Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Should they describe this menu item better

290 replies

holidaybubble · 12/06/2026 13:06

Went to a cafe for the first time it’s not for profit and does stuff for the community. I had been wanting to try it out for a while and finally went to day with my toddler I checked the menu to see if he would eat anything and saw baked beans. I ordered him baked beans on toast with a sausage turns out the beans where homemade and spiced Aibu to think they should state this on the menu as there is a big difference between tinned and home made. I said to the girl behind the counter it was my first time coming she could have said did I know the beans were spiced when ordering for my son. Obviously he refused to eat them.

not linked to my Aibu but my full English came with toast and I got toast for him too. The wait for food was long so they gave me my son’s toast early which I hadn’t asked for. I then didn’t revive my toast with my meal and he then had no toast for his beans. I would have said something but my son was screaming as he was hungry and pushing his pot of beans and spitting them out so I just inhaled mine and left. The person that also works there had gone upstairs and I didn’t want to wait.

OP posts:
Calliopespa · 12/06/2026 17:19

TeaPot496 · 12/06/2026 17:16

A breakfast / brunch menu in various settings near me in Cornwall. All describe "baked beans". What would you expect in the following settings and I'll tell you what they serve:

  1. Garden centre
  2. Trendy independent cafe on the beach
  3. Trendy restaurant above the beach
  4. Chain pub
  5. Independent pub

Well you've already told us you only eat at tinned beans establishments.

Fresh food isn't twatty. Some of the most rural and straightforward villages I have visited around the world have unadulterated fresh ingredients in their eating establishments.

DappledThings · 12/06/2026 17:19

TeaPot496 · 12/06/2026 17:16

A breakfast / brunch menu in various settings near me in Cornwall. All describe "baked beans". What would you expect in the following settings and I'll tell you what they serve:

  1. Garden centre
  2. Trendy independent cafe on the beach
  3. Trendy restaurant above the beach
  4. Chain pub
  5. Independent pub

Tinned in all of them except maybe number 3. Although also wouldn't expect anything on the menu of number 3 to feature beans so it's moot.

They're such an innocuous item I would be surprised by anyone bothering to make. I wouldn't put them in the same category as a pasta sauce or something that I would absolutely to be made fresh.

chocoluv · 12/06/2026 17:17

If I ordered baked beans, I would expect beans in tomato sauce like in the tin - not spicy beans.

YANBU

Calliopespa · 12/06/2026 17:16

GeorgeMichaelsCat · 12/06/2026 17:01

Are you joking?

I don't think she is joking.

It isn't such an unthinkable idea - and certainly not "pretentious" - that people might think food was being prepared from scratch. Yes, in a motorway kitchen or, for me, a bed n breakfast type set up where they don't have a full kitchen.

To me it is a sign of how low our expectations around food have fallen as a nation that this would be seen as somehow extraordinary.

TeaPot496 · 12/06/2026 17:16

Tryagain26 · 12/06/2026 16:59

In the type of cafe OP describes I would expect homemade beans in a motorway cafe or similar I would expect tinned beans

A breakfast / brunch menu in various settings near me in Cornwall. All describe "baked beans". What would you expect in the following settings and I'll tell you what they serve:

  1. Garden centre
  2. Trendy independent cafe on the beach
  3. Trendy restaurant above the beach
  4. Chain pub
  5. Independent pub
GeorgeMichaelsCat · 12/06/2026 17:01

Tryagain26 · 12/06/2026 16:59

In the type of cafe OP describes I would expect homemade beans in a motorway cafe or similar I would expect tinned beans

Are you joking?

Tryagain26 · 12/06/2026 16:59

TeaPot496 · 12/06/2026 16:56

What have I found?

A load of pretentious contrary twats arguing that they have always been served the finest gourmet bean, shat out by Ramsey himself? And they have never met a tinned baked bean in the outside world?

I think you would be surprised how much food service is just Brakes.

Anyone would assume baked beans means just that, it wouldn't enter most people's heads to ask.

In the type of cafe OP describes I would expect homemade beans in a motorway cafe or similar I would expect tinned beans

Calliopespa · 12/06/2026 16:56

DappledThings · 12/06/2026 16:55

Really? They're such an ordinary pre-made item. Do you expect cafes to make their own ketchup as well? Or bread? I wouldn't expect a cafe like OP was in to make any of that stuff.

Well I wouldn't expect supermarket factory-made bread if that's what you mean? Lots of cafes get it from a bakery.

TeaPot496 · 12/06/2026 16:56

What have I found?

A load of pretentious contrary twats arguing that they have always been served the finest gourmet bean, shat out by Ramsey himself? And they have never met a tinned baked bean in the outside world?

I think you would be surprised how much food service is just Brakes.

Anyone would assume baked beans means just that, it wouldn't enter most people's heads to ask.

DappledThings · 12/06/2026 16:55

Calliopespa · 12/06/2026 16:50

...more and more depressing ...

Really? They're such an ordinary pre-made item. Do you expect cafes to make their own ketchup as well? Or bread? I wouldn't expect a cafe like OP was in to make any of that stuff.

Calliopespa · 12/06/2026 16:54

Kokonimater · 12/06/2026 16:53

Who goes into a cafe and asks them to describe the baked beans? 🤣

Who goes into a cafe and complains that the food had been made from scratch and wasn't the tinned variety is surely the better question!😂

Kokonimater · 12/06/2026 16:53

Who goes into a cafe and asks them to describe the baked beans? 🤣

fashionqueen0123 · 12/06/2026 16:50

GetAFurqingCompass · 12/06/2026 14:47

Wtf is with all the posters marching along to say they've never known tinned baked beans to be served in a café 🤣

Absolute peak Mumsnet wankery.

