Jamie Oliver restaurant chains Fifteen, Barbecoa, Italian - bust

This is unfortunate to read but not entirely unexpected, the restaurant business is a fickle trade and the market is heavily saturated. A clear example was when my family and I were in Glasgow a few weeks ago. It was a Saturday lunchtime and my eldest fancied a burger, I'd undertaken some research and an independent place called Bread Meats Bread was repeatadly being recommended however as they don't accept bookings I was sceptical whether we'd get in. As it turned out I was right, the restaurant was full and there was quite a line waiting for a free table so we walked further along and found another burger place, again well recommended (and another two further along the road) which was almost empty with only three diners. We ate there, the burgers were very good and the following evening, intrigued with how good the burgers must be at Bread Meats Bread, we managed to grab the last table. Admittedly the burgers were very good (actually mine was probably the best I've eaten) but were they significantly better than those at the previous restaurant? No. And I'm sure the burgers at the other two places (and who knows how many more) that we didn't try are pretty good too but there's only so many similar restaurants an area can take before it becomes saturated.

Sorry for the people affected but not a surprise... Jamie’s Italian food wasn’t good.

Doesn’t that figure, I just made a group pre-theatre booking yesterday. Luckily I hadn’t yet made a deposit.

Sorry for the people affected but not a surprise... Jamie’s Italian food wasn’t good.

This is the problem with chain restaurants. No matter how good a chef you are it's difficult to recreate someone elses recipe and expect it to turn out the same. This is why many chain restaurants rely on a lot of brought in components for the dishes which are then finished at the restaurant prior to serving.

I've tried a couple of his restaurants and found the food to be mediocre but I know many people quite enjoy it.

A few years ago I started my own mobile catering business but soon realised that the majority of people place cost above taste and quality and I found myself returning home at the end of the day having to dispose of good quality food as it was impractical to hold it at sufficient safe temperatures once all the equipment had been turned off. The only successes were those occasions when I traded at food festivals where people understood the value of good food and are prepared to pay for it.

We ate at the one near Piccadilli before theater and had an Italian pasta dish that was fantastic. Other diners were enjoying some tasty looking meals--one was served on a board of some sort. Sorry to hear the news of closings.

Sad for the workers impacted. But I ate at one of the Italian places last I was in London and simply was not impressed. It was food, it filled me up, but nothing made me go wow or made me even think about going back again.

I do have respect for him due to his advocating for better food in schools. I hope his efforts there are not impacted too much (even though I have not heard much about those efforts recently).

Unfortunately I find my lack of being impressed a common thread with most celebrity chef restaurants.

I see now that all but 3 of the restaurants have closed so far...

Unfortunate for the staff and for anyone planning to go to one tonight, but I can't help feeling that 22 (+3?) restaurants closing in the UK is not exactly a major news story or something that will affect the general tourist. But for anyone wanting a fun item, this post about London is great:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/london-trip-report-but-a-bit-different

I see now that all but 3 of the restaurants have closed so far...

Hard to stay in business when you have no line of credit and must pay cash for your goods. Bad publicity also probably reduced the number of people wanting to go there because they don't know what to expect.

only that many now, Nick, but not long ago it was many more.

I know many tourists, Americans too, who made a point of going there.

So, insignificant as it might be to you, if you have just made a group booking or have plans to go there before the theatre or other plans around specific places it might affect you.

Just a public service.

Sorry it irritated you to see it posted.

That's kind of sad to hear. I dined at Fifteen London on one occasion and found the food reasonably good. As I recall, some of his restaurants hired unemployed youth and taught them to be Chefs. I feel bad for all the kids that have now lost that opportunity.

It's hard to understand how this could have happened. Perhaps Jamie had too many irons in the fire and wasn't keeping track of things properly? There are many restaurant chains here that have been in business for many years, and still going strong.

Jamie Oliver is far from the only restauranteur to run into trouble in the last year or two. The specifics vary but it is generally some combination of increased costs (ingredients or wages), over expansion, and change in public taste, either with the type of food or the general increase in takeaways.

Despite previous comments saying that this has no impact on tourists - I find it interesting that the three remaining restaurants (remaining at the moment, anyway) are all at Gatwick.

wince inducing pricing

I got as far as the menu outside the One New Change Barbecoa - I am an inveterate real Texas barbecue fan having lived in Texas for a while - but after one glance at the prices we went into Wahaca. Never looked back.

It's my understanding that the three restaurants not closing down (including Fifteen in Cornwall) are all franchises and are not affected by the administration process although it's difficult to see how there can't be a negative effect on them as a result of all the other closures.