I figured increased costs for products and help were a major contributor. But this was surprising:
"A pub menu will never say: âWe donât actually make this food ourselves.â But more and more pubs are quietly outsourcing some or all of their cooking. âWeâve heard stories of pub kitchens serving microwavable supermarket ready meals because theyâre cheap, last for ever in the freezer and have incredibly high mark-up,â says Bailey. "
And THIS makes complete sense - there is no way a kitchen can manage 5-8 pages of menu choices without a good portion of it being frozen and defrosted âa la carteâ.
âI think one way to spot a really good, decent pub menu is that itâs short. If youâve got 35 main courses and 20 starters, you can be certain that most of that is in the freezer.â Look for closer to six starters, mains and desserts.â
Interesting.
I really enjoyed our gastropub pub food in the Peak District, and Newcastle upon Tyne, and some other places that were further afield during my trips from 2011-2018.
This is the pub where we ate in Tynemouth, which is part of a chain of some sort
The Turks Head Pub Restaurant in Tynemouth North Shields
Even the chain pubs in Oxford and Cambridge have been pretty good, when Iâve dined at them.
I might have a lower bar, coming from Canada.
The only disappointments have been at pubs in London, which I knew were more for drinking and socializing than for eating, where the food is an afterthought. But those types of pubs didnât typically sell themselves as gastropubs with good food, so I wasnât expecting much.
I think thatâs a good rule of thumb for most restaurants â save for Chinese, perhaps 
Good call for most restaurants, IMO. Except Chinese/Indian/etc of course.
The article mentions Brakes - probably our largest food service company. Theyâve sold ready prepped stuff for years. I remember back in the days when I played on eGullet, I wrote a review of a meal at one of the cityâs upmarket places. I mentioned a particular dessert weâd had and another contributor said it was one of Brakes. So I looked at their catalogue and, yes, it was. Apparently buying in desserts is very common.
This is the only pub we ate at with any regularity. Itâs a chain operation - they have maybe 50 outlets across the country. They are not really pubs any longer. No-one is going just for a pint and a game of darts. Like many such places, these are now just restaurants in buildings that used to be pubs. Yes, it has a longish, but changing, menu
That sounds like the equivalent of Sysco. We try to avoid places that have a truck parked in the back. Although I donât eschew frozen fries (chips) on principle.
Also, BMTA
That too is also changing. Thereâs a shortage of old school trained Cantonese chefs who can actually cook those 437 different items. A lot have retired like Chef Lau now doing YouTube. They aged out and Hong Kong and Guangzhouâs economy has changed to tech and modern, magnet city and fewer interested in traditional chef training. That region use to export chefs but I think the last generation are now retiring. In SF the decline is realâŚno new chefs to fill that roleâŚbut the 3rd and 4th generation are taking over restaurants and some are getting Michelin starsâŚ.but the long menu is gone. Now menus are much shorter and focused. No one to cook all that stuffâŚa nd inventory can kill you.
In any case, itâs interesting reading how corporate food service is taking over traditional English pubs. Sounds like the MBA types got into the system and EFâed things up yet again. At least in the US you can tell the corporate chains a mile away and make a choice. If in fact fast food (thatâs what is described) is hiding in a British pub, how can you tell? I do appreciate the no BS writing styleâŚdonât think you read anything that straight forward about corporatization in the U.S. or different style.
Which is a good thing as these large Chinese menus tend to (understandably) rely on using same
/similar sauces etc. to make it manageable but that also led to quite similar tasting dishes (with just variations in the protein (and sometimes produce) used. The shorter, focused menus have improved the quality of the overall dishes
It is. Brakes is owned by Sysko.
Generally, the overall quality has improved expotentially, however, there are a bunch of fakkers who just ainât trying - avoid them.
