don’t get to eat out much so like to eat in places which are a treat for us all.

And yes Bobster you do feel robbed.