[Closed] 'Spoons. Back to the 80's?

is dissapoint.  was expecting more of this

At 8am scoffing an English breakfast too no doubt.

I was expecting this.

I can see why they are popular.

I can't. Cheap booze aside, the atmosphere is typically abysmal, no music, brightly or garishly lit, sticky carpets, tables and bars.

I had a couple in the one on the site of the old Marquee Club, nice beer, friendly bar staff, and (for London) a great price. Not a great deal of atmosphere, true, but for a quick drink to kill time while my wife & daughter went to Primark it was fine.

The pub by Kew Bridge was much nicer, of course, but 13 quid for a large house red and a pint... Ouch.

80s prices is pretty progressive compared to Big Tim's 70s attitude.

I can see why they are popular.

I can’t. Cheap booze ......

Cheap booze is why

Never been into a Weatherspoons.
I have been into a pub that subsequently became one. No urge to go there again.

Just to check the one at the Holborn end of union Street.

Best described as a garishly lit cave.

Does have a nice front from the old cinema yes.

Food is cheap and usually ok too. Also you can order it on your phone to avoid all human contact. Free refill on tea too. No fan of the owner but they can be good.

Price of beer (and soft drinks) has gone a bit crazy so good to see pubs that do their own thing

1988
Heineken 88p a pint
Wifebeater £1 a pint

In the north

TR, no, the one in Inverurie.

Ok you had me worried for a minute there.

Actively avoid the one on Union Street as much as I'd avoid soul bar .....

And that's not to say I'm a weather spoons snob....had a fine enough day in the one back home on Friday sat by a window with good company.

The one in Warwick is well posh, go to the one in Leamington if you want a fight

Had my first Spoons breakfast this morning - decent enough for the money.

I like them on the whole - often interesting old buildings, the Cambridge ciñema one is great, decent range of ales at decent prices, food is good value for what it is.

A couple of Remainer friends now refuse to go in them for political reasons.

The Commercial Rooms in Bristol is great, a fantastic building that happens to sell reasonably priced (cheap) ale and quick hop and skip to the deliciousness of St Nick's Market food stalls. The one in Hartlepool does the job when the Rat Race in the station is closed too.

I've been in loads of 'spoons, some grim and sticky and some in really nice buildings. I've had good and bad service, good and bad food, good and bad beer and I wouldn't dream of reading their own magazine. But I have to admit about 1 Sunday a month I take my 3 girls to our local one (well, until it flooded!), primarily as it's cheap (which matters to me) and trouble free. There is no music, so we all chat and the youngest has free wifi for when she gets bored of us. It's not the pinnacle of our social calendar, but it's easy and cheap. Equally I love a cheeky 'spoons breakfast and a pint before a lunchtime kick off, it's a rare treat.
I go to a lot of other places too, some a lot nicer. I get why people don't like them but I haven't got the enthuse to get wound up by them. I generally apply the same principle I apply to any pub, if I go in and it's shite, I leave.

It's £2.05 for a pint of ale in my local Spoons but with my CAMRA 50p voucher that comes down to £1.55 for a decent beer. For a quick pint on a Saturday afternoon it's bang on. I wouldn't venture in there of an evening though.

I had a spoons all day breakfast a few months ago. A couple of hours later I filled my pants. No warning, just hot trousers. Aint going there again 🤣.

I’ve been in some awful holes with blasting music and prices of drinks that are astronomical. I go to a spoons for a cheap drink or organised day out but not if I’m out for nice food and a better quality bar.

Cougar

Subscriber
80s prices is pretty progressive compared to Big Tim’s 70s attitude.

I'll be making this into a poster that each of my kids can hang in their room in halls at university.

Shite pubs for ****s.

Just been to Unicorn Hotel in Ripon for a quick dwink before we ate somewhere else. £1.99 for a pint of Doombar (6 other ales to choose from at the same price) & about £3.50 for a large glass of Pinot.
Just as good an atmosphere as any other big pub but without the high prices.

Some dreadful arsery on display here.

