Spudulike

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Have any website thread contributors any memories of visiting this company?

 

[Willie Bee]

I was always too stingy to go there .. you can bake your own potato in a microwave with ease

 

[Cowley]

Have any website thread contributors any memories of visiting this company?

Yes I used to use them if I was out and about on the trains in my younger days. It was a good way to get a cheap hot meal when you had limited funds.

 

[Amos]

I used to enjoy going to the one in Chester where there were remains of a Roman bathhouse in the basement.

 

[Harpo]

I remember one at Lincoln. Used it many times off the summer Sat Newcastle-Yarmouth before returning north. Jacket spud with Chile con carne. Almost healthy!

 

[Peter C]

I've never been to one, but thanks to the genius of Victoria Wood I always pronounce it "Spudoolikay" in my mind when I read it...

-Peter

 

[43096]

I've never been to one, but thanks to the genius of Victoria Wood I always pronounce it "Spudoolikay" in my mind when I read it...

-Peter

I remember the Wayne and Waynetta from Harry Enfield’s show naming their child after the chain, pronounced “Spud-oooh-licker”.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I used to enjoy going to the one in Chester where there were remains of a Roman bathhouse in the basement.

Presume that's the one on Bridge Street. No longer a 'Spud-u-like', and don't think it has been since May 2018, but the place is still open as a café/restaurant, and they do a decent omelette there!

 

[stadler]

Have any website thread contributors any memories of visiting this company?

They were very expensive. It was such simple cheap food but the prices were so high. A jacket potato is extremely cheap and the toppings like baked beans or chilli con carne or coronation chicken are also cheap to make. In later years it was around £6.00 or £7.00 or £8.00 for one jacket potato depending on what toppings you wanted. I always thought they overcharged.

I used the branch in Guildford quite a few times over the years. If i was out in the town it was a good option to eat. Better than the usual fast food chains. I do like a jacket potato.

They seemed to slowly dissappear. I am sure at one point they had about eighty branches. Interestingly they were almost solely in shopping centres. There were hardly any high street branches.

I remember that they closed down in 2019 after going bust. At that point they had around fifty branches around the country. But then were briefly brought back a few months later between 2019 to 2024 by a new company as "Spudulike By James Martin" but with only a very limited amount of about five branches. They closed for good in 2024 and i doubt we will see them reopen again.

 

[adc82140]

I've never been to one, but thanks to the genius of Victoria Wood I always pronounce it "Spudoolikay" in my mind when I read it...

-Peter

Beat me to it!

 

[Harpo]

I've never been to one, but thanks to the genius of Victoria Wood I always pronounce it "Spudoolikay" in my mind when I read it...

There’s also Waynetta Slob’s baby Spudulika.

 

[SuspectUsual]

There used to be one in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester, going towards the station. It was almost always devoid of customers

 

[Joshua_Harman]

There was one in Southampton city Centre until fairly recently (maybe about four years ago) haven’t seen or heard of them since the 80s before I moved to Southampton

 

[styles]

Yes I used to quite like it for a mix it up dinner.

They weren't the best spuds in the world, but a good option imo.

I think, like stale pizza chains like Pizza Hut, they were sort of beaten out of the market by the sheer number of independent places cooking jacket spuds, either as their main offering or as part of a decent cafe menu.

I was always too stingy to go there .. you can bake your own potato in a microwave with ease

I disagree on this one. I don't like jacket spuds solely done in the microwave - the skin doesn't crisp up that well, and they don't go as fluffy as I'd like.

Also it's a similar argument about buying a lemonade in a cafe - I could buy Schwepps or R Whites lemonade at the supermarket for a fraction of the cost, but I'm paying for staff wages, rent, a cleaned glass, ice, a slice of lemon, table service, heating, electricity to charge my phone, wifi, etc then ultimately some form of profit for the owner. Eating/drinking out costs more money than eating/drinking at home - that's just a given really.

 

[GusB]

I don't ever recall seeing a Spud-u-like, let alone having visited one. Maybe I wasn't paying attention!

When I lived in Aberdeen we had a local equivalent called the Tastie Tattie. It was one of my favourite places for grabbing a bite to eat on the way home from the pub.

 

[styles]

When I lived in Aberdeen we had a local equivalent called the Tastie Tattie. It was one of my favourite places for grabbing a bite to eat on the way home from the pub.

