Any reliable eating option in the regions is to be welcomed. While there are some superb restaurants around the country they can take some hunting out. Having eaten everywhere in 20 mile radius of my mother's house I have also found that for every cracker there are 10 truly awful establishments.

Quite why you'd want to go to Jamie's in Covent Garden when the magnificent Bocca Di Lupo is 10 min walk away is beyond me. There is even an excellent tapas option in Westfield.

Well IME ethnic places (Thai, Indian) tend to be good for something semi-casual.

For European food however you basically have the gastropubs, starched tablecloths or IME low-quality garbage. Some of the gastropubs are a bit too much on the formal side for taking the kids too. Sometimes you can find a good casual tapas place or whatever, but they are not common.

I can't comment on all the towns - but Guildford, Portsmouth? Not exactly foodie havens are they? As a chain concept seeing one in every fair-sized city would be much better than Zizzi or Ask or some such.

By coincidence, we were in the one at Canary Wharf only last night. I like the place.

Good :

They do a spectacular display of their vegetables in the centre of the restaurant, and prepare all the salad dishes there in the open in front of everyone. We commented that the display reminded us of a grand greengrocers shop outside the train station in Ventimiglia, which had been Mrs WHBM's :) very first sight of Italy (and which we took photoraphs of).

It is apparent that the kitchen staff know absolutely what they are doing. Which is what you would expect where a prominent chef is the principal.

All the dishes were so nicely prepared and worth having.

Hot evening but their air con inside must be spot on, not intrusive, perfectly pleasant.

Proper Italian drinks (and beers not by Peroni or Moretti, but independent brands).

The cured meats as antipasto were indeed spot on.

Still getting there :

Very noisy on a busy Friday evening, to the extent that it's difficult to have a conversation. Interior design is totally hard and echoing, which leads to this. Needs some sound-absorbing soft linings.

Menu has rather too many oddball dishes, I felt rather bland going for a spag bog in the end (which was so nicely done and the opposite of the glutinous mass you might get elsewhere).

Serving staff need to be up to the standard of the ktchen. Actually, a few of them looked like they were. But not ours.

No, she meant the six Michelin starred restaurants around the place, in addition to a clutch of restaurants which are close to Michelin standard. You really need to have a look at the Edinburgh restaurant review thread.

But I guess if all you see are chains when you travel, then you won't notice those...

Sawney Bean thought the same.

What, him out of "Sharpe"?

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Is Mr Oliver paying you for this??

I've been to Jamie's and as has been said it is nothing special for a high street chain except maybe the prices. It's certainly not a good value place to eat.

Haha - funny that you mention it. No I'm not, but I have been there!

I've had this username for years and years, oh around 10 years I'd say? I went to Kingston Uni and my first day drove past the restaurant.

Have you any conception of how much cookery classes typically cost?

It's actually pretty good for a high street chain..

It's not cheap, no. But at least you won't get reformed ham in your pasta as is common in many of the low-end (chain and non-chain) Italian places. Different people have different perspectives on value, I value good-quality ingredients and I know that they are not ubiquitous and am quite happy to pay a little more to get something decent.

Incidentally, Mr Oliver's fellow celeb chef Raymond Blanc is far more of a sell-out IMO. Blanc has a range of Waitrose desserts (poor), a patisserie chain (average) and a brasserie chain (below average).

I ate in Mr. Blanc's Brasserie, which is aiming for a similar market to Jamie's Italian - the pastry there had no lightness of touch, the leeks were overcooked and clearly not 'market fresh' and the whole thing basically could have been run out of a Brake Bros. van. (The waiter otoh demonstrated American efficiency in serving us and quite a number of other tables at the same time - something Jamie's Italian doesn't always deliver on).

As I have said sourcing fresh produce across a chain of restaurants is not entirely simple - Raymond Blanc, for all his TV posturing, has failed at it, even with only 8/9 branches, whereas from what I have seen Mr. Oliver has managed to pull off light, fresh food across a chain of restaurants that I have no doubt will continue to expand in the years to come.

And btw as a post script, might I explain how I ended up in the Brasserie Blanc, a 'chain' restaurant?

