Children + restaurants = bad news. Everyone knows that. It’s a fact of life – you take the trouble to book a romantic table for two at a nice place down the road and odds on, you’ll be sharing it with a squabbling bunch of teenagers or a squawking baby. We’ve blogged before about the horrors of children in restaurants and even mused on possible solutions, but very few restaurants, apart from the chains, really take the fact of kids eating out on board. Until now…
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They’re funny things, these economic times. Restaurateurs – along with all businesses – suffer from the belt-tightening too, but it seems that they have markedly different ways of dealing with the problems – and your interests are not necessarily their priority.
In recent surveys, larger chains and smaller private businesses were interviewed on their views on rising food costs, measures they would take to ensure continued business, what their main challenges are and how they expect to surmount them. The results are interesting. Obviously rising food costs are a concern for all: in fact over half said it was their main concern. But, when asked about how they would react to lowered consumer confidence and other issues they might have to confront, there was an immediate apparent divide between big boys and small fry. Read full post
When you go out to eat, you don’t expect to be taking your life in your hands when you step through the restaurant door. But if you suffer from a food allergy, that’s exactly what you are doing. Six deaths a year are caused by food allergies and it seems the restaurant world isn’t exactly manning the barricades when it comes to food safety.
Let’s just clearly define what a food allergy is, as opposed to a food intolerance: A food allergy is not a rash or an itch or a bloated stomach. It involves an immune system response and it causes histamine to be produced in the body, leading in many cases to anaphylactic shock, which can be fatal if not treated immediately. The eight commonest food allergens are peanuts, eggs, milk, shellfish, wheat, fish, soy and tree nuts. Think how common all of these ingredients are in a kitchen, how many, many recipes they are used in, the inevitability of cross-contamination – and it might cause you to wonder how anyone with a genuine food allergy can ever eat out safely. Read full post
Let’s set the scene: Hot date tonight, bit nervous, you’re thinking of taking him/her out for dinner; unfortunately your fine dining venue of choice is booked solid but lo, through the autumnal gloom you spy a familiar blue and white logo signalling food on the horizon. It’s a Pizza Express: at least it’s familiar and it won’t break the bank – and it means you can spend more time ooh-ing and aah-ing at each other rather than at the food, right? Along comes your waiter/waitress, shiny of hair and sparkling of teeth; they open with ‘Hi gorgeous… and what would be your fancy tonight? Do you want to get Sloppy with Giuseppe or shall we get down and make it American Hot? Oh and can I interest you in my doughballs?’ … Do you a) slap their face and walk out in righteous indignation b) smile bashfully, think they’re a much hotter prospect than your date – you’re in there! Or c) belatedly remember that Pizza Express have now trained their staff in the dark arts of ‘subtle’ flirtation and make a mental note to never darken their door again? Read full post
Tipping in restaurants has always been something of a controversial issue. We Brits haven’t quite got the hang of it: the Americans take it as read, openly and generously tipping to make up the wages of the waiting staff; the French are undoubtedly more suave about the whole affair; we, on the other hand, never seem to get it right. How much to tip? To pay the 12.5% service charge and leave a cash tip? To tip even when service has been ineffably awful? It’s a boggy quagmire that can sink a successful evening.
To set the record straight, since October 2009 it is illegal to use tips to make up the minimum wage which most waiting staff are on. The practice was used in the industry to make up the cost of everything from the flowers adorning the reception to the laundry for the linen tablecloths – swallowed up by the enormous overheads of running a restaurant, tip money rarely made it into staff pockets. There’s talk of getting rid of that standard 12.5% on the bill but given we’re such a parsimonious lot, will we have to be forced to tip in other ways? Read full post
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