Attention: Please take a moment to consider our terms and conditions before posting.
Food quality at the Valley
Comments
-
So true peakierocket, we thought the same the other day. Looking down, it was empty, 20 stewards on the door, about 3 people having a smoke and 1 person bought food it seemed like1
-
The Jerk Chicken is surprisingly tasty, bit expensive but you get a big portion, the chicken is good and the sauces with it are alright. I'm a big fan of Chicken George and miss it dearly, but Only Jerkin is a good replacement for it2121 said:Anyone had had greek/middle eastern or the jerk in the fan zone?
0 -
…Only Jerkin’s gone 🤦🏼♂️ sigh!1
-
Food and drink both terrible, but I’m a snob when it comes to both. Fortunately I’m more broad minded when it comes to the football.
5 -
To be honest I can't do the food at the ground anymore. £19 for a burger & chips in the fan zone, or go inside the ground where you're paying less but it's undercooked with burgers that just look so bland that you'd need to be drunk to enjoy it. Really gone down hill massively with it
4 -
Was thinking this more or less, today.Sheepie1985 said:To be honest I can't do the food at the ground anymore. £19 for a burger & chips in the fan zone, or go inside the ground where you're paying less but it's undercooked with burgers that just look so bland that you'd need to be drunk to enjoy it. Really gone down hill massively with itGot to The Valley about 2pm, and the fans bar was notably less busy than usual and the concourses looked sparse!There’s so much opportunity to provide a fantastic service, but both the club and Levy Group seem to be happy to just coast along and do bare minimum.5 -
Went to get the boy some chips, sorry fries, in the AC today and you can’t get them anymore, only with chicken or whatever
When did that come in it’s literally the easiest thing to produce
5 -
Ditto in Crossbars since start of the season.Southendaddick said:Went to get the boy some chips, sorry fries, in the AC today and you can’t get them anymore, only with chicken or whatever
When did that come in it’s literally the easiest thing to produce
Madness.
Bound to get yet another emailed post matchday survey so ensure you make your point about this.
But does anyone read them ?2 -
My BLT from M&S Woolwich was excellent8
-
Mr F's homemade chicken sarnies were perfection personified.1
-
Sponsored links:
-
Catering in the west upper is worse than last season so far.0
-
Is it all good in hospitality though ?🤔0
-
I really don’t understand why it is so difficult to get a decent food & drink offering. The club should do away with this one contract to a multi national company that is happy to dish up slop and get some small independent businesses into each outlet on the concourses, food that is fast and easy to serve but also offers quality, noodle bar, pasta, seafood/shellfish, pizza, Greek street food etc the list goes on it would not be hard to do ffs12
-
Had the burger in the fan zone. Was tasty. Never £13 worth though christ. No wonder barely anyone uses them.1
-
I think there needs to be an appropriate middle ground between independents and the current incumbents.AndyG said:I really don’t understand why it is so difficult to get a decent food & drink offering. The club should do away with this one contract to a multi national company that is happy to dish up slop and get some small independent businesses into each outlet on the concourses, food that is fast and easy to serve but also offers quality, noodle bar, pasta, seafood/shellfish, pizza, Greek street food etc the list goes on it would not be hard to do ffs
The logistics and commercials of multiple independents operating concessions would be, I would imagine, far too complex and risky relative to the return, for both parties. What local independent shellfish retailer is going to risk paying a club for a spot in a stadium for 2 hours on a Saturday afternoon? I’d wager the answer is none, for so many reasons. I’d also wager that the club would have no real commercial rationale, nor capacity, to manage a competitive tendering process across multiple independent providers, alongside the associated legislative and regulatory processes.
having one operator on site is the right commercial and operational approach.
The question is rather who the incumbent should be, and what is the most appropriate operating model, in terms of product and service.
2 -
Hit and miss. Let's start with the bad - the gent's toilets at the north end of Club 1905. The cubicles and other fitments are Armitage Shanks System 7 which they stopped selling in 2002, so they were probably what was installed when the stand was completed in 1998. Making them 28 years old. Of the two, one has no lock and the other has a bodged replacement. Neither of the seats are securely attached. The basins have taps with missing tops and the water from the hot tap is so hot it would poach an egg. (No lever operated mixer tap as there should be.) The soap dispensers are both broken with the fronts hanging off. At least one of the urinals leaks piss from the trap on to the floor. The hand dryers both work but are situated so that anyone opening the entrance door hits you in the back if you're using them.valleynick66 said:Is it all good in hospitality though ?🤔
Remember this is a facility that the match and match ball sponsors use as well as the regular punters. It really is very poor indeed.
