Little Chef - Liphook

There was a time when you could enter a Little Chef with confidence about what to expect of both food and service. That certainty was dispelled by successive sales of the franchise and the recent intervention by, I believe, Heston Blumenthal.

The food was always good if predictable and benefitted from being cooked to order. The staff were always under stress at anything over 50% occupancy.

Now the menu is different for every visit and evidence of Heston is sparse. This I deduce from the fact that my chilli was not served with ice cream nor were there lychees with my partner’s rather suspiciously constituted burger.

I was largely satisfied with my dish but my partner reported and I confirmed that the burger had, to say the least, a strange texture not unlike a kebab but mercifully not tasting of lamb.

The staff however plumbed new depths of incompetence. The shared starter was ordered successfully only after I had explained the menu to the server three times! At the end, the heavy rain outside suddenly seemed preferable to the drips inside. I was brought the correct bill but then inexplicably charged for someone else’s (cheaper) meal.

I felt an urge to be honest and pay the larger amount. The other guest was a soldier and might have had concealed weapon. My honesty cost me several minutes at the till and gained me nothing except the tip I did not leave.

1/5 for backchat and incompetence.