Andreas, 34 The Broadway, Bedford, Bedfordshire, MK40 2TH
10 years ago Andreas was a place of greasy dreams, a safe haven for those without cooking skills, a pleasure dome for those too lazy to step out the front door and a mecca for those wandering drunkards staggering hungrily through the streets of Bedford in the wee hours of the morning. Andreas was for many your first pet, that happy little ...puppy that filled you with joy on so many memorable (at least until the morning after) nights out.
Well, those times are well and truly behind us now, this is 2011 and Andreas is sadly the old dog long since lost its vigour waiting to be taken out to the barn and shot through the face putting it out of its (an our) misery!
Let’s start with the good before we depress ourselves with the facts of what has become of this once idolized eating hole.
Opening times:
The best thing these days to say about Andreas is that it is open until the early hours of the morning so when you get home from that boozy night out and either can’t be bothered to zap something in the microwave or make toast then they’re just a slurring phone call away!
Sun-Weds: 12pm – 2am
Thurs – Sat: 12pm – 4am
Delivery:
Now this is one are you can’t fault them on, these guys are FAST! They may tell you it’s a 45minute wait but 9 times out of 10 they’ll be knocking at your door in 15-20 minutes
Food (the good):
Kebabs
Now one thing this place does get right is its kebabs (and rightly so considering they trade under a Greek name!). All of their kebabs are damn tasty and the chilli sauce is all about flavour rather than heat. The stand out for me though is the Mixed Kebab:
Pieces of Pork Char-grilled with Loukanika sausage, Sheftalia Meat ball slices and meat (note: Since writing this piece the UK has gone through a Horse meat scandal. Now this is just an observation and I'm not saying that this product was made from or contaminated with horse meat but the Sheftalia Meat ball slices did seem to vanish from the mixed kebab after those events).
I honestly cannot praise this bad boy enough, the only down side is that there just isn’t enough of it for a drunken chubby like myself. The salad that you get with it is also damn good and fresh and plentyful!
Now for me that’s where the good ends although I do know that a lot of people that really praise their Potato wedges, I’m in the minority here since although I’m aware that they do taste pretty good and are fluffy enough on the inside (but not always) they're always soft, wet & soggy on the outside whereas I expect a potato wedge to be crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
Like I say though I'm in the minority, all of my friends (including my wife) think that the potato wedge is the star of the menu and that I am wrong for saying otherwise.... obviously, they're all wrong
THE BAD
Well, this is the sad part as THE BAD is just about everything else on the menu. The top offender though has to be their pizzas.
1 – The dough is too thick, greasy & stodgy.
2 – WHERE THE HELL IS THE TOMATO SAUCE???? I always thought that pizzas came with a tomato sauce, perhaps I imagined this. Perhaps those pizzas I had in Italy were "special" pizzas??? I do recall that I would never order a large pizza from Andrea's because of this exact problem however, it was never the case with the small pizzas, they always came with plenty.... not anymore.
(This leaves the pizza dry and again… stodgy)
3- The cheese! I don’t want cheddar mix on my pizza I want mozzarella, if I wanted cheddar I’d have cheese on toast not order a pizza!
The best bit of the pizzas are the toppings to be honest and I have never had a problem with the toppings but they do not make up for the rest of the product.
Chicken: The actual fried chicken itself is ok the real issue here is the southern fried coating! Again, it’s tasty enough but soggy and limp whereas it should be crispy and still attached to the chicken.
To be fair, these problems aren’t local to Andreas and seem to be the norm for most take-away places in and around Bedford but that’s not to say that it is acceptable. In fact, it is far from acceptable in my books and these places should be told. The last time I ordered a pizza from this place I called them to tell them that the pizza was awful, they did offer to send me out another one but as I told the lady at the time “I’ve already got one of your nasty pizzas here why in god’s name would I want you to send out another one? I’m wanted to treat myself not punish myself!”
This is what needs to be done, if you order food and it’s crap then phone back and tell them it's crap.
These places are producing crap because you allow them to get away with it by not saying anything and buying more of it…. Stop it, stop it right now!
Andrea’s… you were a shining light in the blurry eyed darkness, now you are just another dim star in fading milky way.
