Tesco Cafe - yeeeuccccccccchhhhhhhh!!

Smiley_Mum

Went to the local Tescos the other day and the kids were hungry afterwards so took them to the cafe attached to Tescos for something to eat. Went to get some cutlery for them and you wouldn't believe how totally minging it was. There was lumps of veg on some of the cutlery and baked on egg on forks, disgusting. An elderly woman was searching through for some "decent" cutlery and was horrified at how bad it was. Would have complained but the queue was humungus, so just went and bought a pack of disposable cutlery from Tescos so the kids could have their meal while it was still hot. Going to send a letter of complaint to Tescos later today. It was really gross.

penrhyn

I used to enjoy going to the cafe at the Tesco Extra at Toton, it was run by Tesco and employed friendly staff.
Unfortunately its now a subcontracted operation and most of the staff have moved into the main store. Its not as good as it was.
Good luck with the complaint, with any luck they might change their contractor.
PS Which store was it?

MikeLB

They are outsourcing a lot of the cafes to companies like Eurest. I complained about the standards of the Perth Extra Cafe but have never heard anything back. Standards are not as good as they were in these Outsourced Cafes.

hjb123

We used to quite enjoy a drink in the cafes at Asda before or after we had done our shopping as it was nice and cheap - until they replaced the nice cafe with a Mcdonalds! Its not the same as a cafe!!

KathrynPenguin

This outsourcing is a real pain in the Tesco cafe. The one in Tesco Pitsea has gone downhill at a rate of knots since outsourcing. Most annoying thing of all (for me) is that they have no tannoy speakers up there and I'm told its because the outsourced operation don't want them. This means if you put your kid in the creche (which mine loves - even after he broke his foot in there!) then you can't have a cuppa in case they put a call out for you (like if they break their foot - not Tesco fault btw he landed funny when he jumped off a six inch soft play thing onto a mat). Considering how few actual announcments there are in store it really wouldn't be intrusive.

Smiley_Mum

penrhyn wrote:

I used to enjoy going to the cafe at the Tesco Extra at Toton, it was run by Tesco and employed friendly staff.
Unfortunately its now a subcontracted operation and most of the staff have moved into the main store. Its not as good as it was.
Good luck with the complaint, with any luck they might change their contractor.
PS Which store was it?

It was the Inverness store, 24 hour one on the outskirts of town. It is outsourced too. It wasn't that great even when Tesco ran it but now it's outsourced it's not brilliant. There isn't exactly a lot of choice though, you've got sleazy !!!!!! (Pizza Hut) on the far side and Burger Sling (Burger King) on the other and then Starbucks and Tesco's cafe. It was lashing rain so it was the best of the bunch at the time.

MikeLB

Ah Smiley-Mum, Inverness Extra, My Old store where I worked for 5 years!

What they are up to is bundling off all catering services to catering companies. Tesco dont seem to have contracted out the Staff Canteens though in stores where there is not a Cafe. The outsourcing seems to apply to Cafe Stores only and is bundled into the deal with the Staff Resturant. In the new style store, the Cafe and Staff Resturant even use a shared kitchen!

I know they are using different contractors around the country at the moment. So I guess they are being tendered on a region by region basis. Elgin was Tesco run until a few weeks ago when it was closed for refit, but will be contractor run when it reopens after the extension in Mid Sept.

Mark7799

Not sure if it's a consequence of outsourcing but I went off Tesco cafes when they went "self-service" and had all the signs up telling you how much was considered a portion e.g one spoonful of peas.

ariba10

Smiley_Mum wrote:

Went to the local Tescos the other day and the kids were hungry afterwards so took them to the cafe attached to Tescos for something to eat. Went to get some cutlery for them and you wouldn't believe how totally minging it was. There was lumps of veg on some of the cutlery and baked on egg on forks, disgusting. An elderly woman was searching through for some "decent" cutlery and was horrified at how bad it was. Would have complained but the queue was humungus, so just went and bought a pack of disposable cutlery from Tescos so the kids could have their meal while it was still hot. Going to send a letter of complaint to Tescos later today. It was really gross.

The cutlery is the part of the system that is on show.

I would hate to see what the cleanliness is like in the kitchens where you cannot see.

Bargainbabe_2

All the Tesco cafe's I've ever been to have all been sub standard no matter who was running the show. Hardly any food available..food that was available is dried up and looks like it's been there for weeks...unhelpful miserable staff, I could go on! They are ok for a drink, but beyond that, I give them a wide berth.

nearlyrich

I must agree they have gone downhill, no more all day breakfasts! I have had the cutlery problem too, I put a handful of dirty cutlery and 3 cups with coffee grounds on them on the till only last week. I think half the problem is there is no-one managing the staff, they all look about 15 in the 2 Tesco's near us.