New Food and Drink Vendors for the Ground and City Square | Edible coffee cups introduced

[Macca68]

I got in early at CB lvl3 - first one to the bar, it was obvious they're all pretty new (COVID and all that with service staff shortages). Payment machine was on the blink so was handed over to another till which only charged for one beer not the two I ordered (at half price too).
To be fair to them, they seemed to get the jist of it quickly so queue's were never terrible, but they did run out of beer.

We got into SS lvl3 at 1:30 and the queues at the bar were already the full width of the concourse. Luckily we noticed that the door to the visitors section was open so nipped in there and were served fairly quickly as the queues were only about 10 people deep. Wanted a couple of pints of craft beer and a couple of pies but soon realised that it was Amstel or nothing and there was only 1 steak pie and no chicken balti left in the heater so I had to take a cheese and onion (which was nice though).
Took our pie & pint back into the main concourse so that we could chat with friends before the match. The whole place was rammed and the only option was to attempt to protect our full pints on the floor with our feet/legs whilst eating the pies. Finished the food and turned my attention to my Amstel. By now the froth had settled to reveal that although we'd only paid half price, we'd only actually been given half a pint each (impossible to tell earlier because of the cardboard cups).
Decided to get into the queue again and took us 25 minutes to get to the counter but was immediately given 2 ready poured pints. It looks as though the queueing time is affected by food & hot drink orders. Why not set up a couple of queues for alcohol only orders. It's not as if you have a big selection to choose from so have a load of Amstel & dark fruits ready to go. With card payments it would fly off the shelves.

Arranged to meet my mates for a pint & a chat at half time. I won't leave my seat til the ref blows the whistle so by the time I reached the concourse it looked as though we were trying to break the world Conga record, queues snaking everywhere. Turned around and went straight back to my seat.

I don't need to have a pint at half time but (used to) enjoy the social interaction with other fans at half time. I don't think I'll be bothering again unless the token system returns.

I do like to have a pint and some food before the match but the dilemma in SS3 is that you either get in early, have long queues at the counter, crap beer, hit and miss on food availability and no flat surfaces to eat from or you eat somewhere nice in town but then get stuck in the queues to get on the tram and then through the turnstiles.

Hopefully it will all be sorted and run like clockwork next week but I'm expecting more of the same.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

On the off chance, has anyone got Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak's email address so I can email him these pictures? I appreciate it's a very, very big ask. :-)

I'm sure he'd be annoyed and pissed off about the way City fans are being treated on the concourses.

SSL1 + CBL1

Beer carts running out of beer.

Queues of City fans stretching across the full width of the concourse waiting to be served.

Pies and food running out.

Heineken (craft beer) piss served in paper cups

It was exactly the same over in East Stand Level 1.

Once I finally got in yesterday, I queued up for some food. After queuing for 20 minutes and I got closer (ever so slowly closer) to the front, I noticed that there was no food at all… none… nothing! I politely shouted (as politely as you can shout) “excuse me, is the delay because there’s no food?” and I got no response but the bloke a few places in front of me said, “yes mate”. So I sacked it off.

On the queues - they've stretched right across the width of the concourse going back years and are always annoying. They’re not to bad to get through for me, but smaller people, people with families, anyone on crutches or in a wheelchair all find it hard to get through these queues to get to their aisles.

Over the years as well, on multiple occasions, I’ve walked straight past queues to the front where there’s another till and sign saying QUEUE HERE that people aren’t queuing under… and I get moaned at by others who are queuing every time I do it. But there’s a sign and another till, you thick fuckers, I’m just using my bonce. It’s not my fault you haven’t the intelligence to queue up properly.

But to combat the queues and the thickos, there needs to be a proper queuing system. Something like at Bolton where there are metal rails that help you queue up in one line and when you get to the front you disperse to all tills.

 

[Rammy Blue]

Completely agree with this. I’m glad my kids weren’t behind the counter! My lad had to explain to the guy on the till that Amstel was ‘lager’. Suppose that could be argued!

Got to say in the queue I was in and the one next to us, fans were extremely patient and apart from a bit of ‘Mancunian sarcasm’, no one was having a go at the staff. We could all see they were out of their depth, without any managerial support. Non.

