Little Chef

I took the opportunity to pop into Popham Services on my way down to Cornwall this weekend. Made famous by Heston Blumenthal’s attempted makeover of the whole Little Chef chain, what would it be like 4 years after this experiment?
Sadly, the Little Chef chain went into administration and only the most profitable 95 branches were saved.
On arrival, there’s a sign proudly announcing that Popham Little Chef made it into the Good Food Guide 2011 but there’s now no visible sign of Heston’s involvement.
However, his legacy does live on in the menu with his braised ox cheeks still available to order. I had a pretty decent grilled half chicken but the advertised chicken gravy wasn’t evident and the bread sauce looked oddly brown in colour.
Unfortunately, the décor is letting the place down these days. For example, several of the seats had torn covers.
It’s a shame as I hoped that this food revolution would be successful so that long distance drivers would have a better choice of grub on their journeys.

I was in the Popham Little Chef today and it was awful! Service was terrible, the breakfast I ordered was forgettable. There was no cutlery on our table. The bacon still had all the white goo on it. I asked for extra wholemeal toast and it arrived a long time after we had finished eating. The whole breakfast was served at a luke warm temperature the only thing being hot were the sauseages. On a table nearby a customer had to ask for some serviettes. Another customer asked for a cinnamon danish pastry which again was plonked on the table without a serviette. Another table of about 12 people got fed up and left because they had to wait too long for service. My other half had heard that the toilets were worth a visit but it was cold and smelly (an awful smell hard to describe)
The dream has certainly died Heston Blumenthall must be ashamed to be associated with this restaurant now.

Simply the best English breakfast I have ever eaten. Great ingredients cooked well, what more could you ask for.
Dining room is airy and pleasant, service is great.
Can’t wait till every Little Chef follows this model.

I decided to stop here as I was passing and wondered if the hype matched the reality. Sadly, it didn’t — by a long way.
It started badly — despite being clearly ready to order and the restaurant not being exactly overflowing with customers, I had to wait over 10 minutes to order.
I had what was described as char-​grilled chicken, which had apparently been dressed with thyme infused EV olive oil. I suspect the only thyme that my chicken had seen was the excess it had suffered beyond the optimum cooking period. It was overcooked to the point of collapse and totally devoid of any thyme flavour or, indeed, signs of chargrilling. It reminded me of the chicken roast served up by Wetherspoons pubs only not so nice.
The chicken came with chicken gravy (identical in taste, appearance and consistency to the Wetherspoons equivalent) and the most revolting bread sauce ever to escape from a kitchen — apparently sopping lumps of bread floating in cold skimmed milk. At least the American style fries were nice — hot, crisp and tasty.
This Little Chef has apparently become the first to gain entry to the Good Food Guide. After my experience, I have to ask HOW? If I was Heston Blumenthal, I would do my damnedest to distance myself ASAP for fear of losing my reputation.

This is Heston Blumenthal’s creation — the new improved Little Chef experiment. Yep the one off of the TV. Had been planning this trip to Little Chef for weeks and was not too badly let down! Ok, expectations were a bit high. Had to keep reminding myself that this was not the Fat Duck on the cheap, but a still Little Chef.
It’s smaller in real life than it looked in the documentary, and it was packed out. Had to wait 5 mins to be seated. In a Little Chef, can you imagine?! so we decided to try lots of the menu and it was hit and miss. My fish and chips did not come with the chip shop atmomiser I was expecting, but the fish (hake) was literally the nicest chipshop fish I’ve ever eaten in the lightest crispiest delicious batter. Braised ox cheeks were really tender and full of flavour, scampi was bogstandard and the macaroni cheese was lovely. We saw someone else eating the Olympic breafast and my god it looked good — giant plate filled with good quality food for cheap and you can choose from a range of extras (all free range etc). My friend went for the smaller breakfast though which in terms of comparable size was disappointing — lots of spare room on the plate. Other not so great things — chip and fries — when Blumenthal is famous for his triple cooked chips, you’d think Little Chef would make extra effort to get them right — but they were undercooked. Desserts were not a triumph — it was more fun to eat the popping candy off the top of the tart rather than the tart itself which was pretty flavourless. Service is fine — much better than usual roadside place, not as good as in an actual restaurant.
Coffee smell is pumped into the toilets and they play clips from films etc while you’re in there, all very curious. The ceiling is painted like the sky and the booths are big and roomy.
This place is curious. I really liked it, although I wonder if I would so much if I went back again — without the excitement of trying it for the first time. Definitely recommend. Nice one Heston.

Big Chef takes on Little Chef — this is the branch of Little Chef that Heston Blumenthal was given to make over.
We turned up a little after two and were lucky to be seated within five minutes. The publicity that this branch has received since the tv program aired means that they regularly have queues out the door!
Now this is a little chef like now other, it’s bright, clean and has the feel of an American diner. The menu doesn’t look that different although there are some nice surprises. I opted for the braised Ox cheeks with mash which was very tender and rather tasty. The mash looked a bit on the pale side but tasted just fine.
Desert was a bit of a lottery as they had run out of 60% of the options, I may not have won but I certainly had vlaue for money.
Overall it cost us £31 for two mains, two desserts and two glasses of wine. Definitely value for money

Little Chef restaurants have improved their image over the last few years and the one at Popham is clean and smart with plenty of tables. Car parking is right outside. Waitress service is quick, friendly and efficient. The burgers are quite large and come with a selection of relishes and a large portion of hot fresh fries. Desserts are tasty, the ice cream is delicious. A small selection of road maps and atlases is available to buy and there’s a large rack of free tourist leaflets. Outside there’s a petrol station. As a diversion while you’re eating your meal you can watch light planes take off and land on the airfield on the opposite side of the A303!