Factory prepared "home cooked" pub food - what a con!

[mrandmrspoves]

Fond memories of sitting in a cafe as a child where the menu offered about 4 varieties of pie and chips. I think it was the Derbyshire Dales but it may have been Yorkshire Dales) Once we had placed our order the old man running the cafe produced from under the counter some tinned Fray Bentos pies and proceeded to cook them.....I think they took about 45 minutes!

 

[Andrew_Culture]

My local pub in Ipswich is great for real food, there's nothing fancy but it's all made out back, I know because I've spend far too much time loitering behind the bar with the staff!

Sunday lunch is great - periodically the staff wander round asking everyone if they fancy a crumble (or something) and if enough people say yes they go and rustle one up, now that's proper fresh cooking!

I always thought 'home made' was an odd thing to boast; by my guesswork I wouldn't eat the food that came out of at least 95% of 'homes' in this country.

 

[MontyVeda]

pubs which serve crap are easy enough to spot... they look crap from the outside.

A friend of mine used to work in one of those Brewster's places as 'a cook' and was mortified that even their omelettes were frozen!

I tend to go to pubs which have a chef, and one that is proud to be one.. but what is really starting to get on my tits is these newfangled burgers... the size of a large, slightly squished meatball and served in a chiobata or some other unsuitable bread thing.. the burger is the wrong shape, the bun is the wrong shape, and that pub which served me two of them in the tiniest bun you've ever seen as a 1/4 pounder... have a word with yourself!

 

[BrianEvesham]

A friend of mine used to work in one of those Brewster's places as 'a cook' and was mortified that even their omelettes were frozen!

!

WTF? Even I can cook these!

 

[Andrew_Culture]

pubs which serve crap are easy enough to spot... they look crap from the outside.

A friend of mine used to work in one of those Brewster's places as 'a cook' and was mortified that even their omelettes were frozen!

I tend to go to pubs which have a chef, and one that is proud to be one.. but what is really starting to get on my tits is these newfangled burgers... the size of a large, slightly squished meatball and served in a chiobata or some other unsuitable bread thing.. the burger is the wrong shape, the bun is the wrong shape, and that pub which served me two of them in the tiniest bun you've ever seen as a 1/4 pounder... have a word with yourself!

I'd much rather have a burger that I can pick up without losing the filling and don't have to dislocate my jaw to eat!

 

[BrianEvesham]

If you are in Evesham I have never been let down here;
http://rilys.com/evesham/

 

[swee'pea99]

I don't expect pub food to be anything but a reasonable munch at a reasonable price. If I want good food I go to a restaurant - or cook it myself.

As far as restaurants go, there may be a lot that sell pretty mediocre food masquerading as something specialer, but there are also any number of places in most British cities where you can actually get a pretty fair curry/Thai/Italian at a not-silly price. When we visited my sister, living in Denmark at the time, and wanted to treat her on her birthday, she said the one food she was gagging for after a year away from Blighty was Chinese. There was only one Chinese restaurant in Copenhagen that was supposed to be pretty good. It was pricey, but....hey, it's your birthday!

To say it was distinctly average would be to exaggerate its charms considerably. But it certainly was stonkingly expensive. We could have got a far better meal at any one of a dozen places in Soho for a third the price. Count yer blessings, Brits.

 

[Brandane]

Not "pub" related, but Morrisons supermarket cafe..... I once went in and ordered an omelette. After about 30 minutes and others who had ordered after me being served, I asked if there was a problem with my omelette. I was told that they were sorry, but they had no omelettes left. I suggested that as we were in a supermarket, it might not be an unreasonable expectation that maybe someone could go to aisle 4 and get some eggs, which they could then break, whisk up and turn them into an omelette. Not that simple apparently; they don't actually cook anything in store. It is all brought in on the lorries from their distribution centres and then given a blast in the microwave prior to being served up.

 

[Marshmallow_Fluff]

Not "pub" related, but Morrisons supermarket cafe..... I once went in and ordered an omelette. After about 30 minutes and others who had ordered after me being served, I asked if there was a problem with my omelette. I was told that they were sorry, but they had no omelettes left. I suggested that as we were in a supermarket, it might not be an unreasonable expectation that maybe someone could go to aisle 4 and get some eggs, which they could then break, whisk up and turn them into an omelette. Not that simple apparently; they don't actually cook anything in store. It is all brought in on the lorries from their distribution centres and then given a blast in the microwave prior to being served up.

Disgrace, isn't?