We were in Winchester having intended to visit Hinton Ampner but found it closed, so we drove onto Winchester. I went to the tourist board and asked them about restaurants in particular the Black Rat, which I found on my mobile phone as being the Michelin-starred place in town. It was closed, being Monday (or lunchtime, or something, I don't remember the reason), the tourist board told us to go up a certain road where there would be lots of restaurants. There were several, a medicore dim sum chain (Dim T), a Loch Fyne, a few takeaway-type concepts and Brasserie Blanc. Brasserie Blanc seemed like the best option available (the Michelin starred place being neither convenient nor open), so we gave it a try but it was rubbish.

Whereas fine dining places typically keep limited hurs, somewhere like Jamies is open noon till 11pm - you can go in and get lunch at 3pm if you desire - whereas many independent places are unhappy if you enter within half-an-hour of closing time, and will try and get you out or not serve you to start with. A casual, open-all-hours chain that serves decent food certainly has its place.

My Observation......
 

Have eaten in both Reading and Covent Garden outposts and found them both a cut above the competition - which maybe Strada or the like.

The food is good value for what you pay and the menu is original for the high street - how many other "chains" sell rabbit pasta sauce?

I'll happily go back.

When I moved to North America I was wowed by the number of places to eat, so many low to mid end (price and food wise) places, just waiting to be tried. And then I tried them. And beyond the name on the menu, I was hard pushed to tell you which one I was in. I even, as a bit of a bet' walked into a chain I had never been to before, and ordered without looking at a menu, given that the exact same dishes, with a flourish of this added or subtracted, were on all of them. They do everything you could ever want (your wife wants pad thai, you want a steak, your 3 kids want a pizza, nachos, and reformed chicken fingers with plum sauce - not a problem! ) Now I seek out new places (tons in the city, far less in the suburbs) that are not chains - and I am much happier.

I find it quite worrying that the UK is going towards MORE chain restaurants - I thought Ask etc. were quite bad, putting some smaller places out of business, but the new 'out of town' frankie and benny's and the like have really spelt out a death sentence, especially in smaller towns.

I'm sure Jamie's is very nice, I can't see him deliberately designing something that is nasty. But I wonder until people become bored of his version of Italian and are ready for the next chain? (I remember when Bella Pasta was considered good...!) My favourite Italians have always been small, chef-owner or at least chef speaks to the owner type places, where there aren't 25 types of pasta on the menu, because the chef only has time to make three by hand each morning, a shape to hold sauce, a long type, and a filled type, maybe a lasagne too. I love the fact I never have any difficulty in ordering veggie food, as it is made to order, so the chef can easily make a spagetti with garlic for me, and they will often bring out nibbles with the drinks that are things the chef has been playing around with to try out, or something lovely and seasonal he just had to grab it for people to try (like courgette blossoms). A no-label red wine in a litre carafe, and some good homemade ice cream and I am a happy little camper!

Now this is true. Is there a single restaurant in Canary Wharf which is not a chain ?

Is there a small restaurant that could afford to open in Canary Wharf without the backing of a chain?

Ooooh, harsh. If Jamie's Italian gets you out of casual dining chains, then so be it. Go and queue and get mediocre service and overpriced fast food. Let's re-look at your list:

Nandos - you're right: cheap ingredients (90% gross margin on chicken - rock on!), but also excellent value, friendly service and served fast
Pizza Express - fast, reliable and fantastic value (given that nobody pays full price)
Wagamamas - tired concept, but fast, reliable (something like half of customers order one of two dishes - katsu curry and fried udon, IIRC) and good value (free tea!)
Yo Sushi - stale sushi - I concur - try Itsu instead
Giraffe - the point of which is to serve as a magnet for braying middle class parents of spoilt toddlers, so they don't clog up normal restaurants
'Posh burger' - see above on Pizza Express

The clue to all these places is that they are fast, reliable and excellent value for money (especially thanks to Vouchercodes and similar websites). The UK may not have the nicest restaurants outside of London and Edinburgh, but it does have the most vibrant chain casual dining scene in the world - you can always get a fast, friendly, reasonably-priced sit-down meal, whatever town you are in, and even if you are not familiar with local haunts. For this, I am grateful

If Jamie is to jump on the bandwagon, he needs to (a) improve his shockingly inconsistent, unreliable and amateur service execution and (b) lower his prices

I've been to the one by the Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham and my girlfriend and I thought it was a bit too expensive for what we got. For example, the Risotto that we got was so small and taste so bland that we thought that we can do a better job. I think people are mostly paying for the name.