The nation’s chain restaurants have traditionally been about grabbing a quick culinary fix in an unfussy setting that doesn’t cost the earth.
However, in the last decade, a new breed of ‘posh’ chain restaurant has sashayed onto the UK’s high streets – wooing middle-class diners with highly photogenic setting – think clouds of (artificial) blooms and ambient lighting, sophisticated menus and performative service.
They look delicious on Instagram and influencers are their favourite marketing tool, serving up snap after snap on social media of extravagant cocktails and aesthetically plated food.
One such chain, Big Mamma, has won a dedicated following of diners with cash to splash since first opening Gloria in London’s trendy Shoreditch in 2019.
There are now half-a-dozen of the highly photogenic Italian trattoria style restaurants – owned by two French restaurateurs – across the capital, with the glamorous eateries serving up Neapolitan dishes in eye-catching settings. Ave Mario in Covent Garden, for example, pairs black-and-white striped walls with red velour dining booths.
In recent weeks though, the chain has faced some heat, with one unhappy diner suggesting the restaurants are ‘Frankie & Benny’s for rich people’, alluding to the popular high street pizza chain. Social media and Tripadvisor reviews go further, suggesting such chains are a playground for ‘wannabe socialites’ and ‘style over substance’.
Daily Mail Food Critic Tom Parker-Bowles says: ‘Anywhere that puts an Instagram post above good service is best avoided. That said, I do rather like the Big Mamma Group. In these dark days, there’s nothing wrong with a little OTT fun.’
And Big Mamma is far from the only posh chain restaurant making a killing from well-heeled diners who want a side-portion of exuberance with their meal out.
Big Mamma’s big style…but does the chain of French-owned Italian restaurants that have been springing up around the UK since 2019 cut the mustard when it comes to tasty food? (Pictured: Ave Mario in Covent Garden, one of Big Mamma’s London restaurants)
Another branch, Jacuzzi, in Kensington, has proved to be a popular spot for those wanting to capture glam content for their Instagram accounts. Pictured: a diner posing at the location
So, is your favourite restaurant a stylish night out or a one-way ticket to Naffville? And what about the more humble fast-food outlets that may not be as easy-on-the-eye but attract the genuinely affluent to their wipe-clean tables…
GAUCHO
While an Argentine steak and a glass of Malbec served on the streets of Buenos Aires might see you with change from a tenner, you’ll likely pay up to ten times that at UK steakhouse Gaucho.
Owned by the Rare Restaurants Group, the 20-strong chain has branches across the country from Newcastle to Birmingham, and 12 in London, including an outlet at the O2 arena.
Diners are treated to a run-through of the different cuts of meat – and the wines they might pair with – by knowledgeable waiters before they order. Interiors are glamorous – with leather banquettes, velour seating and statement lighting par for the course.
What’s on the menu? A 400 gram ribeye served up in the London Piccadilly branch will cost you £51.50, while a fillet at the same weight comes in at an eye-watering £68.
Join the debate
Are Instagrammable restaurants ruining good food or just making dining out more fun?
Argentinian-inspired steakhouse Gaucho goes for cow-hide glamour at its 20 restaurants… but many have suggested that charging around £50 for a 400g steak represents terrible value
The chain’s newest branch, in London tourist hub Covent Garden, gets 3.4 out of 5 for value on review site TripAdvisor, and 4 out of 5 overall, with plenty of diners delighted by their visit.
However, some have suggested that how the chain looks on social media doesn’t always play out when you visit. One visitor at the Covent Garden restaurant last month admitted they’d visited because they’d ‘seen [it] everywhere on TikTok’.
The experience didn’t match up though: ‘The food was ok and the staff were nice, but there will be no place my family will come back when we have to return to London. It seems that it is so cowardly to get advertised like this on social media and then it is not at all what the customer gets.’
BIG MAMMA
Instagrammable: Circolo Popolare in Manchester, which has a faux horticultural display in the centre of the restaurant and bottles like books on the walls
A woman poses with her cocktail as she enjoys a drink at the chain’s Manchester location
French-owned Big Mamma started its Italian restaurant chain in Paris in 2015 and has rapidly expanded, with branches – all individually named – now across the UK, including Circolo Popolare in Manchester and La Bellezza in Birmingham.
And with each opening, the buzz surrounding the restaurants grew, despite the prices being rather more expensive than other chains.
Meals at the restaurants range from a truffle pizza for £21 to a crab tagliarini for the same cost or a lamb pasta for £19.50, while their ‘must-have’ dessert, a lemon pie, is £8.50 and cocktails are priced between £11 and £16.
But the tide seems to be turning. Some recent reviews on social media and Tripadvisor complain of a playground for ‘wannabe socialites’ and ‘all style over substance’, with critics claiming the eateries have been ‘designed for Instagram, over taste’.
Others slammed the ‘mediocre meals at premium prices just because the lighting is cute’ and said their experience was filled with young women posing for their social media pages and blocking main staircases and seats for the perfect snap.
What does class expert Laura Windsor, who’s half Italian, make of a French-owned Italian?
‘I’m half Italian and rarely find good quality food in London restaurants. My grandmother was from Naples, the birthplace of Pizza!’
She adds: ‘Good food should speak for itself. When presentation and hype are valued more than flavour and care, the experience becomes meaningless and expensive.’
Big Mamma’s co-founder Tigrane Seydoux told the Daily Mail: ‘We care extremely deeply about feedback from every guest who walks through the doors of our trattorias.
‘Every week thousands of guests take the time to share their experiences with us, contributing to an average Google rating of 4.8 out of 5 across our eight restaurants in London, Birmingham and Manchester.