Of course you'd expect something advertised as beans on toast to be bog standard beans on fucking toast. "Beans on toast" is a well known meal and everyone in the UK knows it means tinned beans on toast.

I would never have considered checking what was meant by "beans on toast".

Sounds like crap service all round.

Actually laughing out loud at this.

Good grief what cafes are they visiting!

Calliopespa · 12/06/2026 16:50

fashionqueen0123 · 12/06/2026 16:48

I don't believe it either. Every pub, restaurant or cafe I've ever been in and ordered them has had them.

...more and more depressing ...

fashionqueen0123 · 12/06/2026 16:48

JohnnyFedora · 12/06/2026 14:00

What utter fucking nonsense that you've never been anywhere that serves tinned baked beans? You must have been to a cafe or restaurant or hotel or school canteen or anywhere similar that sells tinned beans for jacket potatoes, breakfasts and beans on toast etc

Edited

I don't believe it either. Every pub, restaurant or cafe I've ever been in and ordered them has had them.

JanBlues2026 · 12/06/2026 16:47

AtomicBlondeRose · 12/06/2026 15:48

I hate people dicking about with the food on kids’ menus. Yes yes this is Mumsnet and every kids here eats everything but most children I have known want bland, predictable stuff when they eat out. Which means: no bread with random seeds in, no mustard in ham sandwiches, skin-on fries are a gamble, no pre-ketchupped burgers, no rocket on pizza, no blue cheese, no cheese with any flavour at all actually, no olives, JUST THE FOOD ON THE MENU AND NOTHING ELSE. if the adventurous children want other things they can choose from the adult menu but please just serve kids white bread and plain stuff they will actually eat while starving, distracted, overstimulated and all the rest of it. My kids would eat anything at home but when they went out they wanted a white bread ham sandwich and they wanted the ham to be flat and plain and with no breading or anything fancy.

This - in fact even things not as described on adults’ menu - mayo on sandwiches, burger sauce, unexpected dressings on salad. If there is any type of sauce or condiment on it, put it on the menu! DH always has to ask as he has an aversion to sauce and has learned the hard way everything comes with something on it nowadays.

Calliopespa · 12/06/2026 16:46

Monty36 · 12/06/2026 16:29

A community kitchen are likely to use spices and to cook beans from scratch.
They will not be aware that your child doesn’t like spices. Many children will eat spicy food.
Didn’t understand the toast situation. Or why you had to leave. And why he was screaming. He could eat his sausage he had been given ? They came out with some toast early for him?

All of this ^

fashionqueen0123 · 12/06/2026 16:46

Tryagain26 · 12/06/2026 16:31

Why assume that a restaurant/cafe would serve tinned beans and not make their own?

Because I've ordered them a zillion times and they've always been out of a tin.

toastandegg · 12/06/2026 16:46

I definitely think they should have mentioned- I have an allergy to chilli which includes paprika and would have been quite ill

wishingonastar101 · 12/06/2026 16:44

Totaldramallama · 12/06/2026 13:54

He needed toast because he was hungry and the main component of his meal was not edible for him

He had eaten the toast before the beans came - so why would he need extra toast to eat with the beans when he wasn't eating the beans!

Gardenisablooming · 12/06/2026 16:40

I feel your frustration op. Once took toddler ds for a pub lunch with adult ds. A real novelty! Ordered a veggie hotdog in a bun for ds..
What arrived was a spicy falafel in a bun.. Not a chance in hell ds was eating that. 6 quid down the drain.

OriginalUsername2 · 12/06/2026 16:37

All this arguing about beans 😅

Here’s my bean experience: I grew up in a family restaurant, worked in 3 other restaurants as an adult and have been a paying customer in restaurants. I can honestly say I’ve never seen homemade baked beans in my life.

Calliopespa · 12/06/2026 16:37

Faveway · 12/06/2026 16:33

That's not really what is being said. People are saying that if you see baked beans on a menu, unless it says otherwise, they will be standard tinned backed beans. They are not saying that 'baked beans must come from a tin'.

Well I guess I wouldn't assume that because I don't use the tinned ones except for an emergency. I don't like the taste or the vomity-pale orange red of the sauce.

So I wouldn't assume it - and that's how discussion forums work: everyone gives their perspective. And mine is I think it is a bit of a sad statement if as a country we assume baked beans are tinned. Beans are a fabulously nutritious, economical and easy to make meal, and I don't understand the need to have mediocre beans from a tin.

GeorgeMichaelsCat · 12/06/2026 16:36

Amazed so many people think most restaurants make homemade baked beans. They are bought in. Go to The Devonshire, yes they will be homemade. 99% of other places, they are bought in.

Faveway · 12/06/2026 16:33

Calliopespa · 12/06/2026 16:23

I am neither dense nor morally superior, but I do think it is a bit depressing when as a nation people seem to think baked beans must come from a tin - and yes I do make my own. Not morally superior, I just don't assume beans need to come ready made in a tin. The Heinz recipe isn't that nice to be honest versus homemade ones. I do use beans in water from a tin to make them as it is quicker, but a decent sauce is much better made from scratch and then you bake them in the oven.

I am relieved to see some others assume at a restaurant beans might be made from scratch: it is one of the easiest things in the world to make.

That's not really what is being said. People are saying that if you see baked beans on a menu, unless it says otherwise, they will be standard tinned backed beans. They are not saying that 'baked beans must come from a tin'.