Burnt ends are Sunday and Wednesday, I thought? Hmm I have a Bodeans 100 yards from my office (BUT I'M ON A DIET NO NO NO).
Is there anyone here whose FAVOURITE place to go out to eat (not some £100 a head restaurant, somewhere reasonable) is a chain restaurant?
― Mark C, Monday, 5 November 2007 12:54 (sixteen years ago) link
Not me.
― ailsa, Monday, 5 November 2007 12:56 (sixteen years ago) link
This thread still has a way to go before it matches Tracey's DAEREST BRITISHES: WHY YOU NO WASH DISHES PROPERLY?
― Stevie T, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:00 (sixteen years ago) link
all the chinese buns shops are run by the triads, ed!
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:03 (sixteen years ago) link
wagamama is cheap when you get those 2 for 1 vouchers
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:04 (sixteen years ago) link
it's my favourite place to go for lunch. in a way that is because there is a lack of good cheap noodle shops in the vicinity.
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:05 (sixteen years ago) link
but that also brings a point - near where i work, in central london, it must cost so much to set up a business that, almost all of the time it is going to be a big chain store who can afford to do this???
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:06 (sixteen years ago) link
on holloway road there are quite a few indie food stores. although amici had a shop down the road
if your business is doing well, and you have the capital to expand the business, and the market is there to absorb your growth, why wouldn't you do it?
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:07 (sixteen years ago) link
there are probably loads of moderately successful shops that do not branch out. but you will never hear about them because there's only one?
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:09 (sixteen years ago) link
xpost conscience and a concern for the traditional profile of the area.
― darraghmac, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:10 (sixteen years ago) link
LOOK TRACER A WOP LIKES PIZZA EXPRESS AND A CHINK LIKES WAGAMAMA
― Mark C, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:11 (sixteen years ago) link
it shows how far gone you are
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:13 (sixteen years ago) link
Assimilated is the word, I think
― Mark C, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:14 (sixteen years ago) link
what does conscience have to do with this? it's unethical to expand your business if you believe it is something good and you know that people enjoy it?
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:15 (sixteen years ago) link
-- ken c, Monday, November 5, 2007 1:09 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Link
this is the thing. hard to compare a chain with a single restaurant. if the single restaurant is conveniently situated for your needs, great.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:15 (sixteen years ago) link
wagamama are the nips. mark. english people love haggis.
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:16 (sixteen years ago) link
haha i am so wrong. wagamama dude was totally from hong kong
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:20 (sixteen years ago) link
¦)
― Mark C, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:21 (sixteen years ago) link
but then pizza express dude was from peterborough. go figure!
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:21 (sixteen years ago) link
-- Mark C, Monday, 5 November 2007 12:54 (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Link
http://www.buddiesrestaurants.com/
― Dom Passantino, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:22 (sixteen years ago) link
sorry ken, should have included the /sarcasm tag after that post.
― darraghmac, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:22 (sixteen years ago) link
you should have included the /italkshite tag after your post.
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:23 (sixteen years ago) link
you're saying everyone who runs a successful business has no conscience.
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:24 (sixteen years ago) link
or are you saying that no business ever delivers something good for anybody.
in that case, close all shops?
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:26 (sixteen years ago) link
what makes a shop with one branch more ethical than two?
if you cannot answer that, then you have just talked shite.
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:27 (sixteen years ago) link
I can't answer that!
― Mark G, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:33 (sixteen years ago) link
jesus ken, i just told you it was sarcasm. wtf?
― darraghmac, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:35 (sixteen years ago) link
oh! sorry
i thought you said "sorry ken, you should have put the 'sarcasm' tag on" which had a totally different meaning!
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:46 (sixteen years ago) link
i like wagamamma's because there are few other japanese restaurants near me which do katsu don (though there's a killer place just by piccadilly circus). i like bodean's because there are few other american barbecue places near me. i don't understand the attraction of masala zone in london, where there are tonnes of great independent indian restaurants. and my favourite italian restaurant, presto, was dirt cheap and delicious but closed like four or five years ago, i think, though the aurora is nice, when i can remember where it is.
― stevie, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Yo Sushi is good because you can go there after you've been to Lucky Voice, assuming we're talking about the Yo Sushi on Poland Street.
― Dom Passantino, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:48 (sixteen years ago) link
The "yay chain restaurants for bringing affordable dining out for the working classes" is flawed because in many cases independent restaurants are not significantly more expensive than chains. But I'm enjoying the "hooray global capitalism for saving the working classes' precious pennies" doublethink at work here.
― Matt DC, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:54 (sixteen years ago) link
how many 'masala zones' are there in london anyway?