I'm not sure the Spud-u-like chain had outlets open late enough to catch me coming home from the pub

 

[Steddenm]

Seems that 'celebrity' chef James Martin has something to do with them:

SpudULike by James Martin - James Martin Chef

Welcome to SpudULike by James Martin. Working with Albert Bartlett, James' new menu takes the humble potato to a whole new level!

www.jamesmartinchef.co.uk

 

[Darandio]

Seems that 'celebrity' chef James Martin has something to do with them:

SpudULike by James Martin - James Martin Chef

Welcome to SpudULike by James Martin. Working with Albert Bartlett, James' new menu takes the humble potato to a whole new level!

www.jamesmartinchef.co.uk

He did but not now. They don't exist any more.

 

[H F Stephens]

I used to enjoy going to the one in Chester where there were remains of a Roman bathhouse in the basement.

Coincidentally, my mother, sister and I approached this branch in 1982. My mother was aghast at the notion of a potato costing in excess of £1 and we retired elsewhere for the then popular ’chicken in a basket’ which, while presumably not cheaper, represented better value to her Northern soul.

When I lived in Aberdeen we had a local equivalent called the Tastie Tattie. It was one of my favourite places for grabbing a bite to eat on the way home from the pub.

Likewise. They at least understood the correlation between inebriation and price insensitivity, but to their credit offered a far superior tuber compared to Spudoolikay.

 

[W-on-Sea]

I once, in the early 90s, went to the one in the shopping centre above and at the back of Victoria station in London. It was undistinguished. J. T's ("Just Terrific") Jacket Potatoes in St Andrews - haggis being one of their options - were far superior.

 

[Trackman]

There used to be one in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester, going towards the station. It was almost always devoid of customers

That's where I've seen it, walking to and from Vic-Pic, pre-Windsor link days.
The handles on the door were their spud logo and shaped like that too.
Got me thinking about the long gone Dutch Pancake house in Manchester now and that 24hr cafe next to Picc station.

 

[The exile]

I was always too stingy to go there .. you can bake your own potato in a microwave with ease

You can (although back in the day when I remember using Spud-u-Like - ie early 80s - microwaves weren't really a thing) and I can't envisage deliberately going out to get a baked potato - but they were a good staple if you were out, especially in an era when the alternatives were a bit thin on the ground. Mind you - trying to cut into them in the styrofoam containers used before we all got worried about CFCs was always difficult - far too easy for the knife to go straight through the bottom of the container and deposit a lake of melted butter onto your trousers

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Got me thinking about the long gone Dutch Pancake house in Manchester..

Definitely not Spud-u-Like, that place was on the corner of St. Peter's Square and Oxford Street, quite near the present day tram stop(s). They did a multitude of both savoury pancakes and sweet pancakes. It was there from c. 1982 to some time maybe in the late 2000s when the building it was part of was then demolished.

 

[najaB]

Have any website thread contributors any memories of visiting this company?

I quite liked them. Visited a few times when they had a location in Dundee.

I was always too stingy to go there .. you can bake your own potato in a microwave with ease

You might be able to cook a potato in the microwave, but it won't be anything like a proper baked spud.

 

[Ivor]

Have any website thread contributors any memories of visiting this company?

Many years ago on occasion especially in the 80s we used one in Croydon & I always thought it was decent & not bad value.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I was always too stingy to go there .. you can bake your own potato in a microwave with ease

Noooo! You need to do it in the oven for a nice thick skin. If you want convenience prebake some and freeze, then microwave to reheat.

 

[Harpo]

Noooo! You need to do it in the oven for a nice thick skin. If you want convenience prebake some and freeze, then microwave to reheat.

Air fryers do a decent job. Or for naughty wood burning types, chuck them in wrapped in foil, and cook for free. (Good power cut contingency plan too.)

 

[styles]

Air fryers do a decent job. Or for naughty wood burning types, chuck them in wrapped in foil, and cook for free. (Good power cut contingency plan too.)

In scouts we sometimes do 'spud eggs'. Slice a potato in half but not all the way through, scoop out some of the middle bit, crack an egg into it, close the spud back up and stick a twig through it to keep it shut, wrap back in foil, on the fire. You get a nice gooey egg inside a jacket spud.

When we get a log burner fitted, I think it'll be on our meal plan!

 

[Lewisham2221]

I was always too stingy to go there .. you can bake your own potato in a microwave with ease

I don't tend to carry a microwave and a generator around town with me, which is the only time I ever used Spud-U-Like. I don't think I'd ever go out specifically for a jacket potato, at Spud-U-Like or anywhere else that serves them

 

[Halwynd]

I used to work in Clayton House, directly above the Piccadilly, Manchester branch. Every morning about 11am we could smell the aroma of baking potatoes wafting upwards. I used to have one every now and again, but they were large potatoes and a heavy meal and I'd find myself starting to nod off about 2pm.

Not Spud-u-like, but there was once a nice chap in Preston who sold baked spuds from a cart done up like a Stanier Pacific, I think it was named City of Preston. Always used to have the parched peas too.