Little Chef ....

[Fab Foodie]

I was actually working at a UK customer site yesterday (well, 11pm to 3am to be precise) and after a lie-in meandered back towards the office and chanced upon a recently re-opened Little Chef at Burford around lunchtime.
Now Little Chef reminds me of long journeys of my youth, looking out for the next one and hoping we'd stop, for maybe a full brekkie, a toasted teacake, whatever. Even later in my early working and travelling career, we'd often meet colleagues at a LC for an Olympic breakfast prior to getting to the job. Happy Days.

But now (I don't know if Burford is typical), it's drab, time-warped and somewhat grubby really. Not that it was unclean, but carpeted floors, poor lighting and tired mock-tudor in a quite nice old building was a might underwhelming. Having said that the staff were lovely, the food came quickly and as fry-ups go was OK. But it could have been so much better ....

Maybe it's time this tired old-dog be put down lest it spoils any more rose-tinted moments.

 

[Pale Rider]

I like the pancakes, not least because Little Chef is one of the few places that serve them.

 

[derrick]

Little Chef never ever did a good Breakfast, if you think they did you need to get out more.

 

[rich p]

I thought they'd gone years ago. Maybe they missed one during the Reformation.

I stopped using them when I was once told that I couldn't have a fried egg because they'd run out of eggs. When I pointed out that someone was being served an omelette, the waiter said, "Oh, we don't make our omelettes with eggs"

I presumed some left-over wartime powdered egg but it was enough to put me off

 

[G3CWI]

Didn't they appear in some celebrity chef make-over TV programme some years ago?

 

[Hitchington]

I think Heston Bloomin'-thingy tried to revive the Little Chef brand a couple of years ago on telly, but "sparrow testicle souffle served with a confit of regret" isn't what Barry and Margaret really want on their way back to Hemel Hempsted from Loughborough on the A6...

 

[ianrauk]

Really can't remember the last time I visited one. But they seemed to be part of my youth.

Didn't Jamie Oliver or some other TV personality Chef meant to have revamped the company?

 

[Peteaud]

I still quite like Little Thief, then again i have not been in one for about 10 years.

 

[Brandane]

I thought they'd gone years ago. Maybe they missed one during the Reformation.

I stopped using them when I was once told that I couldn't have a fried egg because they'd run out of eggs. When I pointed out that someone was being served an omelette, the waiter said, "Oh, we don't make our omelettes with eggs"

I presumed some left-over wartime powdered egg but it was enough to put me off

I was once refused an omelette in a Morrisons cafe, because they had run out. When I pointed out that we were actually in a supermarket stocked with lots of eggs, they eventually confessed that NOTHING on the menu is actually made on the premises. Just trucked in and microwaved.

 

[subaqua]

Little Chef never ever did a good Breakfast, if you think they did you need to get out more.

that is entirely dependent on the LC you visit.

thrapston is great,
Kettering isn't and this is one of the "new ones"
popham used to be till it got revamped
barton stracey is great
Barton mills is great.
Honiton is also very good considering it is on a holiday route.
the one at chester was crap.


I have eaten cooked breakfasts in some terrible caffs, and some good "greasy spoon" type caravan thingys in laybys in my years of travelling the country electrifricking things and have a good balanced opinion. if you think littel chef is bad then you aint eaten at the aztec hotel in Bristol. they take good food and ruin it

 

[Dayvo]

I know that one (it's opposite the golf course, isn't it?).

Used to eat pancakes in there with my brother and his family every now and then. Right good meal it was.

 

[derrick]

that is entirely dependent on the LC you visit.

thrapston is great,
Kettering isn't and this is one of the "new ones"
popham used to be till it got revamped
barton stracey is great
Barton mills is great.
Honiton is also very good considering it is on a holiday route.
the one at chester was crap.


I have eaten cooked breakfasts in some terrible caffs, and some good "greasy spoon" type caravan thingys in laybys in my years of travelling the country electrifricking things and have a good balanced opinion. if you think littel chef is bad then you aint eaten at the aztec hotel in Bristol. they take good food and ruin it

Have only eaten in one, that decided it for me, Cambridge Rd about 30+ years ago. It was nothing like the one below.

 

[biggs682]

i find this thread a bit heightist

 

[Fab Foodie]

that is entirely dependent on the LC you visit.

Barton mills is great

Agreed, but ... at Barton Mills we used to prefer AJ's cafe!

 

[Fab Foodie]

Have only eaten in one, that decided it for me, Cambridge Rd about 30+ years ago. It was nothing like the one below.

There are always better breakfasts than LC, but there are zillions worst. I know this because I get out A LOT.