Goodbye to Little Chef?

[Mark]

So, it's gone bust again and been bought out, again.

Have we seen the last of Little Chef? Who knows?! Does anybody still go there?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,24389-2534325_1,00.html

[Dave B]

I've only eaten there once - never again. They're handy toilet stops on the A1(M) though.

[Mark]

I think that's the problem Little Chef has, for the past 20 (or more) years they've been absolutely terrible. And pretty much everyone has visited there and found it to be crap, or knows someone who's told them never to visit there because it's crap.

So it doesn't matter if they are the most brilliant resaurants in the world now, you can't undo all those years and persuade people to return.

[Dave B]

Remember Happy Eater? :s

Little Chef have got a great property portfolio but you're right that their image is beyond repair.

If the chain is to continue it needs a new name, and to decide once and for all what it wants to be. Right now it's not even as good as a greasy spoon, but charges proper restaurant prices.

Sadly I reckon that one or more of the big fast food chains will snap them up.

[BeansBeansBeans]

I used to love Little Chef as a kid. Astro Burger and Chips. Yumm.

[CarlMetro]

They're handy for meeting people, but if I ever do use one then it's just a cup of what they call coffee whilst having a chat with someone, I never eat in them because they are over-priced for what they provide, and what they provide is bloody awful.

[nicemms]

When I was younger, about 5-13 we used to eat at them all the time and the food was terrible,service was slow and way overpriced. We now either don't stop or use good old McDonalds/Burger King.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Never been :s

[Caroline]

Stopped liking them when they stopped giving me a lolly for clearing my plate :)

Actually, we went to one in mid Wales last year and the food was rather disappointing and a bit pricey for what they served. So many nicer/better places you can stop at.

[nicemms]

Stopped liking them when they stopped giving me a lolly for clearing my plate :)



I remember those lollies. Same as the food. Not very good.

[BDunnell]

I think they used to be useful, but not any more. I wonder what has changed to cause them to become unpopular - it's not that people have gone off crap food, because McDonalds, Burger King, KFC and the like disprove that theory.

What Britain needs are nice motorway rest areas, like the ones you come across in France and Germany (and, no doubt, other European countries) where you can really relax and have a nice picnic.

[btracer]

After a long drive the last thing you really want to do is to pull into a Little Chef, they unappealing, they are over-priced and the food is crap! I'd rather just grab a sandwich from a garage.

[wedge]

I remember the days when my dad would thrash the Quattro every other Sunday and then we would stop off at a Little Chef for our Sunday lunch.

Nice to know that there's others who were treated to Little Chef when they were a kid.

Little Chef must have done something right if generations of dads treating their kids at LCs. I guess times have changed. It's a bit shameful and desperate if you're having to stop off at service station these days - overpriced and naff, plus the fact there are better options than a greasy fry up AKA Full English/All day Breakfast.

[viper_man]

I for one am glad. Little chef and all the Moto places are shockingly expensive for food. So much so you have to force yourself to have a Burger King just because its the much cheaper option.

[nicemms]

What Britain needs are nice motorway rest areas, like the ones you come across in France and Germany (and, no doubt, other European countries) where you can really relax and have a nice picnic.

I agree with you there. The major problem with our service stations are that some are old and look grotty and the newer ones are full of stuff that we don't really want such as slot machines.

When I went to Denmark few years ago the service stations had decent food ready there and then,not half decent food at a long wait or unhealthy junk ready quick like here. Just decent food ready straight away.

They also had picnic benches outside with grassy areas.

[reidy_fan]

used little chef at lancaster and Todhills (carlisle) a few times when on the M6 and the food was always edible and marginally better than McChavs/Burgher king. overpriced though.

is it too much to ask while on the motorways to get a resonably good and inexpensive hot meal

[Gannex]

I live just a mile from a Little Chef. It has played a big part in my life. In my late teens, when I was excited by having my own car and the right to drive it, I often couldn't sleep and would get up at two or three in the morning and footle off to The Little Chef. Back then, though it wasn't on a motorway, it was nevertheless open 24 hours a day. Nowhere else around us, back in the late 60's, was.

I have to tell you I have treasured memories of sitting the the Little Chef late at night, seeing real life going by as lorry-drivers and late night party hounds would wander in for a fry up. Sometimes, at around 2am, the place would be positively buzzing. It was this insomniac's saviour.

The M62 was built and our little haunt on the A62 suddenly became almost redundant. Now it was open only during normal diner hours. Exit the late-night coffees, watching the hookers from Leeds, finishing their shifts, and the overly intoxicated clubbers staggering in before hitting the hay. No longer could you guarantee a lively view of life going by, watching people close up, but without being a pest. The privilege had gone, and I stopped patronising my formerly beloved late night haunt. After a few months, I stopped even knowing the waiters' names, and they stopped recognising me.

Now, I never go. Maybe once a year, for old times sake, just to check that the old place is still there. Which it is, by the Three Nuns Inn toward Mirfield on the A62, if ever you're passing. The food's OK; they go easy on the grease. Even Little Chef have realised we're in the 21st Century. But the place, sadly, has lost its charm.

Maybe that goes some way to explaining how the entire restaurant group was sold for a piddling £10 million, the cost of a s****y London townhouse, when only a couple of years ago, it was bought for five times that much.