I don't mind where I spend my hard earned. Whilst traveling c2c earlier this year I ate and drank in a Wetherspoons in Penrith.

I was famished was bloody glad of it late one night, its not fine dining but then I'm not a snob. 😋

Like you've never had a Gregg's.

"Dreadful arsery" is a great description, and fast becoming the default setting round here!

It wasn't a spoon!

Srsly, the only reason folk go in is price, everything else gets moaned about.

It's corporate price driven competition killer stuff, support independents instead of that Brexit idiot.

My town got a spoons in 2018. It's always very busy. They brought a derelict 1960s council building back into use, spending >£1million on it.

In the near 2 years its been opened no other pubs have closed (there are ~10 other pubs within 5 minutes walk), in fact 2 have undergone massive refurbs and 2 new mini bars have opened specialising in gin and cocktails respectively. 'Spoons don't allow dogs in, they allow kids in (until 9), there is no music, sport or entertainment so they do leave a lot of leeway for others to compete. It looks like they've brought something new to the town and forced other run down pubs to up their game.

Yes there are issues with its blandness, and yes Tim is as fanny but they are doing a good job of shaking up the UK pub, restaurant and café trade (because they're really all 3).

Can’t remember the last time I had an alcoholic drink in a ‘spoons but there’s one near a site we do a fair bit of work on & they are happy for us to buy a coffee in the morning and keep the mug for our lunchtime and ‘before we go home’ brew. Might just be auto machine made but it’s perfectly drinkable and very cheap.
Fridays that we are there I buy the guys breakfast and again, it’s not the best ever but is good for the price.
All in  a lovely old building that would probably have ended up as a massive hmo or demolished otherwise.

I forgot about one of 'Spoons great innovations - ordering by app. We often end up in 'Spoons when we're on the road with the kids because you can just grab any old table and order one handed via the app while wrestling some kids and doing colouring in with the supplied crayons. Oh and they keep a bottle warmer behind the bar as well and always have good baby change facilities. I'm not massively keen on taking my kids into pubs but they really do cater very well for families. I appreciate folk with kids probably puts other people off but then Tim has done the maths and worked out that me needing to feed 5 people quickly will yield more profit as two old gits supping pints of Ruddles Best all week.

Regular Spoons user. As to his politics. Wellhe is with the majority isn't he?

It's weird -last time I went into a Spoons, I had to immediately leave. The sheer mass of people and the noise and heat coming from them made me quite anxious (this was a few months back and I was at a low point!) so we just went straight out.
Ended up eating in a Ken's Fried Chicken 😆
Do have fond memories of some lunchtime dates in the one near where I used to work, lack of music means it's a nice place to chat.

I’d rather have a brekky an coffee in one than drink in one 🙂
(Due to the noise when in full flight not a snobby streak)

You can’t deny that Tim(or someone) pretty much nailed a successful formula.

Minimum staff running quick prep food and cheap beer.

TBH politically wise he’s in a win-win,you toast success or drown your sorrows in his cheap beer whatever 🙂

I was in my local spoons last night - £13 for 3 gins, 2 pints and a soft drink. Some of the local independent pub/bars have beer at nearly the same price for 1 pint!  Happy to spend in any pub that serves a decent pint, very happy to have plenty of pubs locally (including spoons) that do just that 🙂

I forgot about one of ‘Spoons great innovations – ordering by app

My eldest daughter went to see a friend in York and they went to one of the 'spoons there.

She sent a message on our family whatsapp group saying she was hungry but didn't have any money (hmm) she told us about the app and which table she was at - within 5 mins she had a pint and some food delivered to her table bought by one of her sisters (pint) and me (food).
She was made up.
Clever idea!

It’s weird -last time I went into a Spoons, I had to immediately leave. The sheer mass of people and the noise and heat coming from them made me quite anxious

Am I correct in saying you're an avid gig goer?

Worth the journey to lossie to drink it in the Windswept taproom tho

It’s corporate price driven competition killer stuff

I get this in idea, but my actual experience of two Spoons pubs, one in the town I grew up in and the other near where I now live would do little to evidence this*. In fact the both seem to have stimulated the local market, and I've seen more business open near them and nothing close as an apparent impact of them.

