Finding it increasingly difficult to justify eating out at pubs etc

I understand that all costs have risen but I don’t like paying a high price for a poor quality meal.

If I am eating out I expect it to be freshly cooked, not just something they have bought in frozen from a catering company and reheated, or I might as well have a ready meal from the supermarket.

Decent service is only one aspect of the eating out experience.

The issue is with the businesses, not the consumers, and they need to get imaginative so they stop losing as much custom as they clearly are. Yes, they have overheads and need to make profit but it's pure laziness and complacency to charge £12 for an average burger or salad and then have the nerve to add on a ludicrous service charge. Some places deserve to go under, quite frankly.

Burgers need to be cooked through thoroughly, otherwise there is a risk of food poisoning.

This is the problem, of course it costs money, you've even said yourself that they shouldn't employ people because they're cheap...... So they should be paying more for decent staff, training them adequately etc....... yet you who wants that level of service feel ripped off for paying for it?
Should hospitality staff be serving you simply for the privilege of doing so?

Tbh a lot of what's being said is basically people feel entitled to a decent service delivered by other people, but don't think it's worth paying a decent price for. That's always been the issue in hospitality, people demand the service and demand it's good but don't think it's valuable enough to pay for.
And that's why we are where we are, because the service provided by the industry has been devalued to be worth nothing when you're delivering it, but seemingly the most important aspect when you're receiving it.

Unfortunately there's not an endless supply of people willing to serve others for poor wages and conditions, and being resented to boot.

Though there seems to be an awful lot of people who are experts and know how it should be done, and that it won't cost as much as they're being charged, seems to me there's a gap in the market, maybe they should be out there being the pioneers of hospitality and showing the rest of the industry how it's done?

This has been my experience too. Even coffee and cake at a café is no longer a relatively inexpensive treat and it's something DH and I have less frequently than we used to, though not never because it's important to us that cafés should stay afloat. I'd once have thought someone was a bit tight if they suggested just having a main course in a restaurant and then going home for coffee and a slice of cake, but now, with coffee and a small dessert adding £12 per person to the bill, I have become that person.

We still eat out at least once a week. Not necessarily in pubs, because I would say that while we have a lot of eating places near us, none of the pubs are really 'food pubs' - they sell food, but it's nothing special and usually something that would actually be nicer if I cooked it myself! I love a gastropub but they're a bit lacking near me at the moment. But we do eat out in various other places.

Feel completely the same. We recently ate a busy restaurant/bar and got a burger and a chicken schnitzel. No inquiries how the burger should be cooked or anything. Food arrived within 5 mins so obviously pre cooked. 3 pints ordered. Bill was £80 with service charge. I was so annoyed.

I don't go out for meals anymore, unless I have friend visiting.

I think the level of food quality/service isn't great and prices are too high for me with the cost of living crisis.

Instead, I will sometime go just for a hot chocolate and a cake but that's a treat maybe once a month, if that.

I just tale my own food and a flask with tea or hot water with lemon when I am out and about or at work.

I'm getting good at sniffing out deals. Last week we went out for pie and mash and a pint (£12.50 meal deal, so £25 for the two of us, seemed fair enough). Our (relatively) local does stuff like 1kg of spicy chicken wings for a tenner, and gives us doggy bag, so it lasts us the meal and for lunch the next day.

We don’t eat out much anymore - £150-£200 for a family of four to eat somewhere decent with no alcohol is a lot regardless of your income. It’s close to £100 at pizza express fgs which used to be somewhere you’d stop for lunch on a shopping trip or something. We end up sharing chips, drinks or I order a kids meal in places like five guys or Archie’s to keep a quick lunch under £50.

It’s unsustainable and I do feel for the industry and the workers but I don’t have an answer as I can’t justify spending a week’s shopping budget on one reasonable meal more than a couple of times a year.

They do cost money to keep right

yiu need enough , well motivated and skilled staff to get food and drinks to people in a timely fashion and recruitment is quite hard into this industry

the last few times I've eaten out I've been served cold food, have had to wait to wait until my main course was served until my drink was given and been given the wrong order.

None of the above require money to get right. Hospitality needs to take a long good hard look at itself to see what they can right without it costing them anything and they need to tighten up their recruitment procedures too. Not employ someone just because they are cheap to employ.

I like the independants but they all seem to be vanity projects.

It seems we are with the majority here in no longer being willing to pay for indifferent food that we could buy cheaper and cook better ourselves, unless we're travelling or on holiday. And even last week, in Scotland, the three best meals we ate were cooked in our chalet with a very basic kitchen.

So unless it's our not-quite-local-enough Michelin rated gastro pub or our favourite sushi place, we don't waste the money.

Ohh the ice cream van stops outside our school.
I taught my son age 7 the price difference, between ice cream van (£3.50 for a standard cone cheapest option) and buying a whole box of the non brand cornettos from sainsburys or liddle. That you can get a pack of 4 from the supermarket for the same price as one from the van.
Now every rime we walk past the ice cream van he shouts 'rip off' which I have to tell him not to shout it😂 but I am pleased he has realised the difference and no longer asks for the ones from the van 😂

Agree. I understand the math behind prices, but if I am spending a large chunk of my disposable income on something it has to be worth it.