 

[swee'pea99]

Not "pub" related, but Morrisons supermarket cafe..... I once went in and ordered an omelette. After about 30 minutes and others who had ordered after me being served, I asked if there was a problem with my omelette. I was told that they were sorry, but they had no omelettes left. I suggested that as we were in a supermarket, it might not be an unreasonable expectation that maybe someone could go to aisle 4 and get some eggs, which they could then break, whisk up and turn them into an omelette. Not that simple apparently; they don't actually cook anything in store. It is all brought in on the lorries from their distribution centres and then given a blast in the microwave prior to being served up.

Can't remember which of the telly cooks it is - Ramsey, I think, but I'm not sure - whose basic test to see if anyone can cook is an omelette.

 

[Marshmallow_Fluff]

Can't remember which of the telly cooks it is - Ramsey, I think, but I'm not sure - whose basic test to see if anyone can cook is an omelette.

Exactly! It takes less than 3 minutes (2 min actually if you already have the eggs out of the fridge). "Fast food" can't get any better than that!!!

 

[dan_bo]

Not "pub" related, but Morrisons supermarket cafe..... I once went in and ordered an omelette. After about 30 minutes and others who had ordered after me being served, I asked if there was a problem with my omelette. I was told that they were sorry, but they had no omelettes left. I suggested that as we were in a supermarket, it might not be an unreasonable expectation that maybe someone could go to aisle 4 and get some eggs, which they could then break, whisk up and turn them into an omelette. Not that simple apparently; they don't actually cook anything in store. It is all brought in on the lorries from their distribution centres and then given a blast in the microwave prior to being served up.

I've very nearly gone postal in morrisons caff a couple of times when the (elderly) M-I-L as insisted on buying us brekkie when we've driven her down there. Astonishingly and depressingly shite.

I used to cook for a living in a former life and saw the transition in toby inns from half decent (in the 90s this was) grub to brakses' and 3663's microwave magic. We used to make our own gravy from the (literally) gallons of meat juices produced daily- I left when we was presented with a bumper tin of gravy granules. All so we didn't have to sling the leftover gravy at the end of the day. Rubbish. Got another job making goos stuff like squirrell terrine and what have you in a restaurant called menzels with an alky chef who looked like the guy from the go compare ads. That was fun.

 

[EltonFrog]

Not "pub" related, but Morrisons supermarket cafe..... I once went in and ordered an omelette. After about 30 minutes and others who had ordered after me being served, I asked if there was a problem with my omelette. I was told that they were sorry, but they had no omelettes left. I suggested that as we were in a supermarket, it might not be an unreasonable expectation that maybe someone could go to aisle 4 and get some eggs, which they could then break, whisk up and turn them into an omelette. Not that simple apparently; they don't actually cook anything in store. It is all brought in on the lorries from their distribution centres and then given a blast in the microwave prior to being served up.

I have a similar story. I went into a Little Chef once, a few years back, I always have the same when I go into these places, an " Early Starter", which is fried egg, sausage, bacon, tomato, baked beans, slice of toast. I was told when I placed my order on this occasion that they had run out of eggs! No matter I said I'll order something else, and out loud I said, mainly to myself, "what shall I have"? And the waiter suggested an omelette! It beggars belief!

 

[MontyVeda]

I'd much rather have a burger that I can pick up without losing the filling and don't have to dislocate my jaw to eat!

Precisely... surely a chef/cook would understand the mechanics of eating!


and what's all this serve it on a big block of wood (chopping board?) milarky some of the posh out of town pubs are doing? Surely a plate isn't that un trendy?

 

[gbb]

I don't expect pub food to be anything but a reasonable munch at a reasonable price. If I want good food I go to a restaurant - or cook it myself.

As far as restaurants go, there may be a lot that sell pretty mediocre food masquerading as something specialer, but there are also any number of places in most British cities where you can actually get a pretty fair curry/Thai/Italian at a not-silly price. When we visited my sister, living in Denmark at the time, and wanted to treat her on her birthday, she said the one food she was gagging for after a year away from Blighty was Chinese. There was only one Chinese restaurant in Copenhagen that was supposed to be pretty good. It was pricey, but....hey, it's your birthday!

To say it was distinctly average would be to exaggerate its charms considerably. But it certainly was stonkingly expensive. We could have got a far better meal at any one of a dozen places in Soho for a third the price. Count yer blessings, Brits.

I agree. My expectations at the usual 'pub' type eatery is relatively cheap, quick, relatively edible food. If i want good food, i expect to pay considerably more .
There can be exceptions, our local carvery, which has sadly closed...EXCELLENT food, a full roast with all the trimmings for circa £10, we'd often go there midweek, bet value eatery round here.
At the other end of the scale, the tastiest food i'd had was £80 for two of us, in an upmarket countryside pub.

Its a shame TBF, go back 30 years, many village pubs did home made food, some excellent. But that was 30 years ago, things have moved on, unfortunately. But i think some peoples expectations are too high. What can you expect for £10 ?