In the town I grew up, they opened up in a pub that had been closed for the best part of 15 years on the market square. The town centre was very much a drink and a fight place at weekends and clientele matched accordingly. The lack of music etc seems to have brought a diversity of clients further into the town centre, more young families in the day and an older demographic in the evenings. A couple of new resturaunts have cropped up, which seem to be doing fine.

Equally in the one nearest us, a couple of new independent bars specialising more in food and cocktails have set up and brought life to a side of the town that was on it's bum without seeming to close anything else.

There could be a plethora of reasons why these happened outside of the appearance of spoons, and equally what I have seen will probably not be replicated everywhere, so I wondered if there were any facts to support spoons killing the competition. I get that it is owned by a massive gammon faced ring piece, and that chains can make life for independent's a struggle. But even when I look to my nearest city in Sheffield I see chains existing and some closing against a wonderful and ever increasing range of independent food and drink providers.

*I can confirm that absolutely no in depth business analysis has gone into this.

In fact the both seem to have stimulated the local market, and I’ve seen more business open near them and nothing close as an apparent impact of them.

Absolutely the same here, not one pub has closed, yes they had to drop prices but they were overinflated anyway due to a couple of really nice, but expensive bar/restaurants in town, lots of local pubs upped their prices accordingly off the back of those places.

Since they dropped prices, not one pub has shut, and they're all booming.

I was famished was bloody glad of it late one night, its not fine dining but then I’m not a snob.

If being a snob is not liking the filth they sell in there then I must be a snob.

I take it you have never had a spoon's curry.

That said, I love a greggs and go there twice a week..

I aspire to reach the place where filth is so debased as a concept that non artisal eggs Benedict and off trend interior styling are considered filth.

Comedienne Lynda Smith summed them up perfectly as “Smelling of oven chips and disappointment”.

Eaten in a spoons a handful of times. I don’t plan to do so again. It’s calories and it resembles traditional British fare in a processed plastic kind of way. You’d be hard pressed to call it revolting but you’d have a very small life with limited experiences if you thought it actually nice. I make better food at home which is always a benchmark for electing to eat out for pleasure. Add the lighting, the fakery, the frequent stickiness and I cant be doing with it. And that’s before the politics of the owner or the default customer is taken into account.

Beer prices are interesting though. I’m assuming they manage it by putting huge pressure on the breweries to sell to them cheap. I guess you can’t have a problem with that unless you elect to not shop in a supermarket too. I guess if you drink to get drunk or are on a budget and put beer volume high on you priority list it works for you as a customer. As someone who drinks modest amounts cost is not really an issue and doing it outside of the house is as much about the atmosphere and location. Spoons does not do that for me.

My inlaws (DM reading, brexit voting, still talks about ****s retired types) love a spoons however. Love it. But then again they elect to walk past a delightful independent cafe on the waterside where you sit outside and watch boats and birds do their thing to have a coffee at a McDs drive through with a view of a Tesco extra and an industrial park. Because it’s 25p a cup cheaper and part of their enjoyment comes from it being a bargain (in their eyes). They simply don’t see (rather than elect not to value) the difference in atmosphere that for me makes one experience a pure pleasure and the other something to only be endured to top up your liquid levels. I feel that is all you need to know about the Spoons product and their target market customer priorities.

I feel that is all you need to know about the Spoons product and their target market customer priorities.

They make all their pubs accesible and do their food menu in audio format for visually impaired people. Those bastards. Their target makret is a lot broader than you imagine.

I make better food at home which is always a benchmark for electing to eat out for pleasure.

You appear to have cheap  and convenient  mixed up with eating out somewhere special.

I feel that is all you need to know about the Spoons product and their target market customer priorities.

No, just your impression of it.