We both HATE cooking so eating out regardless of quality is always preferable 😂

We barely eat out now, just for special occasions or on holiday.

I agree to a large extent. However even if people can afford it, they’re not going to spend money on something that doesn’t represent value to them. I know it’s not the fault of the pubs and restaurants that their prices have increased so dramatically. I feel a lot of empathy for them. But I’m not going to pay a large amount of money for something which has seen a big decline in quality, even if I can afford it. It just makes more sense to buy better quality ingredients and cook at home.

I’ve been thinking this too. Medium glass of house wine at our local (north London) is now over £8, burger £18, fish & chips £18, a meal such as shepherds pie £19 and steak £27. Even a measly bowl of chips is £6! It’s just getting to be way too much. I am so sad though, as it used to be something affordable and fun, and now I see our local almost empty most of the time, when it used to be heaving. I worry that it will shut down, which would be a terrible shame and loss for the community

I find this interesting as I am actually eating out now more than I have ever done. Possibly once a month if you include holidays

when the kids at home finances meant never eating out. I couldn’t bear ro waste money on food that I could cook better myself. This is still true but I am surrounded by people who feel a meal out is a treat so I can now afford to go with the flow sometimes

The price of everything has increased that's needed to deliver a meal out, everyone knows this, because everyone is paying more for their supermarket shop, their gas and electric, for life really, but there seems to be a mental block when it comes to hospitality and the fact that they're not magically immune to paying more for those things too, meaning that the price to the customer rises. When it comes to paying more for the same in hospitality, suddenly it's being ripped off and extortionate and resentment.

A really popular and always busy place in the town I work in has just announced it's closing, which is the 3rd or 4th this spring/summer alone. A lot of other places just didn't reopen after the winter period. And this is a town where on a sunny day you can't get a parking spot for love nor money, there's loads of foot traffic, people are lamenting the loss, and the owners have commented saying they can't even break even on what they need to pay out to keep the place going unless prices rise more, which people aren't willing or able to pay, and clearly resent paying, even though that's what it costs.

I've no doubt there's some who are profiteering, someone certainly is somewhere in the chain of supply. As an example we're paying 3x more for the oil we use to cook with than we were pre covid, we're not getting more oil for that increased price. So we either put up the prices to cover it or lower the quality of the oil we use to keep the price lower. People complain at both. They want the highest quality but they don't want the price tag that goes with it.

And that's just one element of many that would go into a dish and all elements have increased. Not passing that increase on to the person actually ordering and eating that food is a really quick way to go bust, but people resent that cost being passed on - why do they feel like someone else should be subsidising that increase?

I get not having the disposable income to eat out, I'm one of those people, I can't afford to even use the most modest of hospitality places.

I think it's the resentment that finishes off places tbh, I said on another thread that it's like people hate hospitality venues, they want to use them but they're not willing to pay what it costs to do so.
The staff are doing more work, the owners barely break even to keep prices as low as they can and then you're faced with the resentment and accusations of ripping people off, be enough to convince most people that it's not worth the hassle being in the industry.

It's no wonder we're ending up with chain places that serve microwave meals, the whole industry and the skills within it have been devalued, there's not an endless supply of people willing to work long hours for little pay or reward and then be resented for it as well.

I promised my 3 youngest kids pizza hut this weekend just gone while their dad and big brother were at motorcycle racing - looked on my app for menu prices and said hey kids lets get a takeaway and use the difference to go to the cinema. £30 for a pizza eating in whereas i got 3 large pizzas, chips and onion rings for £30 takeaway.

My parents live in Spain and we do all our eating out when on our visits there. Their small town has numerous fab restaurants which tasty fresh produce, for half the price we’d pay for worse quality at home. When my parents visit us they’re shocked at the prices and shit quality when eating out.

Another ‘ trend ‘ I’ve noticed is celebrating friends birthdays has gone from a meal out to brunch out .

I'm so glad you've posted this because I feel exactly the same.
We have a lovely village pub opposite us that wd just can't afford to eat in.
Ditto any pub at all.
Family of 4, both DC are too old now for the little 'kids menus' as their appetites need adult sized meals. So 4 adult meals, and I'm talking basic stuff - pasta dish for DD who is vegetarian, simple burger & chips for DS, and 2 simple mains for DH and me (sausage & mash), drinks for the 4 of us (1 pint of beer, the rest were soft drinks) and 2 desserts for the kids (simple kids ice cream) came in at £150 last time we went and I nearly fell off my chair.
That was a year ago and we haven't been back since.
Went to stay with family a few months ago and we went out for pub meal at their suggestion. It was a very basic pub in a very non descript area serving very standard food. Yet we paid similar prices to the experience at our pub last year.
I really miss eating out as it's something we used to really enjoy as a family. DC often say "Can we go for dinner at the pub like we did last year?" and I have to give a straightforward No.
There's no way we can afford to do it.
A basic pub meal has become a luxury.