Westfield Jamie's Italian Closes

Along with most of the rest of the Jamie's Italian restaurant empire, our local Westfield branch is no more.  The sign in the window dolefully records the end of the Jamie's era, and notes the email address of messrs KPMG, the official receivers, in case you have any queries.

To read some of the press, you'd think Jamie's Italian was never any good in the first place, but my recollection is quite different.

When it first opened back in 2008, our local branch of Jamie's Italian was a great place to go - the kind of place you could take your friends, you grandma, even your unruly children.

The food was good, the prices were reasonable, the ingredients were fresh, and the place had a sense of style and excitement about it. The trouble was, it didn't last.

No more smash-ups

Decline and fall
Over time the quality dropped, the ingredients got less fresh and the service got worse. The last time I went there was a year or two ago, when I took a couple of friends, and was embarrassed by the mediocrity of the experience.

Somehow, at some point, someone took their eye of the ball, and standards slipped.

It's probably not an easy task maintaining such a big empire. Even standout chains like Carluccio's don't always succeed. The one in South Kensington, for example, is much nicer than the one in Westfield. One works, the other less so.  Why? Who knows?

Whatever the reason, I'm not dancing on the grave of Jamie's Italian. I'll miss it as it used to be, and I'll miss the cookery school which did great evening classes in world cuisine. Shepherd's Bush is the poorer for Jamie's departure.

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