Gatwick passenger shares ‘grim abomination’ Wetherspoons meal

A disgruntled traveler has blown up a Wetherspoons meal as a “grim abomination” which he claims would “fail the GCSE food tech”.

London’s Greg Owen was dining at The Red Lion pub in Gatwick Airport’s North Terminal before a flight when he shared some of his “absolutely disastrous” meal.

On Twitter, the customer shared a picture of his burned burger with his followers.

The post, which received over 30,000 views, read: “Dining at the Red Lion (Wetherspoons) in Gatwick (N) is never a ‘great’ experience.

“However, the offer tonight is particularly grim. The person who ‘cooked’ this abomination would fail the GCSE level home economics cookery. Absolutely disastrous.’

The Spoons customer ordered the Empire State Burger, which includes two 6-ounce beef patties, American-style cheese, and maple bacon

The meal, which comes with fries and six onion rings, costs £8.05 with a drink and £9.35 with an alcoholic drink.

In the tweet replies, he also explained: “The fries are mushy and the burgers are crunchy – quite an achievement. Almost contradicts the laws of physics.’

People rushed to the comments to ask what the customer was expecting when they walked into the budget chain pub.

One wrote: “Expecting good food at Wetherspoons is a tall order, but their airport ‘restaurants’ are an abomination.”

Another wrote: “I mean you went to Spoons what did you expect.”

To which he replied: “No, I know! I know! Whatever I expected (or prepared for) wasn’t as bad as the reality that later unfolded. The bar was low but they lowered it a little tonight.’

Others saw the funny side with one person saying, “These burgers look like they should be extras in The Walking Dead.”

The reasonably priced bar and restaurant is popular with travelers arriving from Gatwick Airport’s North Terminal

People rushed to the comments to ask what the customer was expecting when they walked into the budget chain pub

However, some Twitter users thought the food was good and admitted they were now in the mood for a burger.

One person wrote: “I know it’s not meant to look good but I’m kind of craving onion rings now.” While another said: ‘ngl [not going to lie] it looks good, i would eat it.’

While a third wrote: “Cheap and fast food what’s your gripe? Far worse seen, get it down ya.’

Eddie Gershon, company spokesman, said: “Unfortunately, the food served to the customer did not meet the company’s normal high food standards, for which we apologize.

“Each Wetherspoon pub is subjected to regular mysterious visits to monitor and assess standards; Quality, cleanliness, service, maintenance, atmosphere and delivery times.

“In the most recent financial year (1st August 2021 – 31st July 2022), The Red Lion, Gatwick scored an average of 92.9% for visits conducted by independent external mystery visitors.

‘In addition, Red Lion also performed very well in mysterious audit visits conducted by Wetherspoon’s internal senior staff.

“We are therefore confident that this was an isolated case, but to ensure a high standard of food in the pub all kitchen staff are currently undergoing refresher training.

“We hope that the customer who had a negative experience that day will visit the pub again soon.”

However, some Twitter users thought the food was good and admitted they are now craving fast food

It comes after Wetherspoons confirmed ten of its pubs will close for good after the sale – with a further 35 branches up for sale.

Among those purchased are the Harvest Moon at Orpington, Moon on the Square at Basildon, and the Postal Order at Worcester.

Chapel an Gansblydhen in Bodmin and Bootle’s Wild Rose will also close their doors for good.

The bar chain also said sales had skyrocketed in late 2022, but it was still struggling to keep up with its pre-pandemic performance.

Like-for-like sales rose 18 percent at the company’s 844 pubs in the final quarter of 2022, but are still 2 percent below 2019 levels.

Wetherspoons also found that costs were far higher than they were three years ago, particularly for labour, food, energy and maintenance.

Its chairman Tim Martin said: “The fallout from the pandemic and lockdown restrictions has been far more difficult than anticipated. That’s the picture for the entire restaurant and catering industry.

“People thought there was going to be a boom in people suffering from cabin fever post lockdown but instead it was almost the opposite situation as people made the habit of staying there.

“That’s the big deal, meaning sales are down from 2019. Things are improving now, but it’s slow.”

But Wetherspoons added that it outperformed the broader pub and restaurant sector in December, with sales up a fifth compared to the national average of 15 per cent for the month, according to the Coffer CGA Business Tracker.

Mr Martin said he saw the biggest threat to the hospitality sector as pubs and restaurants being unfairly taxed while supermarkets don’t pay VAT on food sales.

He said: “This problem has worsened in recent years because supermarkets are now trading alongside pubs on every high street, and they do so with a huge tax advantage, meaning they can bring down the price of beer.

“By and large, I think the non-executive directors of the biggest pub and restaurant companies prefer to bury their heads in the sand and not get involved.”

But the chairman says he is “cautiously optimistic” about the company’s prospects for the fiscal year.