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Posts Tagged ‘Restaurant news’

McDonald’s Latest Addition

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

The newest addition to the McDonalds range is a new healthy soft drink called Fruitizz. It will be available in all stores from next week (16th May).

This product is finally released after three years of product development research. They wanted to create a healthy new drink that still excites children but has a nutritional benefit. It consists of 60 per cent fruit juice from grapes, apples and raspberries combined with sparkling water. There are no added sugars, colours or flavours.

The chief executive and president at McDonalds UK said, “We are thrilled to be unveiling Fruitizz, a refreshing fizzy fruit juice drink that will help parents give children one of their five a day.

“For the past three years, we have been working hard behind the scenes to create a fizzy drink that is unlike anything else currently available in high street restaurants. We tried and tested 80 formulations in order to create the right product that delivers nutritional benefit as well as a new, exciting taste.”

The product went on trial in 62 McDonalds branches in Wales last year and 75 per cent of people who bought Fruitizz with a happy meal said they would choose it again.Fast food is traditionally unhealthy but McDonalds looks set to break the mould as they have embarked on a salt and sugar reduction programme. Last year the average happy meal contained 50 per cent less salt, 21 per cent less saturated fat and 31 per cent less sugar compared to the same product that was sold in 2000. Other healthy options that have been introduced to the happy meal menu are, carrot sticks, fruit bags, mineral water and semi skimmed milk.

By having this new healthy addition to the happy meal menu hopefully this will encourage good press as opposed to the bad press that has been featured recently that all fast food is bad for you. As a result we are sure that all people in the food industry will support the new release including, commercial restaurant insurance companies, manufacturers, critics, suppliers, staff and the general public.

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Mark Wahlberg Brings Wahlburgers to England

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

Mark Wahlberg, the Oscar nominated actor, has said that he is bringing his restaurant to UK as his chain has been such a success in the USA.

He told the Metro, “We do higher end burgers. Yesterday, we sold 1,300. It’s run by my brother, Paul, who is a five-star chef. We’re opening a bunch of them in Britain and Ireland this year.”

When he had the idea, many people said it wouldn’t work and the idea was ridiculous. This was when people didn’t realise how talented his brother is. He said that he would never put his name to something that he thought wouldn’t work or turned bad. He says that the name help but people go back because of his brothers cooking.

He says, “A successful burger place takes maybe $2,400 a day, a really successful one does $6,000. We’re making $17,000 a day. There are lines queuing around the corner.”

Even though his restaurant is clearly very successful in America, he, like any other restaurant chain has struggled with the recession. Although, his story shows that quality is what brings people back and that customers are willing to spend our hard earned pennies on good quality food. This means cutting corners in the food industry is a definitely something to avoid. As well as having the best quality food and service, restaurateurs should not  cut corners on restaurant insurance as if anything was to go wrong, this will help owners bounce back relatively quickly and ensure a successful business carries on in the same manor.

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Restaurants under Pressure from Tax Authorities

Monday, November 14th, 2011

New figures have revealed that hundreds of London restaurants have been targeted by the taxman in a major attempt to crackdown on tax evasion.

According to data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, there are, in total, 159 restaurants in the capital, and a huge, 531 restaurants nationwide that have been targeted in the last six months. The HM Revenue & Customs tax task force is on quite a mission it would seem.

The restaurants have not been identified; however, it is public knowledge that the amount of unpaid tax involved in the most advanced 45 investigations is already as high as £634,000. The eventual total figure is expected to be well into the millions, and over 20 cases are currently being considered for fraud proceedings.

Many restaurant owners have suggested that they are seen as a “soft target” by tax authorities due to the high levels of cash that are handled by staff in tips every day. Many inspectors have been working undercover, posing as diners, in order to see how the service charge is being handled within the establishments.

In 2005, there was a similar crackdown, known as Operation Gourmet. This resulted in some of London’s best known restaurants coming under investigation, and eventually being fined. However, many then received refunds. For example, two Michelin-starred Pied à Terre was told to pay a fine of £187,000 for wrongly administered tips. This fine was then later reduced to £36,000. This would still however make a dent in the restaurants cashflow figures for the year, and it would also make restaurant insurance UK costs seem all the more expensive.

Meanwhile, French restaurant, Mon Plaisir, which can be found in Covent Garden, chose to go into voluntary liquidation instead of paying a demand for £500,000. They are now back in business however. At the time of the investigation, the restaurant owner was quoted saying: “I know the IR inspectors are just doing their job, but I haven’t done anything illegal.”

Furthermore, high profile, Celebrity Chef, Gordon Ramsay, claimed that his human rights had been abused after he suffered six years of investigations by HM Revenue & Customs. It was reported that no evidence of any wrongdoing was found.

Hopefully we will not see any restaurants being put out of business as a result of this tax investigation!

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Gordon Ramsay Opens Bread Street Kitchen…Finally

Friday, September 30th, 2011

Gordon Ramsay’s latest restaurant, Bread Street Kitchen, opened to the public this week, after what has been almost a year’s delay.

The luxurious, swanky £5 million all day restaurant is located near St Paul’s Cathedral, deep in the heart of our capital city, and just a stone’s throw from Jamie Oliver’s popular eatery, Barbecoa.

Mr Ramsay made sure he was there to witness the opening of his latest venture as he flew in from South Africa. Upon the opening of his restaurant, Ramsay was quoted saying that he promises all his customers a sense of “real theatre.” He then went on to say: “I’m a huge fan of what they do in New York. There they do things big and brash and they do it brilliantly.”

