Finding it increasingly difficult to justify eating out at pubs etc

Bloody hell! When we've pushed the boat out for special occasions it's been around £100 a head - with one exception which was private dining and more expensive, but still not as expensive per person as your outing.

I also resent paying for what are in effect ready meals. Many (most?) pubs and many other venues don't make their own fresh food, they just buy it in and heat it up. Large menus are a big giveaway.

We ate at a pub a while ago which got great reviews. They specialise in pies, and the pies were very nice, but some time later I saw that exact pie range for sale in a supermarket. They were served with chips only, not even veg or salad. So basically we could have produced that exact meal ourselves for a fraction of the cost.

But as much as you're saying that the cost doesn't justify the delivery for the customer, the effort doesn't justify the return for the business or the people running and working in it. They're putting all this effort in and just making enough to keep the place afloat - that's a poor return as much as customers feeling ripped off for higher prices for the same level of service/food.
The local place that has just announced they're closing at the end of this week are a family place with a couple of staff that are family friends, they've put everything into it, it's lovely, always busy and people are lamenting the loss, but they've said themselves that the level of work they're having to put in is unsustainable, they're just breaking even and without putting their prices up they can't employ more staff. So that's it, they've decided to close. In other words like the customers feel about the prices, it's not worth it.

And that's what will continue happening to the independent places, or they'll put their prices up and they won't get customers anyway so the same result.

Expecting more and more for the same, or less in a climate of increasing costs is unrealistic, from either pov.

There's no easy answers to this, the basic issue is that prices have risen to the point where people either cannot or will not pay it, and so they look for ways to keep prices realistic and the only way to do that is scale back on service and quality, but that's not because every restaurant or cafe in the country has decided ripping their customers off is the way to go, it's because in order to be there at all, they need to make it viable.

Even the most creative minds cannot circumnavigate the massive increases we've all seen, increase what they're offering and keep the prices the same.

It's crazy money for an average meal, we eat out no more than a couple of times a year due to the sheer expense. Never to a pub where the food is worse than I could make at home. Even takeaways are very expensive so we only have these every few months.

YANBU I used to love eating out but it's so expensive now. It really saddens me and I do worry for the hospitality industry

Friend has a popular tea room. Open 10-4. Happy to let staff with children finish early for school runs still has problems recruiting. They cook hot food. The energy bill is 2k a month. There's no energy cap on commercial energy.

It is prohibively expensive for us a a family of 5 (3 teens so adult meals) now, but I don't necessarily think the pubs are making a fortune more that everything has gone up. The NI and min wage increases won't help it going forward either.

Of course you can if all you're costing is the food. What about the power to cook and for heating and lighting your home, your time cost doing the cooking, buying the cooker and utensils, buying the crockery and cutlery, costs savings in not having to pay 20% VAT on it, not having to pay waste disposal, bank charges, security, business rates, etc?

Also 20% VAT included in the selling price!

Bank charges, security, waste disposal, etc.

We occasionally had lunch at a nearby village pub. Lunchtime meals always fine. This time, the price had really shot up. Dh had fish which was minus the jersey potatoes included on.the menu. My ploughmans, resembled none I had had before. The bread was completely stale. When we complained, the waitress said we should have said earlier. I responded I could not do so as she was glued to her phone.

She reluctantly deducted my coke from the bill. Another set of customers who wont be back.

Totally agree
Even reliable cheap places like Nando’s aren’t worth it now. We went to Nando’s recently and they are obviously cutting costs with staffing because the wait was 50 minutes. The food itself was noticeably smaller portions than previously and it was nearly £40 for two of us
I haven’t eaten in places like zizzi, pizza express and other chains for a really long time now because the service and portions are shit and the food isn’t anything you couldn’t make yourself better.
We occasionally go to nice cafes but even then food like avacado toast is over a tenner

We used to eat out a lot - maybe 8/9 times a month before covid. More like once now. And I only go out for things that are a faff to make at home - took dd out for Japanese yesterday at a little independent in Birmingham and we had tempura, teriyaki and sushi - no way am I being arsed to do all that at home for lunch!
I'll also go out for a chippy because it makes the house smell if I fire the proper fryer up. Or a proper balti - again too much hassle at home to make the proper restaurant masala.
But a burger or a sandwich or a steak or whatever? Nope - make it myself thanks.

I agree they are very good value, but I haven’t stepped inside a ‘Spoons in years in protest over Tim Martin’s appalling attitudes to the EU and staff furlough during Covid.

Something else I have noticed is that a few of the gastropubs I used to eat in regularly are now solely focusing on burgers or pizzas, I guess these are cheaper and easier for the pub. Consequently I rarely eat there now.

