The Pryordurkins

Posts Tagged ‘quality food’

Italian Fine Foods are available from Le Langhe who have recently opened in the Old Coach House, in York.  We have visited this shop twice in as many weeks and the food on offer certainly looks beautiful.  There is an excellent choice of Italian breads, olives, wines and cheeses.  Parma Hams and many others hang over the counter tempting you the minute you step inside.  Olive Oils, pestos and lots of other fine Italian ingredients are laid out across shelves and in baskets all making the trip seem irresistible.  At the back of the shop they have opened a cafe restaurant which is always full of people and on the door last week as we entered, there was a sign saying you now had to book a table because they are so busy and popular.

You might be wondering therefore why we underlined the word “looks” above!  Well it is because on both occasions we have found ourselves putting produce we had selected for purchase back on the shelves and walking out in disgust.  The service is atrocious.  In what is clearly a good quality produce shop, they seemed to have completely forgot about trying to sell any of it to actual customers.  We think this shop might just be a piece of art.  Look but don’t bother trying to buy.  Maybe that is why they describe themselves on their website, which has pictures of their old shop, as importers of Italian Artisan Food.  I always wondered what Artisan Food was.  Now I know.  Looks good but you can’t buy the stuff for love nor money.

Today, like last week, they had one stressed individual working on the deli counter, that doubles up as the till for any produce bought in the shop.  A queue of grumpy customers hangs around hoping to get served before they close around 5pm.  On both occasions our patience got the better of us and we simply walked out complaining about the business logic behind a shop that is clearly capable of selling very good quality food, but one that lets itself so badly down on something so simple as having staff to actually serve eager customers.

What a ridiculous approach to business.

UPDATE 7th March 09.  We really couldn’t believe a place could be so bad when it came to service, so decided to give it one final try today.  So for the 3rd time, we ventured into this shop.  This time we chose 4.30pm thinking the place would be quiet.  It was, hardly any customers, yet still, we didn’t manage to get served.  Standing at the counter being completely ignored by the staff is an experience  which unless you’ve been there, you would never actually believe.  Storming out for the FINAL time, we found what we were looking for in another shop as we made our way back to the car.  in that shop we mentioned our experiences of Le Langhe to the staff and were not surprised to hear that they too had heard of other people complaining about the very poor service.  One lady who did manage to get served was made to feel as though she was in the way.  So there you have it, it’s not just us who think this shop should win an award for really awful service.

Pryordurkin rating. 0 stars. (Can’t be anything more, as we’ve never managed to actually buy anything yet!)

Am I the only one who is becoming increasingly disappointed by the food sold in Marks and Spencer.  Once again I find myself less than happy with the quality and value of my purchases.  Surprising as it is, on occasions, purchases from the ASDA range have been far better both in quality and price.  This weekend I knew I would be away from home, so wanted to stock up on some nice, quality food stuffs so Dusty wouldn’t go hungry.  Browsing the shelves at the Marks and Spencer store in York, I could find very little that was both healthy, convenient and good value.  It became quite frustrating when checking the ingredients on each pack to discover the enormously high fat, salt and calorie counts on some of the items sold.  Where they indicate, using colours, that something is within a healthy range, it is only because the portion sizes are so small that a pigeon on a diet would not be satisfied with their lot. 

On some food products sold, when they talk about % RDA (recommended daily intake) on packets, they sometimes work the figure out against half the actual portion size in the product.  So a normal person thinks they are eating healthily but don’t realise they need to only consume half the product to do so.  How many of us do that?  Sneaky marketing me thinks.

On top of the increasing disappointment in the food department, yesterday I went along to stock up on the essentials in the under garment department.   Good value and good quality thank goodness, but the guy who served me was one grumpy sod.  I think the managers are taking their eye of the ball in this store as in the past you could usually gaurantee good service if nothing else at Marks and Spencer.

Situated within the infamous Yumbo Centre, this restaurant for many many years was regarded as one of the best on the island serving quality food to men (and women) of a particular persuasion.  We arrived at around 7pm and were pleased to find they had a table free.  As it happens, they had several tables free, but we just assumed because it was early.  Anyway, the decoration befits the general style of the Yumbo Centre, with flashy lights, tacky signs and lots of swishy curtains.

We ordered up a bottle of wine (Marques de Riscal Sauvignon) and some food.

Lets just say the wine which was cheap and drinkable was the best thing about the whole experience.

My tomato and rocket soup was very salty and not in the least bit enjoyable.  Dusty went for the Chicken coated in Sesame seeds.  Yes it was a strange combination and frankly it tasted worse than it sounded.  Think cardboard coated in straw and you will start to get the idea.

Next came the mains.  I went for the special of day, a roast pork based something or other which is exactly what it turned out to be.  Along with some warmed up Pork (read the earlier review, it wasn´t the drink that made me bad, honest!) it was served with potato croquettes.  Yes potato croquettes.  If that were not bad enough, it was also accompanied by watery (previously frozen veg).  The sauce was some kind of sweet sickly affair, which even now, three days later makes me want to gag.

Dusty’s Fish dish was no better and I could see he was struggling to eat it.

So, although we decided not to do any reviews while on holiday, we just had to write about our experiences at this once well regarded restaurant.  It was absolutely horrendous and should be avoided at all costs.  The food was foul.

Score: 0 Stars. Avoid. Visited April 08.