The restaurant offers diners a range of meals from a special Bread Street “English” for breakfast, a quick stone bass carpaccio with avocado, horseradish, ginger, honey and wakame for a lunch time treat at the raw counter, which sounds intriguing, or diners can enjoy a king crab cocktail and Bread Street short rib burger in the evening with a relaxing bottle of wine from the reportedly extensive wine list.

The opening evening saw some 350 people eat at the stylish restaurant, but not all customers were overwhelmed due to an allegedly poor service. Reports of 40 minute waits between courses and, in one particular case, a walkout, somewhat marred what was, on the whole, a resounding success.

Two happy customers, despite the poor service were Dylan Murphy and girlfriend Susan Shields. Mr Murphy commented: “The food was absolutely amazing but the service was shocking. We had to order the wine five times before they brought it.” Whilst Ms Shields said: “It’s their first night and there are some teething problems, but that’s part of the fun. You don’t expect it to be perfect on day one.”

The customers who walked out were Beverly and Mark Rabone. Mrs Rabone has said: “We booked the table for 10pm and when it got to 10.40pm we decided not to bother. The staff were lovely and the place looks great, but I don’t think they’ve got their act together yet.”

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Gordon Ramsay stated: “As with all new openings it takes a week or so for the team to settle in but we’re in great shape and thrilled at the early reactions to the food and the room.”

So it seems that Gordon Ramsay’s latest restaurant adventure has, on the whole, pleased and impressed. With so many restaurants now open in London, one begins to wonder whether Mr Ramsay receives discounted rates on his commercial restaurant insurance. One thing is for sure however, Bread Street Kitchen will go from strength to strength, especially once they have ironed out their teething issues and fine tuned their service.

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Zagat Survey Reveals The Ledbury as Top Restaurant

Monday, September 19th, 2011

The Ledbury has been named as the London restaurant with the best food in a new report released last week. For the second year in a row, Zagat readers nominated the Michelin-starred restaurant as the top establishment in the 2012 London Restaurant Survey for its haute French cuisine coupled with its traditional British ingredients.

Around 5,500 diners named the Notting Hill restaurant as their favourite eatery out of 1,190 restaurants in Greater London.

The restaurant opened in 2005 and since then, Aussie chef Brett Graham, has rocketed the restaurant into Michelin star status. Brett has also rapidly gained the attention of the culinary world and international food critics.

As well as being the London restaurant with the best food, The Ledbury was also the highest new entry in Restaurant Magazine’s S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants, debuting at a very impressive No. 34.

It has been reported that out of 361 Zagat reviews, diners were nearly unanimous in their praise of the restaurant with 98% describing the cuisine as being inventive.

One diner was so smitten with their rabbit ravioli starter and cod with pumpkin polenta main, they exclaimed that it was “beautifully executed”, before then adding that it was “like staring at the sun, it’s blinding – simply awesome” and that the service was “outstanding”. The diner then went on to say that the food was “exquisite” and that “it doesn’t get any better than this.” This sounds like one very happy customer who would be more than happy to return!

The Ledbury also gained international headlines last month when the staff leapt to the defence of diners after thugs from the London riots thought it would be a good idea to storm the restaurant. The staff came at the rioters with rolling pins and fry baskets and chefs and staff chased the hooligans out of the door that had been smashed in. The restaurant will, no doubt, have had commercial restaurant insurance to cover such damages, and it’s not just the food that is to be commended it seems!

In the meantime, The Ledbury was followed in the Zagat survey by Pied à Terre, another fine restaurant boasting two Michelin stars, whilst just behind in third place was a Japanese restaurant, Dinings.

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Hoorah! Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant makes a profit

Monday, June 6th, 2011

According to the accounts that have been filed at Companies House, the celebrity Chef, Gordon Ramsay has posted a return to profit which means that things are looking up for him after a terrible couple of years for his business.

In the previous accounts, the turnover had fallen quite steeply at his restaurant in Claridge’s hotel and there was a reduction of how much each person was spending at his Maze restaurant, which showed that people have cut back their spending on eating out.

With the falling out with his former business partner and father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson, the business year could also be financially hit. Hutcheson was said to be the financial brains behind the business and was the former mentor to Ramsay for 13 years, was discovered to be leading a double life with another woman and fathered two children, was sacked.

In the coming year, significant professional and legal costs will have been and are likely to be incurred to resolve issues. Despite this, Ramsay has however significantly improved financially after struggling a few years ago by cutting costs.

Ramsay cut costs by finding the best agreements with suppliers, restaurant insurance providers, reducing staff and trimming the salary bill from £11 million to £9.3 million. Neither Hutcheson nor Ramsay took a salary during the year and pre-tax profit for Gordon Ramsay Holdings was £2.05 mill in 2010 compared to £567,000 in 2009.

Murano, the popular Italian restaurant was also sold to its head chef Angela Hartnett for £2.5 million, helping Ramsay’s business.

Gordon Ramsay Holdings International stretches over two separate sets of accounts. The second set of accounts includes Ramsay’s more newly opened restaurants, including the bistro Foxtrot Oscar based at Heathrow. The accounts show that he has managed to cut losses at these places.

In the 12 months to August 2010 losses were £1.85 million compared to in the previous year when losses totalled £8.3 million.

Adding the two businesses together, Gordon Ramsay Holdings International has returned to a profit of £0.2 million, up from a loss of £7.7 million the year before.

“Gordon Ramsay Holdings International’s performance for the coming year is healthy and meeting expectations despite the economic climate remaining uncertain. The group has reported a considerable turnaround for combined profits before tax, regardless of the hospitality industry facing challenging conditions” explained a spokesperson of the group.

However, Ramsay has lent the business £7.9 million during the year, which shows that the company is relying heavily on personal loans made by him.

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