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It’s drinks and sundries that are the killer. A local Indian might only be seven quid for a main, but then you factor in poppadoms, chutney tray, onion bhajis, rice, naans, a few pints at a fiver a pop, suddenly you’ve spunked £40+ a head without noticing.
Tell me about it... Me, the wife and the boy went for Indian last weekend.
£110 ! I nearly choked... It was nice enough.. but i was astounded at £110.
Whoops
^Very off topic.
I bet Hitler was the sort of person who had peas on a pizza.
[edit]Whoops isn't good enough.[/edit]
and pineapple.
Wrong thread!
This is STW, there has to be superiority in all the threads like this… people here just have to be ‘better’ depeding on their interpreation of better within a given thread.
Place astounds me.
Ay? Everyone is saying you can eat cheap at the right places that was the OPs point with PE and others on Indy places. Only one person interrupted it as £300 for one meal.
Anyway, four of us went to PE on sunday… shared a double dough balls, pizza each, and pudding each (with coffee for adults), drank tap water… £43 thanks to a voucher. Better pizza elsewhere for sure, but it’s good for the price, and carbs are spot on for the boy… post lunch peak was only 10 … most pizza joints result in a late 20+ peak.
I would literally cry if I had to drop 200 quid on a meal for 3 people. I’ve never really got the whole fine dining thing, dont get me wrong i love the beef fillet yakitori skewer that they do at a pub near us but that’s 23 quid a go with two very nice sides out of a choice of maybe 10, but even that makes me wince a little. Perhaps I’m just a tight bastard!
@wrightyson Joiners Arms, Quarndon?
Anyway we use PE a fair amount. As stated above because of the vouchers and I also know that my son will find something he likes. Would go somewhere else if it was just me and the Mrs
chestercopperpot
Member
Utter shit.
^^^Yep sums it up. Expensive but only middle of the road quality and a bit bland. How the **** it lasted so long I don’t know. Went in the Manchester one years ago and that was enough for me to know I’d never go again.
From what I've read Pizza Express itself is largely successful and profitable, the problem here is that the chinese private equity firm that now owns them has saddled them with a metric shit-tonne of debt that they cannot afford to service.
Ay? Everyone is saying you can eat cheap at the right places that was the OPs
Nah, they're all throwing in their reverse superiority about how we shouldn't use chains and they're better because they only do Indy. There's 2 different sets of superiority within the same topic.
Nah, they’re all throwing in their reverse superiority about how we shouldn’t use chains and they’re better because they only do Indy. There’s 2 different sets of superiority within the same topic.
It doesn't read well! Reality is that indy places can be hit and miss as can chain places!
Me, the wife and the boy went for Indian last weekend
Massooms?
Tell me about it… Me, the wife and the boy went for Indian last weekend.
£110 ! I nearly choked… It was nice enough.. but i was astounded at £110
We go to an Indian for the Sunday buffet occasionally - all you can eat for a family of four. I'll normally have two or three pints of Cobra and my wife/two girls a couple of J2Os each then the girls will have ice creams - we cab normally do it for £45 all in which I am comfortable spending. I think I would do a runner at £110!
Massooms?
Kolkata. As i say it was nice enough, they were friendly, food was good...
I think I would do a runner at £110!
I suggested it to the wife.... she gave me the look...
Whoops again.
I’ll normally have two or three pints of Cobra and my wife/two girls a couple of J2Os each then the girls will have ice creams – we cab normally do it for £45 all in
Assuming you're not sharing a plate, crikey that's cheap.
2 beers and 2 j20 would be closing on £20 here.
(the most over priced curry I recall having was in Derby a few weeks back, £75 for two of us. Expensive but not terrible I thought - food was OK but not worth the price tag - only as I was getting into the car did I twig we'd shared a starter, no deserts and neither of us were drinking, at that point I muttered the Yorkshire war cry)
Nah, they’re all throwing in their reverse superiority about how we shouldn’t use chains and they’re better because they only do Indy. There’s 2 different sets of superiority within the same topic.
No, they’re suggesting alternatives to a chain support your LPS.
No, they’re suggesting alternatives to a chain support your LPS.
You read it like that then fella... 🙂
From what I’ve read Pizza Express itself is largely successful and profitable, the problem here is that the chinese private equity firm that now owns them has saddled them with a metric shit-tonne of debt that they cannot afford to service.
Thanks for that. According the Metro (not usually a good news source) there's no imminent danger, and, as you say, the root problem isn't structural it's the debt. So it seems certain that nothing will change before 2021/22 and whatever technical stuff happens in the background the brand and restaurants will continue trading after that.
Based on that, from a punters POV nothing to see here.
Phew ....
I like a PE ... La Reine with spinach, a runny egg and lashings of chilli oil.
As chains go, it's better than most.
Excellent news. Will order my vouchers for Sunday!
They do get the eggs spot on.
retro83
Member
From what I’ve read Pizza Express itself is largely successful and profitable, the problem here is that the chinese private equity firm that now owns them has saddled them with a metric shit-tonne of debt that they cannot afford to service.
Exactly what happened to Maplin and Toys R Us.
Based on that, from a punters POV nothing to see here.
