Lancaster: The Review

Lancaster KFC has for many years been an extremely sad experience. Sure, the Colonel did a fantastic job renovating the place with bright colours, Kandinsky prints and even a large kiddie's banquet table. Sadly, that was probably in around 1980. Up until last year, grease dripped from the ceiling (literally), tables were left strewn with rubbish and the kiddie's table? Well let's just say, the Colonel's secret blend of 11 herbs and spices has an incredible ability to make its way between a glass surface and the printed table veneer underneath it. This was not a place you'd want to spend a lazy afternoon in. Proceedings used to go something like this:

• Enter
• Queue for a ridiculously long time
• Order
• Wait
• Wait some more
• Receive order from a server who looked as though he'd grown up in an Oliver Twist era poor house
• Eat lukewarm chicken purely because you knew you'd be letting Harland down if you didn't
• Feel dirty

So it comes as an extremely pleasant surprise that Lancaster KFC has finally been refurbished. Imagine the looks of joy on our faces when our Northern correspondent first informed us. "What would they alter?" we wondered. "Will we ever be able to enjoy our lukewarm chicken on the kiddie table again?". Our answers were forthcoming upon the reopening in February: "It's exactly the same" our misinformed correspondent told us. Saddened by this news, it was with a heart full of sorrow and a head full of low expectations that we made our way back to KFC.

Lancaster KFC sits at the very peak of what we can refer to as the town centre, thus rendering it visible from a great distance and causing it to act as an extremely gratifying welcome to the town itself. Even from this great distance, we could tell our correspondent was severely misinformed. The signage has been updated with the new branding, the interior completely renovated. Even the kiddie's table has gone (attempts to locate it in skips out the back were unsuccessful). But the best addition? Lancaster KFC now contains two large leather sofas to kick back and enjoy that chicken on. Surely a first for the chain. The Zinger Tower was excellent. Excellent to the degree that long term KFC veteran and contributor to this blog, Dave, said it was the greatest he had ever tasted. This is how fried chicken should be my friends.

8/10

(Northern correspondent is now fired)