You appear to have cheap and convenient mixed up with eating out somewhere specia

No, that’s my idea of eating out. If I want cheap and convenient I go cheaper and more convenient than a Spoons and pick up a £3 supermarket lunch meal deal to top up the calories and carry on doing whatever I was doing. Or have taken a packed lunch or calories in a packet of some sort. Going into somewhere and sitting down to consume calories is all about the experience to me. The experience of the food and the experience of the venue. If it does not pass my benchmark I see no point in ‘upgrading’ from calories on the go and wasting time out of my day going somewhere that involves sitting down.

No, just your impression of it.

Which is all anyone of us not in Spoons’ marketing department has. Clue is in the ‘I feel’ - who knew the English language adds some much context to sentences.

Beer prices are interesting though. I’m assuming they manage it by putting huge pressure on the breweries to sell to them cheap.

I'm led to believe (though I don't know for certain) that there's two factors at play.

First is the power of bulk buying, same as how Tesco will get better prices from a distributor than a corner shop would (and how the notion of glorious post-brexit trade deals is demonstrably bobbins to anyone with half a brain).

Second, because 'Spoons are almost always large venues with high footfall they can sell beer faster. So they can negotiate deals on short shelf-life beers that regular pubs won't touch because they'd wind up throwing half of it away.

No, that’s my idea of eating out. If I want cheap and convenient I go cheaper and more convenient than a Spoons and pick up a £3 supermarket lunch meal deal to top up the calories and carry on doing whatever I was doing. Or have taken a packed lunch or calories in a packet of some sort.

I’m not sure what friends would think on a day out for a few drinks when I suggest going to the park to eat our packed lunch.

Picnic in the park sounds lovely. You must live in a proper shithole if Spoons is genuinely a nicer proposition 😂

Eh?

I’m not sure what friends would think on a day out for a few drinks when I suggest going to the park to eat our packed lunch.

Have you told them the other option is Weatherspoons?

Disappointed in this thread. Was expecting more

Me and the Mrs love a spoons to be honest. We always sniff one out when staying away for weekends etc. In fact we had breakfast in one today .
I can honestly say we've never had bad food or drinks in any of them and no-one can argue with the prices ,can they?
I also like what they've done to some of the old buildings that would be boarded up and derelict otherwise.
I can't stand Tim or his politics, but we don't ask the political views or voting intentions of other shops , restaurant ,manufacturers,etc owners before we spend our money with them.

Have you told them the other option is Weatherspoons?

No need when you’re stood in one and someone suggests we ordered a few snacks, not once has someone said “ we should have our packed lunch.” There has been suggestions of maybe going somewhere else though but again not a £3 lunch deal.

pick up a £3 supermarket lunch meal deal

I can never understand why folk don't go to a decent independent sandwich shop and have a lovely fresh bread cake with tasty fillings and a glass of corporation pop to wash it down 🙂

Screw Spoons

I can’t stand Tim or his politics, but we don’t ask the political views or voting intentions of other shops , restaurant ,manufacturers,etc owners before we spend our money with them.

Some of us do actually but guess I am in the 0.0n% that actually gives a shit. I wouldn't knowingly support a person such as Tim Martin by adding to his profits.

Wait 'til HtS sees this.

He'll go galactic!

Personally, I think they are dreadful. The one near Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester makes the Mos Eisley Cantina look like a Home Counties grammar school.

Crammed with red faced men in brown V neck jumpers; deploying ham sandwiches as pillows as their glazed eyes surrender to sleep.

I’m led to believe (though I don’t know for certain) that there’s two factors at play.

First is the power of bulk buying, same as how Tesco will get better prices from a distributor than a corner shop would (and how the notion of glorious post-brexit trade deals is demonstrably bobbins to anyone with half a brain).

Second, because ‘Spoons are almost always large venues with high footfall they can sell beer faster. So they can negotiate deals on short shelf-life beers that regular pubs won’t touch because they’d wind up throwing half of it away.

Believe what you want cougar. There's an actual brewary owner on here who told it like it is rather than a bow they think it is having been through the negotiations.

