The food

[aurora]

The breakfast menu was great and everything I ate cooked to perfection. The rolling buffet was a bit iffy at times though I had burger and chips from there on Thursday and it was great but on Friday the food that was left was unpalatable, the cottage pie was a vile mess, cold hot-dog sausages and the rolls stale and dried hard. 

[Amethyst]

I have a little irk regarding food...

Fruit!

Or the lack off. This is probably more to do with the hotel, but a selection of fruit at the bar would have been nice. I didn't want to spend £15 for BBQ or pay for the buffet when I was having an iffy stomach anyway. The snack bar only offered beans ( too many beans!) and the soup in the way of vegetables.

I asked at the bar when my stomach was feeling particularly scurvy-licious and the lady was helpful and grabbed some apples from the kitchen. A bowl of fresh fruit, apples, bananas, oranges etc would have been nice and far more appealing that beans beans beans...

[RizzoRattie]

I had daily feedback sessions with the hotel, and food was often on the agenda.  For those that came to the feedback session, you will have heard me repeat this already but just to give this feedback to you on the forums too, the rolling buffet was very much experimental for the hotel this year.  UNfortunately, trying to cater for 800+ people on a made to order menu simply has far to many operational over heads.  Last year the chef was under immense strain and collapsed as a result.  The operational aspect of the food offering ultimately remains within the remit of the hotel and I cannot influence that as the Venue Liaison.  What I can do is try to influence the price and the actual food offering.  My goal with the hotel has always been to try and find a nice balance between the junk and quick and easy style food that our demographics appear to prefer, and a price that is value for money.  The hotel wanted to deliver this in the buffet which would mean that both food is available on demand and quickly, whilst reducing their operational strains, and also delivering the value for money.

On the most part, I felt it was dealt with well, but it had teething issues, and were we to return next year, this is something that would once again come under the microscope.  As it is, with the new hotel, the process will now start over, but I feel confident in what they will be able to offer - including fresh fruit, yoghurts, cereals, toast etc.. as well as the fried foods, for breakfast!

Exciting times ahead.

[Bezel]

On the most part, I felt it was dealt with well, but it had teething issues, and were we to return next year, this is something that would once again come under the microscope.  As it is, with the new hotel, the process will now start over, but I feel confident in what they will be able to offer - including fresh fruit, yoghurts, cereals, toast etc.. as well as the fried foods, for breakfast!

Bacon and yoghurt for breakfast ? Hmmm..... 

[RizzoRattie]

no no... bacon yoghurt

*I'm joking!

[Aurocard]

no no... bacon yoghurt

OH MY GOD THE EPI-

*I'm joking!

Oh...well. I'm just...just going to go over in this corner and cry on the inside. ;_;

-Auro

[Azzy]

Given the location change I'm not sure how useful food feedback is, but just in case...

The food options were better than I was expecting, although as a vegetarian my expectations were pretty low :p Having a vegetarian sausage option from the evening corridor vendors was great, and there was always something edible at the buffet, which proved to be surprisingly good value. It would have been nice if the hotel hadn't run out of hash browns, as they are a pretty big part of a vegetarian breakfast if you want hot food, but I can imagine predicting the hash brown consumption of several hundred furries is a non-trivial affair. The sponsor buffet was also a touch underwhelming, but again, I wasn't expecting much of it so it wasn't a particularly big deal. Obviously, the efforts/resources that go into vegetarian considerations depend hugely on the demographics of the convention, so assuming we're in a pretty small minority then it seemed a pretty good show!

[RizzoRattie]

Given the location change I'm not sure how useful food feedback is, but just in case...

The food options were better than I was expecting, although as a vegetarian my expectations were pretty low :p Having a vegetarian sausage option from the evening corridor vendors was great, and there was always something edible at the buffet, which proved to be surprisingly good value. It would have been nice if the hotel hadn't run out of hash browns, as they are a pretty big part of a vegetarian breakfast if you want hot food, but I can imagine predicting the hash brown consumption of several hundred furries is a non-trivial affair. The sponsor buffet was also a touch underwhelming, but again, I wasn't expecting much of it so it wasn't a particularly big deal. Obviously, the efforts/resources that go into vegetarian considerations depend hugely on the demographics of the convention, so assuming we're in a pretty small minority then it seemed a pretty good show!

Thank you for the feedback Azzy.  Even with the venue change, I take it onboard because getting the balance right, and trying to cater for everyone is never going to be perfect. Knowing that there was better options available this year for vegetarians does mean we were one step closer to getting it right.  But.. still lots to learn I am sure, and of course, the Hilton will have a very different way of dealing with their service.

The agenda with the food is as yet far from finalised, but under negotiation still.  Once more information becomes available, this will of course appear on the 2014 website once it is live.  Watch this space!

Many thanks,

Rizzo

[Oddity]

Never thought I'd actually enjoy black pudding

Though all I really want for breakfast is either porridge or muesli with milk, which there was plenty of! Oh, and coffeeeeee...

[RizzoRattie]

Cofffeeeeeee  ((O________________________O))

[SFW]

More in the way of hash browns would be nice, always good food to fill up on.

[JessLyra]

The only thing i have to say about food is can we have that midnight snack/rolls thing again? Bacon and egg baps, hog roast/shredded pork baps, pizza slices etc.
The last night was a pain as it wasnt even a midnight snack...it closed at midnight! Im not even kidding when i say there was no food in the hotel! Me and Roo ran around the place looking for anything after midnight. I had not eaten as id been busy. I had pizza the night before so did not really want it again. Had nibbles at a room party and that was it.

[ferret]

I had some problems with the food this year - the availability and the price was generally good, but some issues with the quality; in particular breakfast was often cold with cold and dirty plates.  I have fed this back to the venue as obviously it's not really something that can be worked on now.

Thanks very much to Colin for all the work that went into food and drink this year.  I know those represent a large proportion of the work that goes into venue planning and this year I was very impressed.  I hope next year's hotel can be convinced to be flexible.

[SlyCat]

Other than the breakfast, I used the buffet twice. The first time, they had barely any food out so had to go round a second time once there was more food put out, but it was at least fairly decent food. The second time however was when it was the indian themed buffet and I thought it was truly awful. Mostly due to the undercooked crunchy rice I had to eat. Really put me off that meal

On the plus side, the BBQ was a great improvement on last year's. There was a decent selection of food and barely any queues so I was easily able to get my money's worth   Hope to see the BBQ make a return at the Hilton

[Bungle Bear]

I found the BBQ was fabulous - great nosh and wonderful staff. I was one of the unfortunate that bought a meal ticket for the buffet during the time where there was no real food available.. However! I seemed to pick just right when going back another time for a wonderful Thai Green Curry <3

All these learning experiences should help with bolstering all the fun things ahead at the new hotel n.n