Sunday 20 July 2014

Chilli Hut

First, a quick note on my opinion regarding street food: it lives or dies on the quality of the base product. There is no hiding behind good service, fancy decor or air conditioning. Street food, and specifically street food other than burgers and chips, more than any other type of ready meal has to be absolutely fantastic to shift the expectations of the average British punter into something better. Now with that being said, lets talk Chilli.

Oh Chilli Hut, I'm so sorry. I wanted to like you, I really did. But you just made it too hard. Your chilli had no chilli, you nachos didn't nach and the sour cream made to whole thing even more dreary.




But the worst thing, the very worst, the absolutely unforgivable problem heaped on top of a whole mound of issues was the cheese. 

Street food, I am pleased to say is currently enjoying unprecedented popularity at the moment. I love the concept of great food made available to people outside of the restaurant, but this. This gives the whole genre a bad reputation. The Chilli Hut should have been busting at the seams, it should have had to beat of customers with a french baguette. Unfortunately it had neither of these issues, when I asked for my cone, the place was deserted and I handed over almost five pounds for what had the taste profile of clinically grown plastic.

I will continue to shout out the virtues of great British street food (look no further than details of my urban affair for further details), but unless the Chilli Hut get serious about their ingredients, they are simply riding on the shoulders of giants. Shame on them.