Beware at Little Chef

donny_osmonds_mad_fan

used some 2 for 1 vouchers yesterday, took the kids and despite it saying on the voucher 1 voucher per couple and we had 5 people and 1 vouchers they only let us use one as it was one per table....apparently!

ANyway that aside one of my sons chose something from the kids menu and had a coke, we were asked small or large we said small kids size please.

We ordered cokes for ourselves now at the same price they used to be in a large glass with free refills, we asked if this was still the case and were told no...again fair enough.

Kids drinks were 99p, adults £1.79 when they came up they were all in the same size glass so I said err we paid 80p more dont we get a larger glass, no she says but I asked and adult prices get one free refill.

By the time we needed that she had gone home and everyone else said no thats the price.

I just find it really hard to stomach purely because it is an adult drink, there are no sizes on the menus so you dont know what size you are getting for the price and this was a small glass not even a can (well it was the kids size glass)

I spoke to the chef who seemed to be running the place he spoke of VAT free on kids meals...err not 80p's worth mate!

is this legal not to have the size of drinks on the menu? is it legal to charge two prices for the same size? my husband said when she asked my child what size it was he wanted if he had said large we would have been charged the adult price for the same size.....reply was yes!!!!!!!!


I aim to complain to head office tomorrow and also trading standards. I know for us it was £1.60 worth but it is the principle and the fact they do it every day so if you do go to use vouchers....order drinks from the kids menus....I also noted they do the same for bottles of apple and orange juice!


and they wonder why people have bad opinions of such places!

Nelski

We call em "Little Thief"

it seems a much more appropriate name!

donny_osmonds_mad_fan

well funnily enough it made me laugh that they have price crash signs all over the place....so that could be another misleading things about them!!

we in this house call them little chavs....started when we were staying in a travel lodge years ago and my son was learning to read and pronounced it with the ch like in chew ie heavy on the ch and that in turn became little chavs....seems we were right but i like your name

Davidboy

Why does anyone use Little Chef? They have been rip off merchants for years. Our friend used to work in one, and she says never eat in a Little Chef, you don't want to know what goes on the in the background!!! She left after a short while!!

Stay clear of them.

D

hjb123

That cant be right! Sounds like they are having you on!

I would be in touch with Trading Standards! Even though a small amount is involved it is the principle thats the matter!

Let us know how you get on!

donny_osmonds_mad_fan

I have never been 'ripped off' before in fact I am sure we got our moneys worth for ages with 50% printable vouchers. However the one near us is very clean, used to have nice staff and they cook the food where you can see it if you so chose and up until they changed the menu they did a very nice mixed grill....which is why we went there as we fancied it!

I dont believe the way they treat food is any different to any other fast food or any eatry to be honest...and you know what the ivy was totalllllly packed out for a saturday afternoon quickie

smcaul

I had to make a complaint to LC about 3 weeks ago - my other half decided she "Needed" a LC for lunch whilst we were out. The service was the worst - the food not much better and a couldn't are attitude from the staff - left a note in the guest book and used the contact form on their website to express my disgust - last week we got a £10 voucher from them - the meal cost us £15 and was not worth a fiver - when I get some time this week I will be replying to them to tell them what I think of their vouchers!!!

lin473

It only goes to show how places can vary in standards.
I'm sure staff morale is a major part of it.
We stayed at Monmouth travelodge and used the little chef there twice.
The food and service was 'OK' - just.
Earlier in the summer though we went to one near Norwich, and the standard was far higher and the waitress was lovely - she was so helpful when I explained that my special needs son could only eat a soft diet (I normally take his food with us,but we had been caught in traffic).
We have also met lovely staff at Northampton (now closed I think)
and a place we stopped for breakfast once.
Largely our experience has been very positive and with the freely available discount vouchers,it is generally good value for money.
I've only just started using them again last year as in the past we have waited ages for our food - rediculous when you are on a journey,but they seem to be much quicker now.

donny_osmonds_mad_fan

Lin I agree with you, we often stayed at the norwich travelodge when visiting my sister and have always had good service in the little chef there and also had good service when we stayed at a TL in littlehampton, just a shame some ruin it.

wobbley

I use LC's quite a lot when travelling. If you can get the 20% or 25% vouchers they can be good value - if you get good service. They are open quite late and the service and food are usually quite good at most of their sites. One to definately avoid is Toddington Southbound on the M1 - always terrible! I've used it about 8 or 9 times and refused to pay for a meal once, walked out in disgust twice, and had an argument over vouchers with staff once.
One thing that really amuses me is that the waitress will bring your cutlery and drink and leave a small bowl containing sachets of sauces for your meal. About halfway through the meal she'll appear, ask if your meal is ok (usually when you've got a mouthful of food) then ask if you have finished with the sauces and start to take them away. It doesn't matter if they are busy or not, in fact it has happened several times when I've been the only one in there ! It's obvious that it's something they've been told to do to cut down on the use of sauce, - pennypinching or what?

jazzyjustlaw

Tried it once - food dreadful, facilities dreadful, staff not nice - answer - dont go.