Neverspoons App

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al_yrpal
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Re: Neverspoons App

Post by al_yrpal »

Wetherspoons is what it is, an inexpensive place for pub grub and nice ales. If you are any sort of snob concerned with how it looks to others you going there, go somewhere else!
Yesterday in a marquee in the town centre we got charged £16 for 2 toasted teacakes and 2 coffees....never again!

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
Syd
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Re: Neverspoons App

Post by Syd »

al_yrpal wrote:Wetherspoons is what it is, an inexpensive place for pub grub and nice ales. If you are any sort of snob concerned with how it looks to others you going there, go somewhere else!
Yesterday in a marquee in the town centre we got charged £16 for 2 toasted teacakes and 2 coffees....never again!

Al
I genuinely couldn’t give two hoots about what anybody thought about me going anywhere.

Cheap as it is I simply don’t like their places, for a number of reasons, and am happy to pay a little bit more for somewhere else.
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Neverspoons App

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Very confused, drinking/eating at spoons has been described as expensive and cheap, which is The Truth?

Never spent cash there, I have been dry for 31 years :wink:
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millimole
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Re: Neverspoons App

Post by millimole »

Cyril Haearn wrote:Very confused, drinking/eating at spoons has been described as expensive and cheap, which is The Truth?

Never spent cash there, I have been dry for 31 years :wink:
I don't drink alcohol but 'spoons is a pretty good choice for their choices of non-alcoholic drinks (or was last time I went in one, a very long time ago).

Cheap in price, but expensive as regards their effect on other non-chain alternatives due to their alleged anti-competitive behaviour.
Leicester; Riding my Hetchins since 1971; Day rides on my Dawes; Going to the shops on a Decathlon Hoprider
Ben@Forest
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Re: Neverspoons App

Post by Ben@Forest »

Wetherspoon's (or Tim Martin's) policy of buying shops or cinemas or even former political clubs (the Spoons in Hawick is the former Conservative Club) has been great for re-purposing town centre buildings. In a town local to me another one is about to open, and it's a town with a dire lack of evening eateries (the sort of place which is bursting with coffee shops which shut at 6pm). The Spoons will be great for evening entertainment.
Oldjohnw
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Re: Neverspoons App

Post by Oldjohnw »

Syd wrote: 12 May 2021, 1:40pm
al_yrpal wrote:Wetherspoons is what it is, an inexpensive place for pub grub and nice ales. If you are any sort of snob concerned with how it looks to others you going there, go somewhere else!
Yesterday in a marquee in the town centre we got charged £16 for 2 toasted teacakes and 2 coffees....never again!

Al
I genuinely couldn’t give two hoots about what anybody thought about me going anywhere.

Cheap as it is I simply don’t like their places, for a number of reasons, and am happy to pay a little bit more for somewhere else.
It isn't about snobbery. It's simply that I don't like sticking to the table at any price.
John
Oldjohnw
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Re: Neverspoons App

Post by Oldjohnw »

Ben@Forest wrote: 12 May 2021, 2:46pm Wetherspoon's (or Tim Martin's) policy of buying shops or cinemas or even former political clubs (the Spoons in Hawick is the former Conservative Club) has been great for re-purposing town centre buildings. In a town local to me another one is about to open, and it's a town with a dire lack of evening eateries (the sort of place which is bursting with coffee shops which shut at 6pm). The Spoons will be great for evening entertainment.

I've suddenly come over all Tim Martin friendly. K would like him to turn all Conservative Clubs into pubs.
John
Syd
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Re: Neverspoons App

Post by Syd »

Oldjohnw wrote:
Syd wrote: 12 May 2021, 1:40pm
al_yrpal wrote:Wetherspoons is what it is, an inexpensive place for pub grub and nice ales. If you are any sort of snob concerned with how it looks to others you going there, go somewhere else!
Yesterday in a marquee in the town centre we got charged £16 for 2 toasted teacakes and 2 coffees....never again!

Al
I genuinely couldn’t give two hoots about what anybody thought about me going anywhere.

Cheap as it is I simply don’t like their places, for a number of reasons, and am happy to pay a little bit more for somewhere else.
It isn't about snobbery. It's simply that I don't like sticking to the table at any price.
Ditto
Ben@Forest
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Re: Neverspoons App

Post by Ben@Forest »

Syd wrote: 12 May 2021, 3:54pm
Oldjohnw wrote:
Syd wrote: 12 May 2021, 1:40pm
I genuinely couldn’t give two hoots about what anybody thought about me going anywhere.

Cheap as it is I simply don’t like their places, for a number of reasons, and am happy to pay a little bit more for somewhere else.
It isn't about snobbery. It's simply that I don't like sticking to the table at any price.
Ditto
It's amazing that so many intelligent people (and I'm not being sarcastic) genuinely don't have the wit to go to the bar and ask for the table to be cleaned, often the offer 'Give me a cloth I'Il do it myself' produces an even quicker response for the table to get cleaned. And that isn't just Wetherspoons, I've been to many places where the table needs cleaning or cleaning properly. I can't say I've ever had a response which didn't get the table cleaned quickly and usually apologetically.
Syd
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Neverspoons App

Post by Syd »

I should not have to ask for a table to be cleaned, or do it myself, its a service industry, and that is part of the service one should expect.