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:55 (sixteen years ago) link
The "yay chain restaurants for bringing affordable dining out for the working classes" is flawed because in many cases independent restaurants are not significantly more expensive than chains.
indeed but people don't want to take a punt, as has been said repeatedly; they know what they're getting, as said repeatedly. it hasn't been established that cheap indie places even have better ingredients. IT'S JUST LIKE WITH POP VS INDIE REALLY.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:57 (sixteen years ago) link
And the answer to the original thread question is that, more often than not, they are backed up with private equity/venture capital/seed capital money rather than old-fashioned bank loans and investors be wanting to grow the business as quickly as possible.
― Matt DC, Monday, 5 November 2007 13:57 (sixteen years ago) link
i had a domino's last night :D
― DG, Monday, 5 November 2007 14:01 (sixteen years ago) link
One of the best restaurants I've ever been to was a run-down Italian place in central London called the 'Centrale'. You could grab a huge plate of delicious pasta (with chilli sauce/other toppings) for about three quid. We were taken there by a wonderful, worldly-wise teacher of mine, and we ate superb food for extremely low prices. It had a reputation of being homeless-friendly; tramps would often come every few days, having saved up their takings, and it would serve them without prejudice. When it closed down a few years ago I was greatly saddened. I think Dom would have adored it (not least because he'd have been able to natter along with the charming owners in their native tongue).
My point? Some independent places are not only cheaper, but they're necessary.
― Just got offed, Monday, 5 November 2007 14:03 (sixteen years ago) link
But I had a lovely chatter with a beautiful girl who worked at a KFC. Which was also very homeless-friendly, so in a way it's not what type of shop it is it's the people in it, innit.
That Centrale place was nice though.. (near old compton street??)
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 14:07 (sixteen years ago) link
Assuming it's the same place.. the lady (presumably the owner) was very charmingly angry. and shouted at us a lot, but in an adorable way
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 14:09 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, I think it was near (or on) the circus (Cambridge Circus?) where Shaftesbury Avenue joins Charing Cross Road. [/rickety geography]
The lady was indeed like that. She was also very sympathetic (if amused) when I succumbed to temptation, and the goads of my friends, and placed one of the very small, very red chillis in my mouth, and crunched down. Not overly distressed by the immediate effect, I repeated the process with a second. Sadly, my hubris was to be punished roughly 8 seconds later with a sensation I can only describe as 'internalised hell'. It took, I believe, five glasses of water before it even became normal 'hot-food' pain.
― Just got offed, Monday, 5 November 2007 14:13 (sixteen years ago) link
savin' the thread, one post at a time.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Monday, 5 November 2007 14:14 (sixteen years ago) link
glad I'm not interested in food
― RJG, Monday, 5 November 2007 14:14 (sixteen years ago) link
lol scottish?
― Dom Passantino, Monday, 5 November 2007 14:15 (sixteen years ago) link
what are you interested in?
xpost
― ken c, Monday, 5 November 2007 14:15 (sixteen years ago) link
do you live on vitamin pills, RJG?
― Grandpont Genie, Monday, 5 November 2007 14:15 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm not british/scottish
― RJG, Monday, 5 November 2007 14:16 (sixteen years ago) link
indeed but people don't want to take a punt, as has been said repeatedly; they know what they're getting, as said repeatedly
This has all probably been said already but the thing is, how do new chains get off the ground in the first place? I'm not sure if folks are somehow afraid of local food places or if it's the vibe of being just another anonymous customer that going into a chain brings or whether maybe people like to feel that they're somehow participating in this big exciting global machine, but I do get the feeling that people are more comfortable taking that punt with a chain restaurant. Is that right?
― NickB, Monday, 5 November 2007 14:16 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, I think it was near (or on) the circus (Cambridge Circus?) where Shaftesbury Avenue joins Charing Cross Road.
there is a pizza hut there. also an all bar one.
― That one guy that hit it and quit it, Monday, 5 November 2007 14:17 (sixteen years ago) link
One reason for the success of chains in the UK is I believe due to land ownership. On the continent shopkeepers and so on tend to own their premises and hand them down, in the UK a lot of commerical / retail land is owned by landlords who can push rents to levels which only the chains can afford. I'm not sure when these landowners rose to power though.
― Free Peace Sweet!, Monday, 5 November 2007 14:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Also The Pub.
xxpost: and a pub called 'the cambridge' and a couple of theatres. just beyond is lloyd's no.1 bar, which is a wetherspoons.
― Just got offed, Monday, 5 November 2007 14:20 (sixteen years ago) link