MYO and Escape

[Leofric]

It looks like Coventry's old fire station has found a new lease of life! A new bar, Escape, has opened it in the building along with MYO, a new restaurant offering a real mix of food - all freshly cooked.

Might try it out this weekend!

[Will]

I like the clever name.

I must visit coventry again soon, it sounds like a city on the change.

[Leofric]

I like the clever name.

I must visit coventry again soon, it sounds like a city on the change.

It is. I first came to Coventry as a student in 1989, and it's improved hugely in recent years - if you wanted a decent meal back then, you had no chance - about 2 or 3 restaurants, few decent bars... Now you've got Thai, Lebanese, Persian, Turkish, Chinese, Italian, Malaysian, and places like Prague, Dogma, etc.

Still needs a lot of improvement to bring it in line with other cities of similar size, but the amount of up and coming development is huge - including things like Belgrade Plaza, Park Court, Swanswell, etc.

[Will]

As odd as this may sound, this thread has attracted more guests via a search engine enquiry, than any other keyword!

This MYO place must be doing something right to have so many people interested in finding out more.

[Leofric]

As odd as this may sound, this thread has attracted more guests via a search engine enquiry, than any other keyword!

This MYO place must be doing something right to have so many people interested in finding out more.

It's been highly publicized due to its location in the city's old fire station, and it's also run by Rois Ali, who owns the Rupali restaurant in Tile Hill - a very well known Indian restaurant that's won a few awards in its time.

[Madhatter]

Is the firestation an old building leofric, I'm not familiar with it. Nice that it's been put to good use and yes I agree Coventry is on the up, it's a lot better than it used to be, but I feel that the midlands area is on the up, although some towns choose not to take advantage, but thats another topic.
Freshly cooked is a thing I like and well worth waiting for.

[Unregistered]

MYO is an appalling dining experience. It hasn't lived up to its hype at all.

There is a mandatory 10% service charge ( at a self service buffet) we had to queue for ages, the staff speak bad broken english at best, which consequently meant that on not one occasion did the drinks order arrive correctly. It was full of loud rude people.The deserts consisted of SALTED fruit segments as the chocolate fountain was out of order. Delicious.
I begrudge sitting in there for an hour let alone paying for the privilage. A truely 3rd class performance, even the main investor doesn't eat there and who can blame him.

[Leofric]

MYO is an appalling dining experience. It hasn't lived up to its hype at all.

There is a mandatory 10% service charge ( at a self service buffet) we had to queue for ages, the staff speak bad broken english at best, which consequently meant that on not one occasion did the drinks order arrive correctly. It was full of loud rude people.The deserts consisted of SALTED fruit segments as the chocolate fountain was out of order. Delicious.
I begrudge sitting in there for an hour let alone paying for the privilage. A truely 3rd class performance, even the main investor doesn't eat there and who can blame him.

I went the week it opened, and had none of those problems - although I didn't pay the bill. I always get the service charge removed and don't leave a tip if they've added one.

The food when we went was good, and the staff all spoke English - and it wasn't full of "loud rude people".

Having said that, I'm not overly keen to go back again. I prefer a menu based restaurant. I'm not keen on these "buffet" style restaurants much, and found the mix of dishes in MYO to be a bit odd. Give me Aqua, Gallery or Earlsdon Cottage over MYO.

[cathidaw]

Iwas so disappointed when I heard that the old Fire station was going to be yet another restaurant.
Iwas hoping that it would be used as an area for exclusive and individual shops and boutiques- maybe 'crafty' places that 'normal ' people could afford to rent. There is nowhere like that in Coventry.
In places like Leicester and Banbury these kind of places add to the interest of a town.
Ithink that was the idea at first ,and the council let it out--little units, about the right size but in their great wisdom they weren't at all selective, instead very greedy and allowed it to be filled with market tat. Not even nice tat either- just stalls with people selling banks of toilet rolls and bin bags and the like. Not quite a new Coventry image!.
I wonder what planet these councellors live on, where forethought and imagination does not exist.
So, in view of my thoughts above, this restuarant has to be a good thing.

I think I remember the firestation in use but it may be my imagination

My mum used to tell us that the tower was for the firemen to climb up so that they could slide down, when there was a fire.

[Unregistered]

Iwas so disappointed when I heard that the old Fire station was going to be yet another restaurant.
Iwas hoping that it would be used as an area for exclusive and individual shops and boutiques- maybe 'crafty' places that 'normal ' people could afford to rent. There is nowhere like that in Coventry.
In places like Leicester and Banbury these kind of places add to the interest of a town.
Ithink that was the idea at first ,and the council let it out--little units, about the right size but in their great wisdom they weren't at all selective, instead very greedy and allowed it to be filled with market tat. Not even nice tat either- just stalls with people selling banks of toilet rolls and bin bags and the like. Not quite a new Coventry image!.
I wonder what planet these councellors live on, where forethought and imagination does not exist.
So, in view of my thoughts above, this restuarant has to be a good thing.

I think I remember the firestation in use but it may be my imagination

My mum used to tell us that the tower was for the firemen to climb up so that they could slide down, when there was a fire.

They were supposed to be doing something like this around Palmer Lane/Burges, but I don't think there's any market for it.

The trouble is, Coventry has a very low retail footprint. There is wealth in the city, but the people with that wealth deserted the city centre years ago - people don't like it. It's ugly and awkward, and places like Leamington are practically next door and are fare nicer environments. Furthermore, Coventry consists of a bunch of dead ends and has no pedestrian footfall, which is why there is nothing on the streets outside the precinct - the ringroad has pretty much destroyed the flow of pedestrian traffic into the city centre.

I doubt Coventry will ever have the same retail scene as Leicester, Nottingham, and even small places like Leamington.

The new developments like Friargate and Belgrade Plaza will bring a lot of big chain bars/restaurants in, but nothing small and independent.

[Madhatter]

Now that I do not believe. Coventry may be ugly but that won't stop it turning around becoming something unique.
Shopping in what is basically an open air shopping centre with trees plants and music is quite a nice experience. What puts me off is that Coventry centre seems to attract a lot of young scruffy yobs for some reason, more than the other cities do.
Anyway, we are creating a town of unique individual shops here in Atherstone, another two book sellers have opened up recently, we have shops selling gifts, ornaments, coffees from around the world, antique shops, collectables shops cafe's restaurants, but hardly any major chain store. Atherstone has far more shops than any other with it's population, more events, more character.
Rather than try to mix all that in with chain stores coventry should sellect an area and stick to what it set out to do.