To feel ripped off

Eating out is ridiculously expensive these days. I was in Italy last week and 2 pizzas (proper pizzas), a beer and a glass of wine came in at just over 30 euros. The same (and less good) meal at our local pizzeria would leave little change from £50.

I'm shocked at the amount of people, especially young people, that buy lunch out daily. I think it is so expensive and I earn decent money!

I always bring my own lunch to work.

I had four drinks (two adults, two children) and two bits of cake at the weekend (outside London) and it came to £25!

That is the price these days; we don’t eat out as much as we used to for that reason. I treated myself to a tea and cake the other day and it was £9

Yes this is about right. But it depends on the portion size and quality as well to a certain extent. If it was a miserable Flapjack and the soup was nothing more than lentils and knorr I'd be disappointed but if it was full of veg and or meat and the flackjack was full of fruit, nuts, seeds, chocolate, then - nice things cost money

£27 for cod and chips twice. Ridiculous.

This was 10 years ago or so. Went to a posh garden centre/restaurant and queued for a cup of tea at their takeaway counter. It was 5 quid. For 1 (one) tea bag and hot water. I walked out again. I thought it was ludicrous. Dread to think how much they are charging now.

Always order from the website. 2xWhopper meals for a tenner. Other stuff too but I have a weakness for Whoppers 😉

Its drifting into dessert prices too...have a look at Pizza Express for example. £8 for a chocolate cake thingy. So pricey!

Is the cost of living everything is going up quite a lot. You have noticed it because you don't go often to buy your lunch.
I don't know how small shops of coffees are going to make it. Most of the people can't afford to go out any more.

As a treat we went to burger king today... I almost fell over when I realised it was £9.79 for a chicken royale meal! My daughters happy meal equivilant was almost £6!

Coffee and soup!

I'm in the office today and I usually bring left overs to heat up but didn't have anything in the fridge this morning. Went for a wander around the city at lunchtime, thought about Pret, local cafes etc, all the usual places. Ended up in Rosa's Thai .... a massive plate of basil chilli chicken with rice for £15.

Wouldn't normally spend that on lunch but when you compare it to the OPs, it's a bargain.

I had a flat white and a cheese and ham toastie at a local independent cafe a couple of weeks and was shocked when it came to over a tenner.

That seems quite reasonable compared to some of the prices I've read on here.

£12.50 - £15 is the going rate for a set lunch round here. and im in central London

My son before Christmas worked in a pub with "restaurant seating" , warned us not to order a cheesecake as a desert, they came from the freezer and defrosted in microwave. I guess all puddings in pubs and pizza restaurants are like that.

It's a damn sight cheaper than an office, or sitting at home with your own heating on all day long. I think buying two coffees is the least you can do.

i think optimistic to think you can buy soup for £3. It’s more like £6.50-8.50 now.

Someone told me yesterday that they paid FIFTEEN POUNDS for a smallish jacket potato with beans and a teaspoon of salad garnish on the side. This was at a local garden centre. I know places have vastly increased running costs to face, but jaysus, a potato is such a basic thing. Not £15 territory at all.

Who drinks a mocha coffee with soup?

I hate the coffee chains like Costa and Starbucks. Starbucks in particular always seems grubby to me. £4.50 for a coffee is too expensive IMHO except as an ocasional treat but whenever I go into coffee shops I see people who have completely the opposite view.

We tend to avoid eating out too much now. Even make the children home made Mc Muffins.

Just leave feeling like I’ve always paid a lot for something that actually was not any better than a frozen ready meal half the time, or the service which is why eating out also costs more was just meh and then again I wish I’d just brought the steak and cooked it at home and drank a whole bottle of wine for the same price as one glass.

Mugged everywhere we go.

weve pretty much stopped eating out whether restaurant, cafe or coffee shop as the prices are ridiculous and the quality shocking. I honestly wouldn’t mind paying high prices if I enjoyed it but more often than not I just feel cheated because it’s average at best.

i just feel we can do better at home for a fraction of the cost. Made a carrot cake on the weekend with cream cheese frosting and it’s still going now.

Why we rarely eat out for breakfast or lunch... just not good value.

I quite often work in cafes and they have far fewer customers now than before covid. A combination of higher prices and worse value and service. I like working in caffs so will always do it, but to spend the thick end of a tenner on two coffees is clearly untenable!

And this is why I don't buy lunch out of the house, and if I really am gasping for a coffee if I have had to spend the day in the big town, I go to Mc Ds for it rather then the costa next door. Usually have a cold drink in the car anyways

For work, we have a selection of flasks, insulated cups, take out containers and we take left overs, HM soups, wraps, salads etc

We have lots of coffee shops in our wee town and they are bunged, but the busiest place is the wee family run and owned place which cooks proper food at proper prices . You can get a proper dinner - shepherds pie, chicken, beef etc, spuds , veggies and a pot of tea ( with top ups ) for £8, and you couldn't throw a stone over it as we say. Its not posh, they don't have a coffee machine, its tea, drip or instant, but lunch in there is worth every penny.

Just laughing at my use of "proper" I mean good basic homestyle food at a price that you are happy to pay

The Seattle coffee in the Asda supermarket, cost nearly 3 pounds and tasted like warm water with a faint taste of coffee, never again. It sounded so good. I now go to Waitrose which have free coffee with a member card, it’s really good tasty Nero coffee as well.