Stephen Rees's blog

Little Chef ‘secures rescue deal’ | | Guardian Unlimited Business

Unusual for me to cover a story that affects only the UK and from the business section at that but if ever a business needs to be allowed to go bust it is “Little Chef”.

In fact the poll associated with the story is “would you miss it?” Amazingly there was a small majority who would.

I was surprised to learn that there were only 234 of these restaurants. They seem to be ubiquitous because they are strategically located all across the major road network, and often they will be the only choice as they open all hours and serve pretty much the same menu all day.

My son ate there once many years ago – and it still sticks in his memory. Whenever I comment on the service anywhere he will respond “But it’s still better than Little Chef“. The slowness of the service was proverbial and provided material for comedy shows and stand ups. The food was awful. Everything prepared off site in a factory and flash frozen. Or hermetically sealed in a bag to be boiled in. Not that much was actually boiled, except the coffee of course – which was left to evaporate for hours and looked like waste sump oil. Whenever you hear about how bad British food is, you can be sure that at the bottom of this perception is Little Chef (Lyons’ Corner Houses having closed years ago).

Please, would the new owners scrap the whole venture or at least be only interested in the sites and come up with a new formula. Like freshly made local food at reasonable prices and without an extra of snide in the side.