BRISTOL CITY fans have been forced to swallow sub-standard fare for decades – and not just on the pitch.

Complaints about inedible, lukewarm food and slow, poor quality service at the kiosks around Ashton Gate has been one of the main areas of criticism from supporters and led to the club bringing in outside caterers a year ago.

City bosses insist the food and service improved as a result, yet many fans continue to complain – particularly about lengthy queues which can mean either missing the end of the first half or the beginning of the second.

So in this issue we unveil Piewatch – the first accurate, scientific measurement of the quality of catering at Ashton Gate to enable the fans and club to assess the true quality of the service we are getting.

We will be carrying out tests periodically through the season to see whether Lindley Catering – a firm which boasts 30 years’ experience - improves service in areas where it is poor or whether the standards drop.

We sent undercover pie spies armed with notebooks, stopwatches and food thermometers into all three home stands to monitor the speed of service and quality of tuck on offer.

To a level benchmark, our pie spies in the Atyeo, Williams and Dolman were ordered to leave their seats when the referee blew for half time and walk at a normal pace towards the nearest kiosk.

They timed the queue from the moment they joined until the moment they were handed their pie, coffee and change.

A specialist meat thermometer was then inserted in the pie and the core temperature recorded before the food and drink were tasted for quality.

The temperature “danger zone” where bacteria which cause sickness can multiply is 5 deg C to 63 deg C. As a guide, McDonald’s health chiefs insist beef at all their restaurants are cooked to at least 70 deg C and all chicken is heated to 80 deg C.

So here are the inaugural Piewatch results:

Atyeo Pie Spy

Length of queue in front: 16 people (three of whom pushed in after having places saved)
Time taken to get served and receive goods: 7 mins 9 secs.
Staff: Three, worked relatively efficiently together.
Pie core temperature: 87.5 deg C
Coffee core temperature: 70 deg C
Pie rating: 6/10
Coffee rating: 6/10
Pie Spy report: “I sampled a chicken balti pie and wasn't impressed by the overall quality of the chicken. Also, ten minutes later the pie was still an inedible 80 deg C. I also had a tea beforehand. It was the same temperature as the coffee but receives only 5/10 despite being a tea-drinker. The quality could be improved by changing from powdered milk to having milk “portions”. Increasing the water temp would also achieve a better "brew".
“I also had a pre-match pasty which was generously filled, an immediately edible (and safe) 65 deg C and rates 9/10.
“There was three staff serving, with one taking definite charge. The other two were fairly new but the leader installed a fairly successful method of delegating one to get all drinks, one to get all food and one to take the money.”

Williams Pie Spy

Length of queue in front: 16 people
Time taken to get served and receive goods: 10 mins 30 secs.
Staff: Three, all under 20
Pie core temperature: 67 deg C
Coffee core temperature: 73 deg C
Pie rating: 5/10
Coffee: 8/10
Pie Spy report: “There was no choice of pie. The meat pie contained just three pieces of meat in the pie – two steak and one kidney. The rest was gravy. There was no gristle.
“There was no lid offered for the coffee, despite its temperature, and a request for one was followed with a loud `tut’. The kiosk had no stirrers and I was told to use a straw instead.”

Dolman Pie Spy

Length of queue in front: 6 people
Time taken to get served and receive goods: 6 mins 20 secs.
Staff: One, in his 30s
Pie core temperature: 90 deg C
Pie rating: 7/10
Coffee: 9/10
Pie Spy report: “Only steak and kidney pie was available. The pie contained five pieces of meat – four steak and one kidney. There was no gristle or bone.
“The coffee came with a stirrer shorter than the depth of the cup, so could only be retrieved after drinking a quarter inch of the coffee.”

Conclusion

The results are revealing and demonstrate how service varies from kiosk to kiosk around the stadium.
The range of hot fare available in the Dolman and Atyeo is clearly unacceptable. Most clubs provide a range of pies. City fans at Brentford, for example, were offered a wide selection including a delicious vegetarian balti pie. For a specialist catering firm to only offer steak and kidney or to have run out of any alternatives by the start of half time in two of the three stands is a joke. The average rating for the pies was six out of ten. Not disastrous but hardly praiseworthy and there is room for improvement.

The acceptable standard time for service at McDonald's is two minutes in line and one minute at the counter. The average time taken to be served at Ashton Gate – provided you leave your seat the moment the half-time whistle goes and are not too old to take longer getting down the stairs to the kiosk – is exactly eight minutes. Of course, unlike a fast food chain, Lindley Catering has to deal with a sudden influx at half-time so a constant two-minute wait to be served cannot be expected. However, this is hardly unexpected and as specialists they should be able to deal with it. An eight minute wait in line is not exactly exemplary service and, by the time you add a couple of minutes to walk to the kiosk and another couple to return to your seat, means a fan devoting the whole of half-time to queuing for food. However, on the positive side, it is proof that you don’t need to miss the last five minutes of the first half or the first five minutes of the second in order to get a hot pie and a drink.

The good news is that all the food was served hot – well above the unsafe temperature where bacteria can cause illness. Scientists have discovered a small patch of lava in the crater of Mount Etna slightly warmer than an Atyeo pie, and our Atyeo Pie Spy had to wait until well into the second half before it was safe to put it in his mouth without burning his mouth, but at least all the hot food passes the temperature test, suggesting there is now little to warrant complaints of pies served too cold. That said, the 67 deg C Williams pie was not far above that crucial minimum safety temperature of 63 deg C. Indeed, it was below the minimum that McDonald’s health chiefs stipulate for their own restaurants and we will be monitoring this especially carefully in coming surveys to ensure it does not drop below safe levels.

The Incider believes it is not unreasonable to expect a wider range of pies and bring in enough staff to reduce the queuing time. Remember, these figures are for the start of half-time. Those who attempt to buy food further into the interval, or who are infirm and take longer to reach the kiosks, face longer waits and are likely to miss the start of the second half.

Every fan put off by long queues or a poor selection of fare is a missed sale and a dissatisfied customer. The club, which has only a couple of dozen chances each season to tempt fans to part with their hard-earned money for food, can ill afford to lose revenue. The Incider’s inaugural Piewatch survey shows that there is much room for improvement. Simply put, we wait too long and there is not enough selection when we finally reach the front. It would help if the caterers stipulated a target time to serve customers and widened its selection.

The fans deserve better service – and our pie spies will return later in the season to see if we are getting it.

* What do YOU think of the food and drink at Ashton Gate? Do you think eight minutes to get a pie is acceptable? Are you happy with the range, taste and price – and of the service you get at the kiosks?

Email us at letters@theincider.com with your views.

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