I believe he declined their deal in the end. And it was nothing to do with short life or it was simply we are big and will pay X. Knowing X was pretty much cost price - but we will also buy your entire stock and you end up unable to sell else where to make a profit.

It’s corporate price driven competition killer stuff, support independents instead of that Brexit idiot.

I was waiting for someone to mention supporting independants.
Obviously you only support independents who agree with your Brexit view? Or don't you agree with the 'price driven corporate killer' bit?

I can’t stand Tim or his politics, but we don’t ask the political views or voting intentions of other shops , restaurant ,manufacturers,etc owners before we spend our money with them.

The difference being, all of those other places don't use their outlets for political grandstanding and propaganda dissemination.

Believe what you want cougar. There’s an actual brewary owner on here who told it like it is rather than a bow they think it is having been through the negotiations.

I believe he declined their deal in the end. And it was nothing to do with short life or it was simply we are big and will pay X. Knowing X was pretty much cost price – but we will also buy your entire stock and you end up unable to sell else where to make a profit.

Fair enough. Cheers.

No need when you’re stood in one and someone suggests we ordered a few snacks, not once has someone said “ we should have our packed lunch.” There has been suggestions of maybe going somewhere else though but again not a £3 lunch deal.

You are talking about a completely different scenario to the one I was thinking of. You had already set your threshold (low) electing to drink there. Once done, going the whole hog and eating there too would seem a valid rabbit hole to go down. I was thinking about being out and about with friends, family or alone - shopping, seeing something etc and electing to voluntarily step in specifically to eat. As said, it just wouldn’t happen. It would either be mobile calories or into somewhere that cooks better than at home.

The one near Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester makes the Mos Eisley Cantina look like a Home Counties grammar school.

Yes but the whole of Piccadilly Gardens is like a scene from a zombie apocalypse (apologies to the food stalls, some are rather good).

I used to partake of a Spoons breakfast when working on a Saturday and quite enjoyed it. Also Mrs. Slow and I would sometimes pop in for a chilli and a pint. The beer, although cheap and of a tolerable standard, is not as varied as it might be for such a champion of real ale. The enormous increase in small, locally owned and run outlets selling a wide variety of fantastic ales makes Spoons now look a bit tired.

You are talking about a completely different scenario to the one I was thinking of. You had already set your threshold (low) electing to drink there. Once done, going the whole hog and eating there too would seem a valid rabbit hole to go down. I was thinking about being out and about with friends, family or alone – shopping, seeing something etc and electing to voluntarily step in specifically to eat. As said, it just wouldn’t happen. It would either be mobile calories or into somewhere that cooks better than at home.

Pretty much what I said in my first reply to you.

I was thinking about being out and about with friends, family or alone – shopping, seeing something etc and electing to voluntarily step in specifically to eat.

There's thousands of different scenarios about what, how and where we eat. I've done the Tescos meal deal, homemade packed lunch eaten in the park, car, office, boat, campervan ect, ect. Eaten in greasy spoons and Michelin stared restaurants. And yes had a pint with a meal in a Spoons, it all depends on the time and place. Sticking your nose up at Spoons but more importantly people who use them makes someone an insufferable snob, and that isn't a good thing.

Some of us do actually but guess I am in the 0.0n% that actually gives a shit. I wouldn’t knowingly support a person such as Tim Martin by adding to his profits.

Fair enough, good on you, perhaps I should give it a bit more thought in the future

'Spoons is what it is.

That is to say is well priced beer and drink that's reasonably well looked after and well priced food that's generally perfectly edible, though hardly sophisticated. It's also very, very consistent, and that is something of huge value to many people when visiting places they normally wouldn't. And the toilets are always, always bloody miles away.

If you want great food, made by proper chefs and micro-brewery beers from local artisans then there are clearly much better places to go. If you want a reasonable pint and a quick bite then you could do a whole lot worse.

And yes, the owner is a prat.

The difference being, all of those other places don’t use their outlets for political grandstanding and propaganda dissemination.

