 Often synonymous with predictable, nondescript nosh, London's chain restaurants are at last fighting back. They merit a fresh look and those diners, sufficiently open-minded to explore what the "chains" have to offer, are in for a few pleasant surprises!
The problem with chain restaurants, however, has more to do with image than with food standards. It's a question of tackling those deeply embedded associations, in the public mind, of conveyor-belt style service and bland, boring culinary offerings. Such connotations, it would appear, are hard to dislodge from the communal dining mind-set. Increasingly unfounded, nowadays, they linger and form a very real barrier to gastronomic acceptance by the public, at large.
This is indeed a hard nut to crack; but the barrier is not insurmountable. So, how exactly are chain restaurants wooing potential punters across their thresholds?
Arguably, things are a lot clearer, at the mass end of chain restaurant market. Their remit (albeit intensely demanding) is a lot narrower. But, this is no excuse for lack of commitment. After all, competition is at its most ruthless in this sector of the catering industry and the pressures relentless - a fact to which anyone who has undergone training at McDonald's Hamburger University will testify!
Fast food chain restaurants need to be on a constant treadmill of innovation, improvement and customer awareness. And, today, they are reaping the benefits. In addition, wide-scale advertising campaigns promoting "healthy food options" and tasty, fast food dishes from around the world are capturing the imagination of the modern diner. General standards, across these types of food outlets are also steadily improving, with customer satisfaction, now top priority. Servers are being encouraged to pull out the stops, make eye contact and even if superficially treat customers as individuals. In other words, they are being trained to conceal, as best they can, the robotic nature of customer processing.
The outcome of this "slickening up" of the (unashamedly) lower end of the chain restaurant industry is abundantly clear for all to see. The changes, though, are largely cosmetic - the result of customer pressure.
Not so obvious, however, are the exciting new developments that are taking place at the upper end of the chain restaurant industry. It may even come as a bit of a surprise to discover that some of London's top restaurants are in fact chain restaurants! Prestigious chains include Groupe Chez Gerard, the Red Pepper Group, Conran, Savoy, Marco Pierre White, Harvey Nichols, Claudio Pulze and the Belgo Restaurants group. The latter, for instance, embraces such famous names as The Ivy and Le Caprice. Of course, one might argue that the adjectives "chain" and "fine" used to describe such restaurants are simply incompatible - a culinary oxymoron?
On the contrary, most of these top-notch chain eateries have significant advantages over smaller, privately run restaurants, in terms of quality and opportunity. Budget, for a start and the capacity to employ top chefs to enhance their establishment's reputation. Then, there's the infrastructure to develop innovative menus and the cash to spend on prime locations and refurbishment. The upshot, inevitably, is that London's posh chain restaurants are in fierce competition with each other in the battle to win and retain potential clientele with quality, innovative fare, at remarkably un-posh prices.
Somewhere, however, in between the extremes of fast food and fine dining exists another burgeoning area of the chain restaurant industry. And, this is the twist in the tail of the chain restaurant story. If image tweaking, at either end of the spectrum has consisted merely of minor cosmetic enhancements, the "middle" sector is better described as having gone for the full monty!
Dismissing the negative implications of being part of a chain, a number of quality, middle bracket restaurants are proving to the public that "chain" no longer means "cheesy" - far from it! Nowadays, the savvy diner is quite happy to be spotted enjoying a gourmet experience in one of a lengthening list of "middle market" chain restaurants. Italian, Spanish, Greek, Far East, you name it, the cuisine on offer is diverse and generally, good value for money; standards of service also tend to be consistently high. For reliable Italian chain fodder, try for instance, one of the popular Pizza Express restaurants; or, for Japanese delicacies, how about the successful Wagamama chain? Whatever your foodie preferences, the chances are you'll find a decent chain restaurant to fill that gap!
So, has the tarnished image of London's chain restaurants finally been dumped? Well, not entirely. The "cheap and cheerful", American style conglomerates, at the mass end of the market, I suspect, may have something to do with it!
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