A few days ago I had cause to drive to Andover, and since Cynthia for months has been raving about some Channel4 documentary that was televising it, I was aware that Heston Blumenthal of The Fat Duck was involved in overhauling the Little Chef in Popham.

When I arrived midweek it was quiet, I got a table, I had a pot of tea, a burger and the green-tea trifle, and found the experience all very Fat Duck Lite – in short I loved the place. (Update: see comments)

I would like to spell this out as clearly as possible: the thing which made it special for me was the front of house staff – I got a warm and friendly greeting, I was seated courteously, and quite without warning halfway through my cup of tea the waiter appeared from nowhere and said “I’ve found a newspaper for you to read, sir, if you would like?” That, plus menu recommendations and chatter, won it for me. I have read around the topic now and find lots of people arguing over the menu, but it was the idea of actually being treated really kindly merely for walking into a “fast food” establishment that appealed to me.

Anyway – so having enjoyed it so much, as Adriana and I were visiting Simon Phipps in Southampton for dinner, it seemed a good place to stop for lunch – exactly in time to run into the Heston Blumenthal film crew:

Adriana

Adriana with HB, inset

the clearances lady who had run out of forms

the crew

Being a saturday afternoon the restaurant was packed, and for some reason the denizens seemed unwilling to move on; a waiter found us a place at the bar, and thence at table 2 again. A chummy young lady arrived to ask if we minded being filmed and to suggest that photography wasn’t allowed – although by then it was far too late, and anyway I suspected they just didn’t want people using flash – which I don’t.

Food again good, if terribly slow. Apparently HB+Crew had turned up as a surprise and ordered one of everything on the menu, to ensure the ingredients were still of appropriate quality. We had a 20 minute wait over pots of tea for the braised ox-cheeks and the steak&ale pie to arrive, but it took no more than raising an eyebrow for the staff to scurry back and forth to report on our progress in the queue. I appreciated that.

I’ll let Adriana cover the food reportage… (Update: Link Inserted)

Little Chef in Popham has basically taken on an extraordinary task – it’s a services cafe which by dint of association is going to be measured with a yardstick meant for Michelin wannabees, and that’s not fair. However, it’s not only the menu that people should look at, it’s the service; and that cannot be trivially replicated, although it’s half the attraction.