Now, on to the food. Not sure about the new "small plate" offering, the carvery is usually okay. Problem is if you want veg to go with your "small plate" you have to queue with the carvery punters and the queue can be tediously lengthy. Sometimes the quality is very good sometimes a bit meh. Yesterday's soup was excellent but, as ever, don't expect anything above luke warm for the veg. The meat/fish, etc is usually fine. And the new half-time and full-time snacks are pretty good. As ever, I'm hoping that things will improve, they are trying and the staff are doing their best.2 -
cafcfan said:
Hit and miss. Let's start with the bad - the gent's toilets at the north end of Club 1905. The cubicles and other fitments are Armitage Shanks System 7 which they stopped selling in 2002, so they were probably what was installed when the stand was completed in 1998. Making them 28 years old. Of the two, one has no lock and the other has a bodged replacement. Neither of the seats are securely attached. The basins have taps with missing tops and the water from the hot tap is so hot it would poach an egg. (No lever operated mixer tap as there should be.) The soap dispensers are both broken with the fronts hanging off. At least one of the urinals leaks piss from the trap on to the floor. The hand dryers both work but are situated so that anyone opening the entrance door hits you in the back if you're using them.valleynick66 said:Is it all good in hospitality though ?🤔
Remember this is a facility that the match and match ball sponsors use as well as the regular punters. It really is very poor indeed.
Now, on to the food. Not sure about the new "small plate" offering, the carvery is usually okay. Problem is if you want veg to go with your "small plate" you have to queue with the carvery punters and the queue can be tediously lengthy. Sometimes the quality is very good sometimes a bit meh. Yesterday's soup was excellent but, as ever, don't expect anything above luke warm for the veg. The meat/fish, etc is usually fine. And the new half-time and full-time snacks are pretty good. As ever, I'm hoping that things will improve, they are trying and the staff are doing their best.
5 -
Interesting. I wonder if our management mistakenly assume the small improvements in hospitality are being replicated elsewhere?
But to your wider point on the ‘facilities’ that’s obviously going to deter repeat purchases if the overall experience is poor.It really doesn’t feel like any meaningful investment from our owners to me.3 -
As has been said many times if the club don’t improve their offer(s) people will find alternatives.
Maybe the thinking of whoever isn’t in charge of everything is that the club have a captive audience so they can be offered any old thing, and in terms of catering any old muck, all at an extortionate price.
Who is in charge of policy and implementation anyway. From food and drink, toilets, bags, turnstiles, timely communication and all the general ‘customer’ facing stuff?
Yesterday in the little ‘ice cream’ cafe hard by Blackheath station I was able to have a modest sit down lunch of a hot mozzarella pesto and fresh tomato panini, with a side of dressed cherry tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber, and a decent pot of tea. Total cost was £8.50 and the train to Charlton was two minutes away and a five minute journey.
I would like to see my money go to the club, but they only seem to want to cater for the rich posh element of our support.
My advice for what it’s worth is to do less, but what you choose to do, do very well.10 -
Super detailed knowledge as ever, thanks @cafcfan1990cafcfan said:
Hit and miss. Let's start with the bad - the gent's toilets at the north end of Club 1905. The cubicles and other fitments are Armitage Shanks System 7 which they stopped selling in 2002, so they were probably what was installed when the stand was completed in 1998. Making them 28 years old. Of the two, one has no lock and the other has a bodged replacement. Neither of the seats are securely attached. The basins have taps with missing tops and the water from the hot tap is so hot it would poach an egg. (No lever operated mixer tap as there should be.) The soap dispensers are both broken with the fronts hanging off. At least one of the urinals leaks piss from the trap on to the floor. The hand dryers both work but are situated so that anyone opening the entrance door hits you in the back if you're using them.valleynick66 said:Is it all good in hospitality though ?🤔
Remember this is a facility that the match and match ball sponsors use as well as the regular punters. It really is very poor indeed.
Now, on to the food. Not sure about the new "small plate" offering, the carvery is usually okay. Problem is if you want veg to go with your "small plate" you have to queue with the carvery punters and the queue can be tediously lengthy. Sometimes the quality is very good sometimes a bit meh. Yesterday's soup was excellent but, as ever, don't expect anything above luke warm for the veg. The meat/fish, etc is usually fine. And the new half-time and full-time snacks are pretty good. As ever, I'm hoping that things will improve, they are trying and the staff are doing their best.
If the bathroom suite is an AS system 7 that could predate the stand by about 30 years according to UCA VADS.
https://vads.ac.uk/digital/collection/DIAD/id/9395 (at view 2).
I wouldn't put it past someone to have installed something from old stock either- makes good sense. However it's also a very good question to ask, when was that suite installed, and the likelihood that it predates the stand could drive home the message that an upgrade is well overdue!0 -
Sponsored links:
-
Last 2 home games, me and my son have made a point of stopping in Morley's for food before the game. Can't eat the crap served in the ground (even the coffee is rank, how do you f*ck up coffee?) and won't pay £33 for 2 burgers and 1 portion of average chips in the fan zone.5
-
If you’d like decent coffee, Perkalicious is in the fans barEveryDayAddick said:Last 2 home games, me and my son have made a point of stopping in Morley's for food before the game. Can't eat the crap served in the ground (even the coffee is rank, how do you f*ck up coffee?) and won't pay £33 for 2 burgers and 1 portion of average chips in the fan zone.2
