[Albion] Catering

[LamieRobertson]

Shirley this is Fab remit territory? FAO @Barry Izbak

Quality of catering / stock and staff should be fed back to the club in an official capacity as they aren’t going to experience it first hand in the Directors box

New staff or not (uni change over) there should be some simple SOPs in place to run a production line and have pints and pies ready in all instances.

They need to do something about speeding up the hot drinks as typically it’s always a shambolic transaction with the customer equally at fault (f*** off out the way after you’ve bought your drink)

Should be aiming for less than 30 seconds per customer

I think Barry isn’t involved any longer

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Want / need is a spurious argument. This is income to the club. Ideally the food and drink should be so good people are determined to have some just because.

Jo at Piglets has done a great job of making her offerings as good as possible, to the extent we were quite famous for the pies in the early Amex days. Sodexo have, however, increased the beer prices and shrunk their food.

No one, and I mean no one should buy a burger at the ground ever again. Pie or sausage roll, fine, but there needs to be a burger boycott.

I’m going to eat in the pub on Tuesday because I’d like some dinner (if that’s ok with you?). That’s on Sodexo.

I walked into what I'll very loosely and briefly describe as a "work night out" the other day wearing a Brighton shirt (one of the retro British Caledonian shirts - I don't have the waistline to carry off a striped shirt ) and promptly got buttonholed by a Chelsea fan who RAVED about how our pies are the best in the country.

He later broke somebody from my office's thumb throwing a netball at him. Seemed a nice lad.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

For what it's worth, I thought the kids in the NS kiosks did ok yesterday. Seemed far more switched on than in previous early season matches

 

[METALMICKY]

Since we've been at the Amex the only thing that's been consistently palatable have been the pies. The only negative is trying to eat them without a mess and/or burning your mouth. At a push the giant sausage roll is OK if a little dry and needing of a dollop of sauce.

Burgers are awful. Tasteless dry pap and on more than one occasion I've had to get it changed as barely luke warm.

 

[BUTTERBALL]

Can't understand why the East End Upper bars were closed post-match. Stupid decision, forces everyone who wants to stay behind into a packed North.

 

[brighton_tom]

Can't understand why the East End Upper bars were closed post-match. Stupid decision, forces everyone who wants to stay behind into a packed North.

Yep, that was shambles yesterday. All bars in the east upper closed at full time so went down to the north. Massive queues that seemed not to be moving. When we FINALLY got to the front we saw that they didnt have enough staff for the tills that were open, one guy was jumping between two tills trying to serve two queues. Surely you just close a till rather than running back and forth? And out of the 3 beer pumps only one was being used meaning the wait for beer to be poured was a snails pace. I dont expect the people employed at the bars to be super experienced so I wont blame them, but the stocks levels, productivity of the beer pumps, and the general organisation of it all is just non league standard.

 

[Billy Seagull]

The WSU screens stated they would stay open until 16:00. Bars then shut at 14:55 & we got shunted out soon after It was pissing down again by then so just went straight to the trains as there was no queue.
It makes absolutely no sense at all to close the bars so early on afternoon kick offs, it just pisses people off, even when we’ve had a great win.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Yep, that was shambles yesterday. All bars in the east upper closed at full time so went down to the north. Massive queues that seemed not to be moving. When we FINALLY got to the front we saw that they didnt have enough staff for the tills that were open, one guy was jumping between two tills trying to serve two queues. Surely you just close a till rather than running back and forth? And out of the 3 beer pumps only one was being used meaning the wait for beer to be poured was a snails pace. I dont expect the people employed at the bars to be super experienced so I wont blame them, but the stocks levels, productivity of the beer pumps, and the general organisation of it all is just non league standard.

That kiosk-running franchise needs a severe rocket up its arse from PBOBE. His 'customers' deserve far better

 

[Sussexscots]

Gave up on the catering last season.

Quite like the pies but nothing else. Certainly not enough to persuade me to stand in a long queue and pay the prices for what's on offer.

 

[Paranoid Android]

Um, I'm admittedly no expert in these matters, but strongly suspect a vegan pie is not solely defined by the ingredients used in its pastry

Well if Bombay Potato pie doesn't appeal then I don't know what more the vegan pie can do for you to be honest. I've found the difference with the vegan pies is they actually put effort into seasoning them instead of just letting meat do the legwork, give it a go next time you might be surprised

 

[Motogull]

Said in the pre-match email it was 10% discount for Amex card holders. Pretty sure it didn't specify any specific Amex card(s)

They do one with no fee. I'm tempted, just to use at the stadium.

