We were out shopping on Saturday and decided to take refuge in Wholefoods from the cold and hopefully pick up some lunch as well. I like Wholefoods as a store it does some producrts really well, the fried chicken, cheese room and cakes are excellent. Other sections can be comically expensive. I was keen to see how this slick US import did instore eating.
We got upstairs and it was very busy. The food court is split up into individual concessions (italian, chinese, japanese) and a large central food court. We decided to go for the central foodcourt as we would have more room. To say it was a bit chaotic is to put it midly. They have a very bizarre system where you order food, then pay, then come back, this means you queue up 3 times. I decided to go for the burger which was £6 which is OK, however all the beers they had behind the counter were warm which is poor. My wife decided to have a chicken burrito.
We eventually found somewhere to sit but the tables weren't the cleanest I have seen, the eating area looks really shabby and drab. Cutlery and trays were difficult to find. I managed to get a half of Sierra Nevada at the bar over the other side of the room but at nearly £3 this was toppy. My burger was fine not amazing and I would have prefered fried instead of raw onions. My wifes burrito wasn't good, very greasy, she makes much better at home. All in all a poor value lunch, in a very unpreposessing environment. This reminded me of the dreadful foodcourts you used to get in shopping centres in the 90's except this was a lot more expensive and had pretensions of grandeur.
It has really put me off going to Wholefoods in future. I also found the staff pretty sullen which compared to the Wholefoods experience in the states is odd. My dining experience at the Westfield food court was a whole lot better. Well organised, mostly nice food and easy to order. Wholefoods really needs to take a look at the upstairs area and smarten up it's operation. Needless to say I won't be back.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 3