[Albion] The Worst Ever Food You’ve Eaten At The Amex

[el punal]

Generally speaking the food and booze at the Amex is pretty okay. On some occasions you might get a burger as dried up as a Freeman Hardy and Willis shoe or a pint that’s been left over from the last match. Nothing, but nothing, prepared me for the culinary incident of a couple seasons ago.

It was an evening fixture in the darkest months of winter, the game had finished and I was starving. So off I went to one of the kiosks in the West Upper - pies, burgers, hot dogs all sold out. What have you got, I plaintively asked. A pulled pork bap, came the reply. I bought it - and wished I hadn’t.

It was truly the most disgusting “food” I’d tasted in years, school dinners didn’t even come close to this monstrosity. The pork were stringy bits of plastic piggy things (I sure there was a pulse there), it was coated in a chilli sauce (?) and enclosed in a brioche bun that was so hard you could have used it as a wrecking ball. One mouthful convinced me that I wanted to live a bit longer and the pig in the bun went straight in the bin.

I just wonder if any of you have had a similar experience on the Amex catering front?

 

[John Byrnes Mullet]

Everybody goes on about how great the pie's are but they give me terrible heartburn. Harveys is not great at times but improved since the Harveys have their own kiosks.

 

[Easy 10]

I don't quite get this appetite for pulled pork that seems to have come about over the last few years. It looks an utter mess, and in my experience (albeit not at the Amex) it really doesn't taste much better than it looks.

Anyway. Food at the Amex is ALWAYS a last resort, usually midweek games if I've gone more or less straight from work and not had time to sort some proper nosebag. I don't think I've had anything that I'd describe as outright "disgusting", but I've had a few very drab dry, lukewarm cheeseburgers over the years. At the time, your empty stomach is telling you "buy one, buy one, buy one". So against your better judgement, you do. Then you start eating it and your brain sighs wearily and says "Yup. Told you".

The pies are a bit of a lottery as well. But its all mass-produced pre-heated gunk. What do we expect ?

 

[METALMICKY]

I don't quite get this appetite for pulled pork that seems to have come about over the last few years. It looks an utter mess, and in my experience (albeit not at the Amex) it really doesn't taste much better than it looks.

Anyway. Food at the Amex is ALWAYS a last resort, usually midweek games if I've gone more or less straight from work and not had time to sort some proper nosebag. I don't think I've had anything that I'd describe as outright "disgusting", but I've had a few very drab dry, lukewarm cheeseburgers over the years. At the time, your empty stomach is telling you "buy one, buy one, buy one". So against your better judgement, you do. Then you start eating it and your brain sighs wearily and says "Yup. Told you".

The pies are a bit of a lottery as well. But its all mass-produced pre-heated gunk. What do we expect ?

Spot on! Pulled pork just looks an unappetising mess and it's popularity mystifies me. I would also imagine that a few less scrupulous caterers just churn over their waste meat and then turn it out as ' pulled '.

As for the burger if only your stomach would listen to your brain. I make that mistake all the time.

 

[Knocky's Nose]

I've given up with the "Sussex Best Burger". Three times I've been served up a bun as dry as Ghandi's flip flop, cheese tasting like it was harvested from a tramps sock, and a burger you could fire out of a cannon and destroy a small building with....

A couple of the pies have been ok, the hot dog thing not bad - but the burger. - I've stopped buying food at the Amex since then.

 

[scooter1]

The first(and last) hot dog I had was nasty, generally like the pies but the chicken and gammon is a bit bland

 

[Is it PotG?]

Agree. It's too hit and miss so no longer bother. Even the van by the station offers some consistency. Nice waft of onions as you disembark.

 

[dolphins]

I've not had a bad experience with the pies (other than opening match at the Amex, already hype over the pies so ordered the steak and ale; one bite and it was clearly a balti/tandoori sorta thing - queue too big to bother taking back), the hot dogs are nice, my lads love the sweet stands (although some of the more adult offerings are sometimes a little past their best), and the only real issue I've had with quality was this season when I went for one of the chicken burger things. Can't recall what was supposed to be in there other than the breaded chicken (bacon?) but just remember it being a sloppy, soggy mess, bun saturated, and still felt hungry after finishing it. A bit of a "Falling Down" moment as it sounded lovely at the kiosk.

 

[Brovion]

I have to say I don't think the pies are as good as they used to be. When the Amex opened I never had a poor quality one, recently I've hardly had a good one. The steak ones are a case in point. They used to have nice chunks of meat in them, recently they've just been molten lava in a pastry case. Just my own personal experience before someone jumps in to say that the pies they've had have always been good.

I've never eaten in the lounges so I can't comment on them.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Spot on! Pulled pork just looks an unappetising mess and it's popularity mystifies me. I would also imagine that a few less scrupulous caterers just churn over their waste meat and then turn it out as ' pulled '.

As for the burger if only your stomach would listen to your brain. I make that mistake all the time.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the same rubbish off cuts of 'meat' go into all the meat based products sold at the Amex, pulled pory, burger, hot dogs et al. The certainly all taste that way.