Laughable but guy on one of our bars had “team leader” emblazoned on his back yet he was the most clueless of all, complete plantpot.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Yes in the Mancunian. It was like a faulty towers sketch. Paid out nearly 50k a week before and then don’t know the difference between duck and lamb. Food was poor (soup was literally cold) when it eventually arrived. No puddings offered and 1 plate of cheese shared between six and horrendous drinks service. I kept having to go the bar and just say please just give me 3 bottles from that Fridge. I had to rush down my food at half time as was so late. They actually put down the correct plate at one time and I was about to start eating and they said oh no that’s for another table and took it back off me. It was honestly so bad it was almost comedy.

I give the club a lot of leeway and most who know me on here know I am not a moaner about what they do but I was fuming last night. My dad is due 2 knee ops and I wanted to make it special for him and of course it was nice to be together but even he said last night I would rather have had a bag of chips. The food was a disgrace.

The club really are testing my patience I have to be honest. Little things add up.

Proper shit to hear that. I kind of understand that they’re not give a shit about the concourses because once they get their ground rent from the company who does it, City probably won’t make any more or less money from the food and drink sold.

But to hear that’s going on in the corporate section is surprising. I thought they’d want that top notch because that’s where the money comes in and if people hear it’s a poor service they won’t sell them.

 

[jrb]

I hope the person/director who’s in-charge of catering at City is reading this thread.

I hope he or she get’s dragged in by Soriano tomorrow morning, get’s a grilling(excuse the pun), and is asked about the shambles that took place on Saturday.

Maybe in-turn he or she, if they have the balls, could ask Soriano why the penny pinching in staff, staff training, catering contracts, and the constant and negative changes to the beer and food stations to cut down on plastic use, amongst other things, has had such a negative and detrimental effect on the food and drinks service on the concourses on matchdays.

 

[PannickAtTheDisco]

Hmm, I would suggest plastic cups and bottles are one of the biggest litter culprits out of all the plastic we buy (in reality maybe microplastic is worse but you can't see that all over your street) if you have 4 pints at a game/concert every single one of those cups is waste, 90% of them will hit the floor and be swept up the next day and put in the rubbish bin, I very much doubt they will be put into the recycling.

That's a problem with usage, not product

 

[worsleyweb]

I hope the person/director who’s in-charge of catering at City is reading this thread.

I hope he or she get’s dragged in by Soriano tomorrow morning, get’s a grilling(excuse the pun), and is asked about the shambles that took place on Saturday.

Maybe in-turn he or she, if they have the balls, could ask Soriano why the penny pinching in staff, staff training, catering contracts, and the constant and negative changes to the beer and food stations to cut down on plastic use, amongst other things, has had such a negative and detrimental effect on food and drinks service on the concourses on a matchday.

Hi mate. am I allowed to say it would not have happened under Garry Cooke.(again!) We should have him back as fan representative. He got a lot correct.

 

[Eccles Blue]

I hope the person/director who’s in-charge of catering at City is reading this thread.

I hope he or she get’s dragged in by Soriano tomorrow morning, get’s a grilling(excuse the pun), and is asked about the shambles that took place on Saturday.

Maybe in-turn he or she, if they have the balls, could ask Soriano why the penny pinching in staff, staff training, catering contracts, and the constant and negative changes to the beer and food stations to cut down on plastic use, amongst other things, has had such a negative and detrimental effect on the food and drinks service on the concourses on matchdays.

But if the catering is sub-contracted out will he be that bothered? Apart of course from the experience of @worsleyweb and others in the Mancunian and other corporate areas!

 

[Mike N]

I hope the person/director who’s in-charge of catering at City is reading this thread.

I hope he or she get’s dragged in by Soriano tomorrow morning, get’s a grilling(excuse the pun), and is asked about the shambles that took place on Saturday.

Maybe in-turn he or she, if they have the balls, could ask Soriano why the penny pinching in staff, staff training, catering contracts, and the constant and negative changes to the beer and food stations to cut down on plastic use, amongst other things, has had such a negative and detrimental effect on the food and drinks service on the concourses on matchdays.

‘Penny pinching’ is exactly what the problem is. Odd when they are missing out on thousands of pounds by not providing decent service.

 

[jrb]

Hi mate. am I allowed to say it would not have happened under Garry Cooke.(again!) We should have him back as fan representative. He got a lot correct.

I’m probably posting sh*te once again, but it seems Soriano and the top directors at City are completely oblivious to what’s going on the concourses.

Maybe Soriano should do an epsidode of Undercover Boss and spend a day working on one of the L1 concourse catering stations, or on one of the frontline beer carts.