The King is dead....
10 years ago Andreas was a place of greasy dreams, a safe haven for those without cooking skills, a pleasure dome for those too lazy to step out the front door and a mecca for those wandering drunkards staggering hungrily through the streets of Bedford in the wee hours of the morning. Andreas was for many your first pet, that happy little ...puppy that filled you with joy on so many memorable (at least until the morning after) nights out.
Well, those times are well and truly behind us now, this is 2011 and Andreas is sadly the old dog long since lost its vigour waiting to be taken out to the barn and shot through the face putting it out of its (an our) misery!
Let’s start with the good before we depress ourselves with the facts of what has become of this once idolized eating hole.
Opening times:
The best thing these days to say about Andreas is that it is open until the early hours of the morning so when you get home from that boozy night out and either can’t be bothered to zap something in the microwave or make toast then they’re just a slurring phone call away!
Sun-Weds: 12pm – 2am
Thurs – Sat: 12pm – 4am
Delivery:
Now this is one are you can’t fault them on, these guys are FAST! They may tell you it’s a 45minute wait but 9 times out of 10 they’ll be knocking at your door in 15-20 minutes
Food (the good):
Kebabs
Now one thing this place does get right is its kebabs (and rightly so considering they trade under a Greek name!). All of their kebabs are damn tasty and the chilli sauce is all about flavour rather than heat. The stand out for me though is the Mixed Kebab:
Pieces of Pork Char-grilled with Loukanika sausage, Sheftalia Meat ball slices and meat (note: Since writing this piece the UK has gone through a Horse meat scandal. Now this is just an observation and I'm not saying that this product was made from or contaminated with horse meat but the Sheftalia Meat ball slices did seem to vanish from the mixed kebab after those events).
I honestly cannot praise this bad boy enough, the only down side is that there just isn’t enough of it for a drunken chubby like myself. The salad that you get with it is also damn good and fresh and plentyful!
Now for me that’s where the good ends although I do know that a lot of people that really praise their Potato wedges, I’m in the minority here since although I’m aware that they do taste pretty good and are fluffy enough on the inside (but not always) they're always soft, wet & soggy on the outside whereas I expect a potato wedge to be crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
Like I say though I'm in the minority, all of my friends (including my wife) think that the potato wedge is the star of the menu and that I am wrong for saying otherwise.... obviously, they're all wrong
THE BAD
Well, this is the sad part as THE BAD is just about everything else on the menu. The top offender though has to be their pizzas.
1 – The dough is too thick, greasy & stodgy.
2 – WHERE THE HELL IS THE TOMATO SAUCE???? I always thought that pizzas came with a tomato sauce, perhaps I imagined this. Perhaps those pizzas I had in Italy were "special" pizzas??? I do recall that I would never order a large pizza from Andrea's because of this exact problem however, it was never the case with the small pizzas, they always came with plenty.... not anymore.
(This leaves the pizza dry and again… stodgy)
3- The cheese! I don’t want cheddar mix on my pizza I want mozzarella, if I wanted cheddar I’d have cheese on toast not order a pizza!
The best bit of the pizzas are the toppings to be honest and I have never had a problem with the toppings but they do not make up for the rest of the product.
Chicken: The actual fried chicken itself is ok the real issue here is the southern fried coating! Again, it’s tasty enough but soggy and limp whereas it should be crispy and still attached to the chicken.
To be fair, these problems aren’t local to Andreas and seem to be the norm for most take-away places in and around Bedford but that’s not to say that it is acceptable. In fact, it is far from acceptable in my books and these places should be told. The last time I ordered a pizza from this place I called them to tell them that the pizza was awful, they did offer to send me out another one but as I told the lady at the time “I’ve already got one of your nasty pizzas here why in god’s name would I want you to send out another one? I’m wanted to treat myself not punish myself!”
This is what needs to be done, if you order food and it’s crap then phone back and tell them it's crap.
These places are producing crap because you allow them to get away with it by not saying anything and buying more of it…. Stop it, stop it right now!
Andrea’s… you were a shining light in the blurry eyed darkness, now you are just another dim star in fading milky way.
The King is dead....
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