 

[Springal]

Weirdly it was 15% off yesterday - at least the till I used. It’s any Amex, but you need to ask for it and show the card it’s not automatic

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

I walked into what I'll very loosely and briefly describe as a "work night out" the other day wearing a Brighton shirt (one of the retro British Caledonian shirts - I don't have the waistline to carry off a striped shirt ) and promptly got buttonholed by a Chelsea fan who RAVED about how our pies are the best in the country.

He later broke somebody from my office's thumb throwing a netball at him. Seemed a nice lad.

Striped shirts are slimming shirley? it's the hooped shirts that enlarge one's girth.

I'd hate to be a QPR fan!

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Striped shirts are slimming shirley?

I've seen enough people wearing striped Brighton shirts over the years to have severe doubts about this.

If they do then some of those people must have been dropped into their seats by a forklift while I wasn't looking.

 

[Jimmy Come Lately]

The WSU screens stated they would stay open until 16:00. Bars then shut at 14:55 & we got shunted out soon after It was pissing down again by then so just went straight to the trains as there was no queue.
It makes absolutely no sense at all to close the bars so early on afternoon kick offs, it just pisses people off, even when we’ve had a great win.

Stayed at my seat to clap the team off (obviously a mistake) then as the south-end kiosk in WSU was closed joined one of the mahoosive queues at the central kiosk to get a celebratory pint while chatting with my seat-neighbour whom I hadn't seen since last season.

Queued. Watched the highlights. (At least those go up really quickly these days.) Got to the front just as they decided they were going to stop serving, sticking absolutely rigidly to the "WSU closes thirty minutes after final whistle" rule. I thought they might be a little bit flexible for the first game of the season, a lunchtime kickoff, and obvious high demand. (The queue was still at least ten deep behind us.) But no.

So well done Sodexo. No cash through the tills from us or, I expect, the several dozen other people turned away. Obviously we could then have gone down to the West Lower or North Stand but by that time the post-win glow had faded a bit, we'd seen the highlights, had a bit of a chat, and to be honest were pretty pissed off. So we just went home, and I've learned not to stay for a drink after matches in future.

 

[Weststander]

For what it's worth, I thought the kids in the NS kiosks did ok yesterday. Seemed far more switched on than in previous early season matches

Give it time, the year one undergraduates haven’t arrived in the city yet.

 

[southstandandy]

Maybe when the new fan zone opens later this year, there will be a big re-think on the food offered. Good opportunity to introduce some new items.

 

[dazzer6666]

Stayed at my seat to clap the team off (obviously a mistake) then as the south-end kiosk in WSU was closed joined one of the mahoosive queues at the central kiosk to get a celebratory pint while chatting with my seat-neighbour whom I hadn't seen since last season.

Queued. Watched the highlights. (At least those go up really quickly these days.) Got to the front just as they decided they were going to stop serving, sticking absolutely rigidly to the "WSU closes thirty minutes after final whistle" rule. I thought they might be a little bit flexible for the first game of the season, a lunchtime kickoff, and obvious high demand. (The queue was still at least ten deep behind us.) But no.

So well done Sodexo. No cash through the tills from us or, I expect, the several dozen other people turned away. Obviously we could then have gone down to the West Lower or North Stand but by that time the post-win glow had faded a bit, we'd seen the highlights, had a bit of a chat, and to be honest were pretty pissed off. So we just went home, and I've learned not to stay for a drink after matches in future.

By then you’d have waited another 30 mins at least for a pint in the North, which would have been served to you in two washed-out coffee cups.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

I heard someone mention the sausage and chips was £11.
Chips are £4.50, so they want £6.50 for a sausage!

There was half a sausage on the stairs up to the WSU before the game so either it was so crap someone just threw it away or some poor kid was being told off by their parent for dropping £3.25 of sausage.

 

[HeaviestTed]

Yep, that was shambles yesterday. All bars in the east upper closed at full time so went down to the north. Massive queues that seemed not to be moving. When we FINALLY got to the front we saw that they didnt have enough staff for the tills that were open, one guy was jumping between two tills trying to serve two queues. Surely you just close a till rather than running back and forth? And out of the 3 beer pumps only one was being used meaning the wait for beer to be poured was a snails pace. I dont expect the people employed at the bars to be super experienced so I wont blame them, but the stocks levels, productivity of the beer pumps, and the general organisation of it all is just non league standard.

Perfectly fine and understandable to have inexperienced staff, what isn’t acceptable is to not have an experienced leader at each kiosk directing them - from a licensing point of view don’t they need a licensee in each stand at least? Maybe not but they need a chief to direct everyone.