‘We personally respond to every review to ensure a genuine understanding of how we can improve, as we truly believe that listening carefully, especially to constructive or negative feedback, is key to continuously improving the experience we offer.’
DAISY GREEN
Long summer days on Peggy Jean’s, one of Daisy Green’s most popular venues, are on the menu… but does the food match the setting?
The fast-expanding Daisy Green group describes itself as ‘bringing relaxed and buzzing Australian food and coffee culture to London’ – and counts Larry’s, an underground cocktail bar at the National Portrait Gallery, among its glitzy portfolio.
Elsewhere, there’s a former Jesus College Oxford barge turned restaurant called Peggy Jean’s on the banks of the Thames in Richmond – which serves up brunches and lunches by day and dinner at night.
Daisy Green headache: Journalist Stefan Simanowitz started the ‘Save Our Cafes’ campaign to protect a quartet of Hampstead Heath cafes in north London from being taken over by Daisy Green – with petition signatories including Benedict Cumberbatch and James McAvoy
In the summer, the barge, which is topped with strings of lights and pretty pink umbrellas, attracts a negroni-sinking crowd with the beautiful views.
However, catch Richmond on a damp day and Peggy Jean’s can be underwhelming, say those who’ve been.
One visitor in August – when the setting is at its most scenic – didn’t mince their words, saying: ‘The view is nice and the bar is fine, but the restaurant itself was dreadful. We waited nearly an hour for our food, only for it to arrive cold, awkwardly served on hot plates. We spent nearly £100 and left angry and regretful.’
Daisy Green has faced challenges north of the river too. After being selected to run a quartet of cafes at Queen’s Park, Golders Hill Park, Parliament Hill Lido and Parliament Hill Fields, the chain found itself with more than a few high-profile detractors.
The four cafes based in Hampstead Heath are regular haunts of A-list celebrities like Benedict Cumberbatch and James McAvoy and have been family-run for decades – Daisy Green has faced a public outcry, although an impassioned ‘Save Our Cafes’ campaign appears to have so far been futile.
TATTU
Tattu, a Chinese food chain with elaborate interiors has five branches in the UK and another planned for Dubai
Dine amongst the foliage: Tattu’s interiors are inspired by China’s natural landscapes
A Manchester-born independent Chinese food chain that has earned a cult following thanks to immersive dining and Instagrammable interiors.
Tattu was founded in 2015 by two brothers, Adam and Drew Jones, and now has five branches across the UK. There is another overseas branch planned in – you guessed it – Dubai.
Etiquette expert Laura Windsor says: ‘I remember the days before social media, when we Europeans used to laugh at the Japanese for taking photos of everything – including our British fare.
‘We joked about how ridiculous it seemed, never imagining that one day we would all be doing exactly the same thing, just louder, faster, and for an audience.’
She added: ‘True appreciation of food comes from knowledge, taste, and restraint, not exaggerated praise online. Real foodies go to a restaurant to enjoy the food and the experience, to have privacy, and not to be part of a social-media spectacle.’
ALBERT SCHLOSS
Albert Schloss’s Bavarian beer halls in Manchester, Liverpool, London and Birmingham are hugely popular – but have drawn accusations of being ‘average’ when it comes to entertainment
Alpine dining in spacious, trendy urban settings has made Albert Schloss’s outposts a firm favourite amongst influencers in the UK.
The beer halls, inspired by Prince Albert’s Bavarian heritage, are found in Manchester, Liverpool, London and Birmingham.
They’ve garnered hundreds of thousands of social media posts, with influencers sharing shots of themselves posing next to large tankards of beer.
Half of the reviews of the Albert Schloss on Chamberlain Square in Birmingham are glowing, with five-star reviews a go-go…however, others have suggested the venue isn’t quite such fun.
A couple who paid £80 to spend New Year at the Birmingham bar said the floor was littered with broken glass and the entertainment ‘average’.
…but you’ll find the really posh people at McDonald’s
Influencers posing up in McDonald’s, with a Big Mac in hand and a chocolate milkshake chaser, are as rare as hen’s teeth…but the down-to-earth US fast-food chain does boast some surprisingly posh fans.
No-one is safe, it seems from the 2am munchies, when only a 12-pack of chicken nuggets or a Filet ‘o’ Fish will do.
Who are the high society Maccy D’s fans? The late Princess Diana famously took Princes William and Harry to McDonald’s to give them some semblance of a normal childhood.
Paul Burrell, Diana’s butler, recalled that each Saturday the Princes would wolf down a Big Mac and chips slumped in front of a trash TV show.
And a Kensington Palace kitchen chef said that, despite having a team of top chefs at their disposal, William and Harry would regularly seek out fast-food diners.
Darren McGrady told Marie Claire magazine in 2019: ‘Yeah, the boys loved McDonald’s, and going out to pizza, and having potato skins—sort of the American foods. They were royal princes but had children’s palates.’
High society supermodel Cara Delevingne is also a fan of the US fast food chain
Show me the fries: Supermodel Gigi Hadid with a large McDonald’s fries in a photo shared on her Instagram
And British supermodel Cara Delevingne has been spotted on more than a few occasions ordering at branches of the chain.
On one famous occasion, she was joined by another superstar from a gilded family, Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
She revealed the pair had stopped at a branch before being caught short: ‘I think me and Phoebe peed on the lawn outside of a drive-thru McDonald’s.
‘It was hysterical – we needed to pee so badly but we were on a party bus and we were like, “let’s get out at McDonald’s.” They wouldn’t let us use the toilets so we just peed outside on the lawn outside it.’
Others who don’t hide their love of the Golden Arches? The cast of Made in Chelsea, Gigi Hadid, Jeff Bezos and Kim Kardashian to name a few.