If they can’t be bothered cleaning their tables how confident are you that everything else is as clean as you would wish?

I suspect that is part of the reason they use the complex blue patterned plates I saw being dished out the last time I was ever in one.

Final straw for me was getting a glass of wine with lipstick marks still prominent on the rim. The second, third and fourth glasses were no better so I called it a day and left. Never been back.
Ben@Forest
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Re: Neverspoons App

Post by Ben@Forest »

Syd wrote: 12 May 2021, 4:45pm I should not have to ask for a table to be cleaned, or do it myself, its a service industry, and that is part of the service one should expect.

If they can’t be bothered cleaning their tables how confident are you that everything else is as clean as you would wish?

I suspect that is part of the reason they use the complex blue patterned plates I saw being dished out the last time I was ever in one.

Final straw for me was getting a glass of wine with lipstick marks still prominent on the rim. The second, third and fourth glasses were no better so I called it a day and left. Never been back.
I worked at a Happy Eater throughout my A levels and once a six-week stint in a hospital kitchen trolleying plated food and washing dishes (mainly in a huge dishwasher). I've not got too many illusions about how food service works (and the hospital was not better than Happy Eater).

As George Orwell wrote in Down and Out in Paris and London:

In the kitchen the dirt was worse. It is not a figure of speech, it is a mere statement of fact to say that a French cook will spit in the soup—that is, if he is not going to drink it himself. He is an artist, but his art is not cleanliness. To a certain extent he is even dirty because he is an artist, for food, to look smart, needs dirty treatment. When a steak, for instance, is brought up for the head cook’s inspection, he does not handle it with a fork. He picks it up in his fingers and slaps it down, runs his thumb round the dish and licks it to taste the gravy, runs it round and licks again, then steps back and contemplates the piece of meat like an artist judging a picture, then presses it lovingly into place with his fat, pink fingers, every one of which he has licked a hundred times that morning.
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661-Pete
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Re: Neverspoons App

Post by 661-Pete »

Ben@Forest wrote: 12 May 2021, 11:59am At what price, clientele, environmental effect or ownership credentials do you deign to visit pubs, eateries or restaurants? Smells like Oxbridge snobbery to me....
Why should it be assumed that my reasons for not patronising certain establishments are founded on snobbery? In fact what is snobbery, exactly? Does having been to University make me a snob?

Would it have occurred to you that a good reason for avoiding McD's was because I didn't like their produce? Many people dislike certain foods. I have plenty of aversions myself (when I was a kid I was often forced - under threat of a beating - to eat food I detested. Thankfully those days are long over and best forgotten.)

Anyway - to answer the above points individually: clientele: I don't give a damn, just so long as I'm not about to get beaten up by violent drunks! Environment: Certainly: why should I dismiss that factor? Ownership credentials: a debatable matter. But this Tim Martin character has done untold harm to the Britain as I see it, partly through his funding of Leave UK, partly by his decision to boycott produce from the EU. If Martin sees fit to impose a boycott, what's wrong with tit-for-tat? :twisted:
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Oldjohnw
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Re: Neverspoons App

Post by Oldjohnw »

Ben@Forest wrote: 12 May 2021, 4:28pm
Syd wrote: 12 May 2021, 3:54pm
Oldjohnw wrote:
It isn't about snobbery. It's simply that I don't like sticking to the table at any price.
Ditto
It's amazing that so many intelligent people (and I'm not being sarcastic) genuinely don't have the wit to go to the bar and ask for the table to be cleaned, often the offer 'Give me a cloth I'Il do it myself' produces an even quicker response for the table to get cleaned. And that isn't just Wetherspoons, I've been to many places where the table needs cleaning or cleaning properly. I can't say I've ever had a response which didn't get the table cleaned quickly and usually apologetically.
One has to wonder what the kitchens are like. It wasn’t a one off. It was every time I visited. As I wrote in my initial post, this was my experience. I have only been to a relatively small number but that is how it was.

It happens that in the early days of my retirement I did some secret shopper work. One of the client organisations was Wetherspoons. Without fail, when it came to cleanliness Wetherspoons was dismal. Good beer, cheap food. But grubby.
John
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Neverspoons App

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Really, making ones own food ticks all the boxes: cheaper, quicker, what one wants, when one wants. There might be some germs, but they are MY germs :wink:

I understand there are interesting rules about hygiene inspections, times and dates are agreed beforehand, there are very few inspectors, results may not be freely available
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Jdsk
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Re: Neverspoons App

Post by Jdsk »

Cyril Haearn wrote: 12 May 2021, 5:34pm... results may not be freely available
Food Hygiene Ratings are published:
https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/ ... ing-scheme

eg for Wetherspoons:
https://ratings.food.gov.uk/enhanced-se ... %5E/0/1/10

Food safety officer's full reports are usually but not always available to the public.

Jonathan
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