Fair comment,but personally I've never paid any attention to the propaganda ,never even noticed it to be honest,I just use them for a cheap breakfast,and the odd drink.
I don't take any notice of the shit in most of the papers or on the BBC either, but I appreciate that obviously many do.

Only issue I have with 'Spoons is the knobbish owner. Beer's cheap, food is cheap but plentiful and perfectly acceptable, and they keep interesting buildings as they are. Much to admire, apart from the knobbish owner - we vist them rarely solely because of him, and I resent every penny I put in his pocket.

I’ve never paid any attention to the propaganda ,never even noticed it to be honest,I just use them for a cheap breakfast,and the odd drink.

I suppose everyone's moral 'red lines' would be different. I don't doubt that some folk might be quite happy going for a cheap pint in a place with pro-Nazi posters on the walls and "drown all the gays" beermats. Others might not go in places where they don't like the colour of the carpet.

For me, personally, Tim Martin went too far and crossed a line that I could no longer tolerate. As such I decided that I could no longer bring myself to spend money in his establishments. YMMV.

Great place, cheap plentiful food and booze. Might pop in later on my way to buy a Dyson.

If being a snob is not liking the filth they sell in there then I must be a snob.

Filth? Na, you're not a snob mate, you're a tosser. 😂

Great place, cheap plentiful food and booze. Might pop in later on my way to buy a Dyson.

😂

That's actually a pretty good example.

I own not one but two Dysons, one from years back and a post-referendum cordless. I do not have a great moral dilemma over that because they didn't turn up covered in "leave now" stickers and lies about immigrants.

They certainly fill a niche, staying in Neath for the Afan BNES this year was pretty much only place to get a sit down meal, spent the evening watching rugby teams getting messy and as for the local large lasses drinking the 'sharing' cocktail jugs as tho they were a pint of beer.. 🤪

Last one I went in was Farringdon after the work Xmas do, was grim as you'd expect, harshly lit, cocky bouncers, dodgy clientele and possibly the most unpleasant pint of ale (doombar) I've been served in a pub, cheap as you like, but when there are so many much much nicer pubs nearby, won't be back any time soon. (It helps that the owner is a massive tool)

Fwiw I also won't be buying a Dyson thanks to Mr stains politics , again it helps that mieles are better

I guess you can’t have a problem with that unless you elect to not shop in a supermarket too

No, that's quite different, theres hardly any competition to what, 6-8 main supermarket brands, there is only one Wetherspoons and many independent or brewery owned pubs.

I was waiting for someone to mention supporting independants.
Obviously you only support independents who agree with your Brexit view?

I wasn't anticipating this, because it's stupid, unless you hav a list of all pub owners and their political views?

Or don’t you agree with the ‘price driven corporate killer’ bit?

Im not into either, that's why I stated both.

My inlaws (DM reading, brexit voting, still talks about ****s retired types) love a spoons however.

What's this got to do with it? Plenty of people go to a wetherspoons who aren't like this!

The food is pretty decent for price and the beer is about as cheap as you will get in a pub due to buying power at the scale which wetherspoons can order.

I managed a wetherspoons for 5 years and really enjoyed it. Hard work, but great for meeting people. You would be hard pushed to beat the atmosphere in the commercial rooms in Bristol on a Friday or Saturday night back in the late 90s/early 2000's. Pubs now are either way too loud with music or are just some kind of wanna-be posers bar where beer is 9 quid a pint.

The food was mostly frozen or quick to prepare but about as decent as you would get from places nearly double the price. Coffee was prepared using a proper bean to cup Brasilia machine and was crazy cheap. The curries were usually award winning back then, not sure about recently. Tables and such were regularly cleaned and the buildings were always well maintained and nice to be in. Haven't been in one for a while now but have they really gone downhill that much?

No but Masterchef et al, combined with the proliferation of identity politics has created a boom in insufferable amateur food critic social commentators. Wetherspoons is to them as a trangender fox is to the daily mail. Its very existence torments them.

Thing is, like trail centres, Strictly, MacDonalds etc its ‘cool’ to profess a distain  for ‘spoons on here.

Pizza Express of pubs.