Come on Swindon let's get foodie and stop the corner cutting

The Monthly Ink Food and Drink Focus

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Swindon’s food sector has really got to stop selling its customers short

By Jamie Hill

There is one thing in Swindon that really winds me up. I mean really gets my goat.

And that is the lack of quality ingredients served in its restaurants. It’s as if a lot of restaurateurs in the town don’t believe in trying to serve customers good quality food and just rely on what they believe to be the ‘unsophisticated’ Swindon palate to be able to source all of their ingredients as cheaply as possible.

It really shows and creates an exodus from the town where food lovers venture out into the neighbouring villages or towns like Cirencester and Marlborough, where establishments actually take pride in the locally-sourced quality ingredients they serve.

I’ve got to admit I’m not talking about your Italians, Brazilian, Indian, Nepalese, Thai, Mexican or even Spanish restaurants as they tend to source the proper ingredients for their cultural cuisines. Something that Swindon does do extremely well.

No, I’m talking about our plethora of pubs, steakhouses and other restaurants serving more traditional British or American fare. It’s just lazy run-of-the-mill cost-cutting to increase those sought-after margins.

I’m not going to name names here as it is not our job to actually attack anyone’s individual business, but I’ve lost count of the number of eateries in Swindon who start well but then start to cut corners in the name of profit.

All it does is sell Swindon short.

You can understand why they do it. The restaurant business is hard and in the last few years with the cost of living crisis it has only become more difficult. Everything has become more expensive, from sourcing the ingredients to energy bills, and with customers feeling the pinch at the same time, you can see why they want to squeeze every penny out of them.

But it creates its own doom spiral. If they stuck to their guns and concentrated on quality over cost, it would mean there would be fewer reasons for people to leave the town just to find good food.