Little Chef - Saltash services

Jaynee123

We stayed at the Travelodge at the Saltash Services for one night last week and decided to have dinner at the Little Chef that is attached! Big mistake! The food was served still frozen! We sent the lasagne back and the next offering was barely warmer! The Hunters chicken when it arrived was luke warm and we asked for a baked potato and got chips! Normally Hunters chicken is served with bbq sauce and coleslaw both were missing! The chicken was dry! It was a truly horrible meal, when we went to pay we tried to tell the man at the till of our complaints (he was also the cook!) we were rudely fobbed off and then to add insult to injury he offered us a lollipop from the jar at the till! Never again will we eat at a Little Chef!

I have sent a complaint via their on line consumer response page but I will be surprised if I get a reply!:mad::mad:

Oliver14

Obviously Heston never got to Saltash then.

fluffnutter

You were within your rights to pay whatever you felt the meal was worth.

Jaynee123

I knew we should have refused to pay but too be honest we are both wimps when it comes to face to face complaining! As for dear Heston the cook (sorry he definitely didn't deserve the title chef!) was totally useless, suspect bacon,eggs and chips was his limit!)

J

qetu1357

Little Chef would be my last choice TBH.

Expensive for what it is AND can be quite slow.

redmerlot

Not eaten in a little chef for a long time since we last went.

I asked for plain omlette but they only had ham ? and hubby wanted fish chips and beans as he hates peas.

We had to send the fish and chips back as it arrived with mushy peas. The fella was muttering something as he walked away and brought back the same plate with the peas clearly scrapped off and replaced with beans with a nice edging of green !

jaxo

I have two similar stories, one a good time ago, 7ish years ago at a large Staffordshire Little chef. I asked for a plain salad, no dressings etc. Yes that would be fine, so it comes out with coleslaw over it. ( I don't eat dairy) I remind them of the order, could I have a replacement.
It comes back out with the coleslaw scraped off (salad looking like it had been roughed up badly)and some of the dressing still on the plate. I complained and the chef came out, with attitude, to tell me it was a fresh plate, it really obviously wasn't. So I cancelled the order and told them not to bother.
I young lady employee rushed out(I hadn't seen her before) to ask me if I wanted to speak to the manager when she got back, she would inform her of the problem, I got the impression the chef wasn't popular with all the staff! The manager came over and she was professional and dealt with the issue, I didn't want food from there, our bill was waved, hey I got free coffee, my other halves meal was free.

A second time in Oxfordshire more recently, a Little chef with the kitchen in view of the eating area, a mistake was made with my other halves meal, didn't want baked beans, hates them, so they took it back, checked the order, I could see them use a fresh plate and all new food.
I was impressed! An improvement on my last experience.

Your experience is awful, I hope it gets rectified. Good luck! Uncooked food is a health hazard! It seems strange that they wanted you to pay anything! Maybe in this day and age it's wise to whip out the camera phone and photo/video issues like this, if you should need it in the future.

I'm curious, are you in trouble if you refuse to pay for unsatisfactory food?But it's ok if you make a monetary offer of 1p to what you think it's worth, is ok? (supplying name and address if they want to take it further?)

sillygoose

Jaynee123 wrote: »

We stayed at the Travelodge at the Saltash Services for one night last week and decided to have dinner at the Little Chef that is attached! Big mistake! The food was served still frozen! We sent the lasagne back and the next offering was barely warmer! The Hunters chicken when it arrived was luke warm and we asked for a baked potato and got chips! Normally Hunters chicken is served with bbq sauce and coleslaw both were missing! The chicken was dry! It was a truly horrible meal, when we went to pay we tried to tell the man at the till of our complaints (he was also the cook!) we were rudely fobbed off and then to add insult to injury he offered us a lollipop from the jar at the till! Never again will we eat at a Little Chef!

I have sent a complaint via their on line consumer response page but I will be surprised if I get a reply!:mad::mad:

Little Chef's vary I know some that are always very good, but also had frozen food in others.

I have sent them comments twice (once about new poorer recipe beefburgers, once about them reducing size but not price of kids breakfast) both times got polite and personal responses by post - I modest goodwill voucher would have been nice as well but no chance. I wasn't writing to get anything, just to point out why they may lose my custom but a little token might have shown some willing on their part.
Probably no coincidence haven't been to the one I was quite a regular at for some time now, local pub has better food and has permanent BOGOF on main meals.

Becles

I've not been back since we ordered two prawn salads and two mixed grills on an exceptionally warm day.

After 15 minutes, someone brought the salads out and placed them on top of the coffee machine.

After waiting a further 30 minutes, there was no sign of the mixed grills and the salads were still sitting uncovered on top of the coffee machine and were probably warm and horrible by this time.

We tried to pay for the drinks we'd had but nobody came to the till, so we just left and went to the pub up the road instead. Got a much better meal in nicer surroundings for less cost :money:

qetu1357

One of the great things about a sat nav is when you are in a strange town............

You can search for the nearest McDonalds, Harvester, Wetherspoons etc and at each of these you will get a nicer cheaper meal than Little Chef 99 times out a 100.

ThumbRemote

qetu1357 wrote: »

One of the great things about a sat nav is when you are in a strange town............

You can search for the nearest McDonalds, Harvester, Wetherspoons etc and at each of these you will get a nicer cheaper meal than Little Chef 99 times out a 100.

You've done it now, mentioning McDonalds, someone will be along soon to tell you how bad it is and how you should take your own packed lunch instead.