Yup Thomas Cook for example.
the problem here is that the chinese private equity firm that now owns them has saddled them with a metric shit-tonne of debt
As above seems to be case all round, how is it permitted these days to buy up a company, lend them a load of money at % well above norm, repeat and rinse - isn't capatilism great 🙄
Exactly what happened to Maplin and Toys R Us.
Not in the case of Toys R Us and arguably not in the case of Maplin. This article covers both:
http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html
In the case of Maplin it puts the blame fair and square on debt imposed by the last two Venture Capitalists but then ends with this:
Computer Weekly argues that Maplin has been unable to respond to the challenge of online sales and has become over-reliant on its stores. So the sad story of Maplin may simply be an old-fashioned tale of over-expansion, loss of core focus and inability to respond to a fast-changing market. Just like Toys R Us.**
I can't see why a sound business would ever stop trading. Even if you load them up with debt to the point where they fold surely the core business comes out the other end of Administration worth more as a going concern than as the sum of its assets.
Thanks for that. According the Metro (not usually a good news source) there’s no imminent danger, and, as you say, the root problem isn’t structural it’s the debt. So it seems certain that nothing will change before 2021/22 and whatever technical stuff happens in the background the brand and restaurants will continue trading after that.
Based on that, from a punters POV nothing to see here.
Yup Thomas Cook for example.
Eh?
You're offering Thomas Cook as a fundamentally sound business loaded up with debt?
How was it sound? People buy holidays online now, not from high street shops.
Or are you making some other point?
La Reine with spinach,
It's a little known fact that those are really good for your eyesight. After I last finished one, I thought "I can see clearly now..."
I thought “I can see clearly now…”
What you did there.
I see it.
Clearly 🙂
Or are you making some other point?
Yes Thomas Cook were loaded up with debt with a failing business model, a few months ago everything was going to be fine nothing to worry about. Now they’ve gone.
PE are loaded with debt they can’t get out of with a business model that isn’t helping, you’re right nothing in common at all.
Assuming you’re not sharing a plate, crikey that’s cheap.
Nope - £9.95 per adult and £5.95 per child so £31.80 for the all you can eat buffet, the drinks and ice creams on top but they don't charge silly prices so it doesn't add up too much.
They will be gone in 6 months time unless they find fresh cash.
Xmas is a busy time for restaurants but not for pizza places.
I do like a nice Sloppy Guiseppe (ooh err etc), but I buy it from Morrison's, not only getting a much bigger pizza than the restaurant version, but getting it for a quarter of what it costs there.
There's nothing special about the Pizza Express restaurant experience that makes it worth the premium. My local one is an echoey barn which is invariably mostly empty when I walk past.
They will be gone in 6 months time unless they find fresh cash.
No they won't:
At the moment the restaurant chain is not in imminent danger because the owners have until 2021 before they need to start paying back over £600 million owed to outside creditors and then until 2022 to pay back £200 million of unsecured debt a year later.
https://metro.co.uk/2019/10/08/owns-pizza-express-face-administration-10880696/?ito=cbshare
...and even then they'll go into administration so AFAICT if they're worth more as going concern than as assets it won't make any difference to punters or staff.
As above seems to be case all round, how is it permitted these days to buy up a company, lend them a load of money at % well above norm, repeat and rinse – isn’t capatilism great
er, because it's "their" company after "they've" bought it?
From what I’ve read Pizza Express itself is largely successful and profitable, the problem here is that the chinese private equity firm that now owns them has saddled them with a metric shit-tonne of debt that they cannot afford to service.
@ retro83 - Can't say I'm surprised there are a lot of runners and riders in that race to the bottom. The pump and dump of the investment world.
RRP and the illusion of a deal. Not the only ones up to that trick either, mmmmm bikes, tyres. How much is really paid for them compared to what you are lead to believe is the norm.
That's business as they say!
sharkbait
Member
(literally two blocks away)I didn’t know we had blocks in the UK…. how big is that?
OT but I’m 48 and even as a kid used the term block ie just taking dog around the block.
So before American influences.
Could just be a North East thing🤷🏻♂️
Yup I’ve used around the block since I was a kid too. Simply means around a group of buildings.
I can remember using the phrase "around the block" when I was 5 (55 years ago) but I don't think we ever defined what a block was or how there could be two of them 😂
Why are we "dropping" money rather than spending it?
Kolkata. As i say it was nice enough, they were friendly, food was good…
I do like them, but not that much...
EDIT referring to the bill...
Utter shit.
Support the independents.
Totally agree.
outofbreath
Member
"Computer Weekly argues that Maplin has been unable to respond to the challenge of online sales and has become over-reliant on its stores"
Could that be something to do with having their profits channeled out of the business so there was next to no reinvestment and development? Why yes, yes it could.
Maplin was making a profit, aside from the "repayments" to their owners.
Thought this blog on chains and Pizza Express might amuse the STW massive. To quote, "It’s okay to appeal to the middle ground; if our political parties applied the same logic as Café Rouge we wouldn’t be on the brink of civil war".
https://meatandoneveg.blog/2019/10/08/in-defence-of-chains/
If you're anywhere near Brum and like food and drink you really need to follow this blog anyway.