Venue spotlight: Boparan Restaurant Hub

A trip to the supermarket was always a chore as a child. But my moaning was often placated with the promise of a post-shop snack or a nibble on a gingerbread man as we snaked up and down the aisles.

Had Sainsbury’s Restaurant Hubs existed, things may well have been very different (and easier for my Mum). Younger me would have been thrilled at the prospect of ordering a burger from one place and chips from another…

We’ve partnered with Boparan to help them with the launch of Restaurant Hubs in Sainsbury’s supermarkets. So we took a trip to Sainsbury’s in Sydenham to see it in action.

The Restaurant Hub is home to Caffè Carluccio’s, Ed’s Easy Diner, Slim Chickens, Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Harry Ramsden, with all menus accessed by an OrderPay QR code on each table.

The beauty of accessing each menu on your phone is that you can add items from different vendors to one basket – so no queuing up and paying 3 times if you want to take a mix and match approach to lunch.

I’ll be honest, I hadn’t expected a trip to a supermarket in suburban south London to be the highlight of my working week. But then again, where else can you sit down with friends and one of you has a croissant from Carluccio’s, one has a fried chicken burger from Slim Chickens and the other a GBK burger. With a side of Harry Ramsden chips and curry sauce.