Chains changed: Pizza Hut

Oh, poor Pizza Hut, still struggling to find a role, pulled between the chundering hell of being a kiddie's canteen and the desire to move upmarket. It doesn't have any new ideas this time round, except adding the word "fantastico" to some menu items.

Some of the upmarketesque flourishes have survived - the goats cheese still lurks on the menu, like a bizarre misprint, and, on the back to the sticky, laminated card touting the (usually broken, never very-hygenic-looking) Ice Cream Factory some not-bad desserts are on offer. The salad bar seems to have changed again, but it was impossible to tell when we went yesterday lunchtime what had been dropped and what had merely run out and left unfilled, but there was some insulting couscous sitting in one of the tubs.

The horrific dip-cheese-stuffed-crust in fondue thing is still there - and surprisingly popular - but the quesadilla starter has been foofed up with the pointless addition of ham. (Or reformed ham containing water, as the menu fesses up in small print.)

When Little Chef finally folds, the tolling bell will be calling for the Hut.

Chains changed: TGI

The summer TGI Fridays menu suggests a chain looking to reign in costs - probably to pay the price of what seems to be about the fourth revamp of the interiors in a about a month. They have started using a nice shade of blue as an accent colour, though, which we wouldn't mind having in our bedroom.

Gone, though, from the menu is a number of their burger options - in particular, the ranch-and-mushroom topping (about the only vegetarian burger addition that had been on offer) has gone; the range of dishes sloshed over with Jack Daniels-flavoured sauces seems to have been taken in hand, too.

The theme this season is 'East Meets West' - because, of course, if you're looking for food with an Eastern theme, where better to go than, erm, an American-themed restaurant. The special two course menu - which edges up in price with every iteration - offers a range of food which it claims is typically American alongside food which is supposedly Eastern. Point to note: There is absolutely no point in even looking at this menu if you're vegetarian. There are no mains for you to choose.

The new menu does offer one surprise: Mac and Cheese bites, which is macaroni cheese in breadcrumbs and surprisingly morish. It's not sophisticated, but then you if you want sophistication, you're not going to to choose a restaurant which blares Sky Sports News over your head, are you?

Chains changed: Pizza Express

The chain restaurants have shed their skins (and wings) and launched their new menus.

At Pizza Express, the Northern Italy themed offering has gone, replaced by Rome - it's all nicely done and well thought-out (the menus are tricked out like busy, snatched holiday snaps) but the pizzas aren't as nice as the Northern ones - the loss of the Funghi Di Bosco is a bit of a blow, especially as the replacement vegetarian offering is one of those "bits of everything" lobbed on which ends up being a bit of an unsatisfying mess.

It would also be nice to see a themed pasta dish on the the menu, too. If you hadn't seen Northern Italy, this would have seemed appealing, but Rome can't compete with the tales of truffle-hunting pigs and donkey festivals. The big city just doesn't have the charm.

China Airlines tries to manage PR fallout

If you were China Airlines - whose safety record makes Soviet-era Aeroflot look like a very careful operation transporting a very fragile cargo very, very gently - you might think the best way to manage PR would be to try and stop their planes catching fire and falling out the sky.

Instead, they're going with the easier their logo out on gutted planes approach.

Local schools visit Climate Camp

Scenes you don't usually see in Climate Camp coverage: Local schools visiting the camp. Heathrow Primary School would be one of three schools demolished to make room for the third runway.

Recommended Restaurant: Beau Jos

Counting down to the next trip to Denver, I'm looking at Beau Jo's Pizza place. They do Colorado Pizzas - the twist being that you get honey to dip the crusts into.

They do a lunch buffet, with a range of pies and salads to pick from, but looking through their website, I'm starting to wonder why I've never had their skillets. Listen to this:

We line the skillet with our signature roasted garlic cream sauce, and then toss in sweet roma tomatoes, artichoke hearts, sliced mushrooms, fire-roasted red peppers and fresh broccoli florets. This masterpiece is then crowned with a three-cheese blend of part-skim low-fat mozzarella, feta and smoked provolone.

The atmosphere is faux-mineshaft - kind of a Coloradian take on British pubs built in the 1980s but with beams and ingelnooks, I suppose - and the pricing is almost ridiculously cheap. A place to go when you're hungry.

They're down to just one branch in Denver, but they're scattered across Colorado.

It's not just Heathrow: LAX has nightmare day

Trouble over at LAX, where computer failure made the airport grind to a halt.

To make matters worse, it was out of the airport's control - the computer belonged to Customs and Border Patrol; 20,000 people were kept waiting for hours while officials tried to get their system back online.

Seven flights were redirected - to Ontario - and three people were hospitalised as a result of the stress of hanging around in the airport.

OFT tells airlines: Be honest

The days of "flights for 1p" - which never actually existed - are to end, as the Office of Fair Trading is ordering budget airlines to only promote fairs after fixed costs.

Aer Lingus heads north

Aer Lingus have dropped their Shannon- Heathrow routes, in order to free up resources to operate a Belfast hub. It's their first hub outside the Irish republic:

The announcement is an early sign the newly-privatised airline company is ready to ignore local political fall-out when taking decisions it considers in its commercial interest.

Ian Paisley, the hardline protestant politician who heads the four-party executive at Stormont as first minister alongside Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, hailed the decision by Aer Lingus as “a shining example of how competitive our economy is becoming”.

And whoever would have thought you'd hear Piasley welcoming the Irish flag-carrier operating on his patch?

Heathrow expansion protests - update

UK Indymedia are reporting that police are preventing the delivery of toilets and water to the Climate Camp - although there doesn't seem to be any reason for the legal settlement to be prevented from receiving services.

Yeah... but it's no Munich, is it?

A love song to Frankfurt Airport:



[via, somewhat surprisingly, Stephen Pollard's Spectator blog]

BA: Now loses passengers as well as baggage

We're not sure if BA have officially decided to turn themselves from an airline into some sort of Vaudeville act, but that's certainly the impression they're giving: they've now managed to start mislaying passengers, like the 83 year-old man who they left stranded in Heathrow. During his time there, he had a stroke, a serious fall, and is now facing a £20,000 flight if he wants to return to his home.

What was it PJ O'Rourke used to say about BA in those ads?