Honourable mention to Piglet's Pantry though, l do so love their pies, best eaten pre kick off though when they are still fresh. Eat them after the game though and they really tend to harden up, not nearly as pleasant at all/

 

[Jesus Gul]

Piglet's Pantry pies were noticeably available at The Oval last weekend...I didn't partake instead went for the Indian Curry offerings

 

[Jovis]

Another idiot who promises myself every game not to buy a burger from the kiosks in the WSU, and every time I do. I can’t help it, it’s like a reflex. They are always gross.

Get very envious when I visit the other parts of the ground for cup games - the ESU with its magnificent sausage rolls and even the WSL has better variety than the WSU. It’s a culinary wasteland up there.

 

[Durlston]

Oh God. I'm just getting over some food poisoning so why I've chosen to open this thread I do not know! I can't eat any red meat like pork or beef and I'm a little nervy over steak and chicken but I've never had any problems at the Amex.

Some away grounds have been horrifying - Chesterfield's old ground at Saltergate gave me the shlts on the way home. Boiled burgers that were left over from the last home match I'm sure and given it was mid-February it could well have been some time! Swansea's old Vetch Field also had some dodgy looking hot dogs that were cold! Generally, Lancashire and Yorkshire have always been very good. Bolton, Bury, Blackburn, Bradford, Halifax and Rochdale have always been very clean. They seem to take more care up there.

 

[blue-shifted]

Agree. In the context of football ground food, the fare in WSU isn't bad at all. I had boiled burger at York City once. The slightly curious burgers at the amex are like Burger Bros in comparison

Oh God. I'm just getting over some food poisoning so why I've chosen to open this thread I do not know! I can't eat any red meat like pork or beef and I'm a little nervy over steak and chicken but I've never had any problems at the Amex.

Some away grounds have been horrifying - Chesterfield's old ground at Saltergate gave me the shlts on the way home. Boiled burgers that were left over from the last home match I'm sure and given it was mid-February it could well have been some time! Swansea's old Vetch Field also had some dodgy looking hot dogs that were cold! Generally, Lancashire and Yorkshire have always been very good. Bolton, Bury, Blackburn, Bradford, Halifax and Rochdale have always been very clean. They seem to take more care up there.

 

[brightn'ove]

I once bought a pie that was essentially liquid, was completely inedible. Also once bought a veggie pie that had steak in it.

 

[Sussexscots]

I like the pies at the Amex. Other stuff is pretty standard mass catered fare, however, given the catering staff sometimes struggle with the Bovril/Hot Water conundrum I suspect anything more complex would lead to queues of biblical proportions.

I've largely given up on the Harveys and the Guinness often seems flat and thin. I will say that the choice of Red Wine has improved and a glass of that at half time means I don't need a pee half way through the second half.

 

[Blue3]

I don't quite get this appetite for pulled pork that seems to have come about over the last few years. It looks an utter mess, and in my experience (albeit not at the Amex) it really doesn't taste much better than it looks.

Anyway. Food at the Amex is ALWAYS a last resort, usually midweek games if I've gone more or less straight from work and not had time to sort some proper nosebag. I don't think I've had anything that I'd describe as outright "disgusting", but I've had a few very drab dry, lukewarm cheeseburgers over the years. At the time, your empty stomach is telling you "buy one, buy one, buy one". So against your better judgement, you do. Then you start eating it and your brain sighs wearily and says "Yup. Told you".

The pies are a bit of a lottery as well. But its all mass-produced pre-heated gunk. What do we expect ?

Pulled pork is to allow the supplier to hide all sorts of otherwise poor quality meat its full of beaks and feet disguised with a sticky sweet glup

 

[Easy 10]

Pulled pork is to allow the supplier to hide all sorts of otherwise poor quality meat is its full of beaks and feet

Wouldn't surprise me.

10 years ago, I honestly don't think I'd even heard of pulled pork or seen it anywhere. Now it seems to be all over the shop, in fast food joints and on pub / restaurant menus. Shredded "pulled" meat always looks thoroughly unappetising to me, and as you say, is probably used as a cheap option to easily disguise a multitude of meaty sins.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Nothing beats the food at Griffin Park some years ago that was actually frozen in the middle. There were complaints. That was in the corner with one loo for 2000 supporters, so dozens of blokes (me included) were left with no choice other than to piss through the fence. What a farce.

At the Amex I find the pies reasonable, if occasionally a little dry. The Harveys is good, but I often have to ask the staff to 'put a large scotch in it, or fill it up, please'.

I would never buy a hot dog or burger from anywhere other than a craft outlet. We have a farmers' market on the fourcourt of two of our campuses during the week and the food is sublime (for around a fiver).

My feeling it simply isn't feasible to make the food at the Amex much better without it costing a lot more.

In any case, the fact that there are massive queues for the stuff at every game, meaning folk are presumably happy to come back time after time, I'd guess that most punters feel it is a fair deal.

Perhaps NSC is over represented by middle aged middle class hoity toity types. Who knew?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Humble pie last season - most memorably after the Bournemouth game