How disappointing is it...

Good definition of high tea. www.afternoontea.co.uk/information/what-is-high-tea/

One problem we have round here is that a pub/restaurant can be great and very popular, and then the chef leaves and moves to another one still in the same area - so it can be quite a surprise when you go back there and the food has changed completely. It becomes quite an art keeping up with where so-and-so has moved to now.

Please what is meant by "high tea"?

I seem to recall that about 50 years ago we were on holiday in Scotland and had problem finding a B and B one evening. Eventually found one and the lady said she could just do us a "high tea". We expected sarnies etc but it came up a properly cooked hot meal.

That's right Welshwife there has been a proliferation of Asian buffets in the Limousin, I don't like the very large ones with machines for wine and coffee. Contrary to popular belief the food in french restaurants can be bad as well. Like most places it's trial and error .

An ex colleague of DH's took over a nice pub in a suburb of the city that belonged to a chain, but they had a lot of autonomy over what food they served and much of it was home made and seasonal. Then the chain sold out to another chain and the menus came from head office and had to be adhered to. No specials. The food became rather boring bog standard pub food. We only ever call in there for a drink now, but don't eat. The people we knew who ran it got fed up and moved on.

In the town, where we have our second home, all the traditional restaurants have closed and now the choice is pub bar meals, Indian food or pizzas.
Near my main home there is a hotel which was refurbished as a gastro-pub, DH and I visited but it was anything but a gastro-pub. The food was bog standard pie and chips and fish and chips but with a hefty price tag.

Here in this part of France we can still find individual good local restaurants but you do need to be careful as some of those 'buy in' meals. There is some notice they are supposed to display now if they are still cooking the food all from scratch.
A thing which seems to have taken off here over the last few years are Asian buffets places. Within a two or three mile stretch of road we suddenly have three. All are huge compared to normal sized restaurants. We have yet to try them as do not tend to go for buffet food but we are told they are very good.
We now have a mobile Indian takeaway which is good. It is run by a British couple who go to different places each evening. The place they come to near us is outside the cinema and they are there on the evening they show the English Language film early - you can order on the way in and collect it on the way home.

We had a wonderful South African restaurant not too far from us which we loved visiting.
The food was amazing, the staff were lovely, and we had many happy family gatherings there over the years.
Last year the owner retired, the restaurant was sold and is now 'just another eatery'. The food is good, but very much the normal fare, steaks, burgers, fish etc.
Oh how I long for a big bowl of cape bobotie, chicken pot luck and a few slices of kudu and crocodile!

Restaurants and pubs changing hands is often down to the lease holder, someone monstrous like Punch Taverns who are not restaurateurs or publicans but a property portfolio company. When someone takes over a run down pub and turns it into a successful and popular eaterie, Punch Taverns puts the rent up to impossible levels. They profit by others hard work. It is incredibly hard to make a decent living running a restaurant or coffee shop unless you are part of a massive chain.

It is disappointing when the traditional pubs become fewer and fewer, but I think the gastro pub really enhances our eating-out experience. It's only the same as a French brasserie where you can get simple, quality food dressed up a bit. We have a brilliant selection of gastro pubs in East London, all thriving and very reasonably priced.
I agree that coffee shops are mushrooming up everywhere and sadly changing the character of towns and villages, while the food they offer is all much of a muchness and pretty tasteless.

It's easy to blame new owners for changing popular venues. However, a certain amount of disappointment must lie with those who sold the popular pub or eatery, took the money and ran off to the sun.

I knew a family who'd always wanted to own a pub/restaurant and finally got the opportunity, paid their money, redecorated and re-opened, only to find their two nearest rivals the same day started special offer meal prices for a MONTH. A compliment in a way that both venues feared the new competition, but it made for a very uncomfortable start for the new owners. Last I heard they were doing alright but that could so easily have ended before it began.

Sorry if that went a bit off topic

It is Coffee shops here, we do not have the big chains except at the Airport and Eurostar terminal and small restaurants seem to be morphing into Coffee shops very quickly.
A really nice very busy Thai resaurant seemed to change overnight last summer, same owners but now posh coffee.

Q E had a fabulous gastro pub just up the road from us run by a lively French chap. The brewery put the rents up to such an extent that he and his family left. The people that have it now run it as a typical pub with a beer garden, pre cooked pub food, karaoke, huge TV - it's noisy but still not full. That truly was disappointing!

The eatery business is a fast changing one, and most new ones do not do very well and close after a while.They have to be very good to still be there years later.
Most of them change chefs regularly even if the business stays the same as well, so you can never be sure the food will be as good.

My finding exactly Greyduster we have a large amount of eateries local to us since they have upgraded the local Prom area,all seem to be a much of a muchness and sell the same kind of food,all day breakfasts and large over the top burgers.We need to travel to Liverpool for the more selective menu's.

We were sad to see our local and very good Thai restaurant disappear after many years. It was taken over by another Thai, which was almost as good but evidently didn't do very well and has now been taken over by a garish pizza place. There's another garish pizza place right next door! As if one wasn't enough...