I do understand overheads have risen and I don’t mind paying for a nice meal. But I do object to paying a lot for rubbery meat, soggy vegetables, frozen chips.

@StanfreyPock was it Copenhagen ? We lived there for 20 months and I now say we are paying scandi prices in UK for poorer quality , but without scandi wages- portions there were big and shareable too in many many places

I also have noticed the food quality is worse outside of London, and the prices are not cheaper.

We haven’t been to Pizza Express for a while, the last time was at a service station on a journey, and the pizzas seemed to have shrunk as all my teenagers were still hungry afterwards!

Food courts in London are usually good as the prices are competitive, no service charges (as you have to go get it yourself) and each stall just serves one type of food so you know they will do it well. It works well when eating out with teens as they like the busyness / street vibe but it’s not really a relaxing meal!

@Maverickess When I said ‘imaginative’ I meant some of the businesses need to get creative, put more effort in, think outside the box - that kind of thing. Have social media be an intrinsic part of their brand, regularly review their suppliers for the best deals, think about having set menus or other kinds of deals, invest in an elegant, easy to navigate website if they have the money. Plenty of us have said we can afford the prices they charge, but just can’t justify paying. I understand inflation and overheads, but it’s all about value, so paying £13 for a mediocre soup having had average service in pretty drab surroundings is an example of being ripped off. Just the way it is here currently in the U.K, generally speaking.

By contrast, there’s a wonderful independent coffee shop / cafe in my city centre where the food is freshly cooked, tastes great and the coffee is sublime. Sometimes you have to queue to get in. The service is friendly, the atmosphere cosy and buzzy. For a salted caramel brownie and americano the total is almost £7.70, which for me is excellent value. Likewise in central London I’m happy to pay £4 for a coffee if it’s really good, as it usually is at a lot of independent coffee shops.

My friend paid £22 for sausage, mash and peas when we went out about a year old!

I remember saying you could cook the same meal for a family of 4 for £5!

We have stopped eating out unless it’s a birthday as the cost is higher than ever but the service isn’t the same and you are rushed out asap. It feels like a conveyor belt and no longer enjoyable.

Well good luck to anyone trying to 'imagine' their way out of the increases in price to food, gas and electric, business rates, insurance, licences the NI increases to employers, without putting their own prices up, or reducing what's on offer.

Have you managed to 'imagine' your way out of the cost of living increases?

Either way with the increases in everything and the reduction in disposable income for everyone, hospitality is going to take a hit. Charge less and keep customers but you can't sustain the cost increases then doors close. Charge more, meet costs but lose customers and the doors close.

It's not a problem with businesses or customers by and large, excepting those businesses that do profiteer and those customers that demand to be delivered a service for less than it costs to be delivered and resent that they need to pay the price of the service they want.

The problem is the current economic climate. As I said in a pp, one ingredient we use has tripled in price since 2020 - who should cover that increase? Should I work for less money so the customer doesn't have to pay more? (Until all the staff leave because that's unsustainable)
Should the business still supply it at a loss so the customer doesn't have to pay more? (Until they fold because that's unsustainable)
Does the business drop the quality of that ingredient, increase the price a bit (because the inferior product is still more expensive now than the superior one was 5 years ago) and sacrifice quality?

We all know that prices for everything have increased massively, either you pay the increases or you do without. But a lot of people don't want to do either, they want to blame the industry for ripping them off instead because they're pissed off for paying more for a service they want, but place no value in.

I don’t eat out much for all the reasons outlined but my DH does like doing it, which I find annoying

Someone I know just opened a local cafe/restaurant and I honestly think they have lost the plot and gone mad, I don’t know why they think this will be successful. Barely anyone I know can afford to eat out regularly enough for this to be a viable income. They have chosen a location saturated with similar places and a huge supermarket.

Yes we have stopped eating out, it’s very expensive and quite often food that is better when I cook it. It’s a shame as it was something we enjoyed but can no longer justify even though we can afford it

I like an independent cafe too. One near me does an amazing home made soup and cheese scone for £6. Which feels about right to me.

In carveries, the veg are either limp and rubbery or so undercooked as to be raw. One had stuffing that had been reconstituted but not baked, Yorkshires which looked lovely, but had been reheated and were tough and leathery, burnt looking roast potatoes. The standard is really poor.
We too are enjoying cafes, nice breakfasts, jacket potatoes, and snacks that don’t cost the earth. Our local cafe serves a lovely roast dinner for £6.95.

@justasking111. Wondering if you are my neighbour??? My local gastropub type place on the marina has hiked their prices, we have stopped going there