Anyone else sick of mediocre food when eating out?

[Fantasisa]

We had a family meal out on Friday in our local pub - nothing was terrible but no meal was great either just reheated stuff mostly.

We do have a few decent places that we frequent but I find bills for a family are £££ and still nothing beats home cooked food.

Anyone else find eating out a bit meh? DH says I need to lower my expectations.

I now only order from a small selection of stuff as I know I can make it better at home or spend £18 for a chewy steak. At least with a chain and with a voucher I know what I’m going to get

I have found a decent meal for two without alcohol is in the region of £80 these days.

Yes I really resent paying for food that I could make better myself. I'm not an amazing chef, it shouldn't be that difficult.

Some of the best food I've had recently has been street food or pop ups. Tend to be folks with a real passion for their craft selling three or four dishes that they do well. Much better than a chain with 80 options all done badly.

It's awful isn't it.

The carvery near us is actually good, because they have a good chef and everything is genuinely very nice. But there's so many places that take the piss. It's seven fucking quid for an eat in sandwich in most places round here. Seven fucking quid. That's two bits of bread and a filling. I want move to Spain where they give you free food with your drink and where even bus station cafes have things like garlic prawns and tortilla instead of pissing ginsters.

@DavidBowiesBulge, you are right I have forgotten about street food. We are lucky to have a brilliant daytime market near us that has loads of amazing food like you mention. But it isn't there at night when I most want to eat out to save time/hassle.

We were very tempted to have our Christmas meal out last year but I couldn't face my own disappointment if the meal was a letdown, it was safer (and far cheaper) to eat at home.

Pop ups only go so far though. There's a limit to how much of your leisure time you want to spend sat on a bench next a patio heater. Ok they're cheaper but they fucking should be.

I can't believe how so many people are prepared to £££ for substandard food!!!!
I'm a good cook and come from a family of cooks, my brother is an experienced chef. I am really fussy about where I eat out if I'm paying,
I do eat out quite a lot as I mystery dine (secret shop) restaurants, hotels and pub chains. I've been doing it for about 4 years and have had some terrible experiences!!!
There are only a few of the places that I visit that I would be happy to spend my own money. Most of the food in the chains is overpriced and poor quality.

I'm in central London and I have so many places (good and bad) on my doorstep. Obviously I try to stick to the "good"

The perfect roast has always alluded me though and I've tried every poncy gastropub within a 5 mile radius

• I love a gastropub by the way but live in a borough overrun with them!!

We’ve stopped eating out in those sort of places, especially Prezzo - we had a few awful meals in there. The kids pasta was so over cooked with plain pasata dumped on it. At the time then 5 year old asked why it tasted of nothing. Mine was swimming in water (sent it back once but I’m sure they drained and redressed as it was cold and a frightful state) and I’ve had better sauces from a jar.

We’ll still eat out at Wagamama as the kids love it and it’s inexpensive, or me and DH will go the other way and eat somewhere really nice, generally independent (and often expensive but reliably good).

When friends invite us to chain places we make our excuses or offer to cook.

London is different. It's quite easy to eat out well in London if you stay on top of things. Trust me, out here in the provinces it is dire. More so if you're in a tourist place because they know they don't have to make an effort to keep the money rolling in.

Well this thread has made me feel very lucky. I have some lovely independent restaurants nearby, some at reasonable prices. Not fine dining but really good food. We have a large number of restaurants in our town so there is a lot of competition, maybe that’s helped. Will appreciate it more.

"Well I'm a real foodie. I'm disappointed with the restaurant culture in the UK these days..... Terrible sullen service, rip off, and meagre portions of microwave crap. It feels like such a con."

You are eating at the wrong places. I am a foodie and just don't eat out in places that sell microwave meals. I would never go out for a carvery either as I much prefer my own roasts.

Some chains are good at what they do - Wagamamas and Yo Sushi spring to mind, and I don't mind the odd Dominos pizza from time to time.

When we eat out we tend to choose places that sell dishes that I can't make at home or find it difficult to buy ingredients for. One of our favourite places is a brilliant family run Thai restaurant, that also does excellent vegetarian food. We are lucky that we have a couple of local pubs that do excellent meals as well.

Yes..... I totally agree.

My Dsis and I try to take my DM and partially sighted DGM out for lunch every couple of weeks it is really hard.

All we want is decent well cooked food, in clean pleasant surroundings, friendly service & not crowded tables (so we can have a high chair & DGM can get round) We are happy to pay a bit more for something nice.

Food is either just not nice or badly prepared, tables sticky & dirty, surly/rude staff, drinks orders taking forever or wrong. We have 2 places we go to on rotation now.

We sometimes wonder what people eat at home when you read the raving 5* TripAdvisor reviews about places.

I'm sort of semi surprised. As said, our local pub is fantastic, we live in the sticks, but it's run by a well known chef, I couldn't cook a steak as they do. They do lamb etc on a Sunday and it's fabulous. And it's clearly not reheated ready meals.

And all of our local restaurants be they Indian, Italian, Thai etc are really nice and none are close to reheated shit. We don't eat in chains though.

However I do have a friend who over rates her own ability in the kitchen and whinges like a stuck pig going out for dinner with her, she can always do better, when no one has ever witnessed her actually doing so.

But we all agree with her because you can't really say it can you. And we compliment her cooking as it's so important to her, and because well you do when someone cooks for you. So we are partially to blame for her behaviour. Which is always "I can do better, this is just reheated muck" when it's clearly no such thing and she's never churned out a meal of that standard in her puff.🤷‍♀️

I know it sounds daft but do some research on trip advisor, check out a few places and when you find a few you like stick with them!

Totally agree, tend to avoid the pub type, Italian type chains , except for a quick two meals for under a tenner for a quick fix on the way home. Went to a great carvery in local pub in Yorkshire, £4.99 and lovely food, wholesome with real gravy. As some posters have said, when you go to France, Spain, Portugal etc there are so many places totally different to the pub chain experience who do marvellous fresh food without a microwave in sight, and cheap too. Some of the best street food I have had was in Bristol in the undercover market, can't remember it's name (St Nicholas?), divine fresh falafels with fresh varieties of salad, very good and cheap

Round me the lower end of “mid-priced” is not worth the money but the higher end of mid-price is very good. I’ve never regretted choosing the more pricey option.

Well I had a lovely lunch today in an independent pub in Kent. Home made to boot. Great portion size too. Simple vegetables - carrots, broccoli and green cabbage - in a China serving dish. Fabulous sticky toffee pudding too.

I'm going right against the grain here.
It might be because I'm in a big City so have a massive range of choice, from Michelin starred rated restaurants to takeaway kebab shops. I think it is great that there are places to suit every purse.
My dc (students and at school) can afford to go out and have a meal with their budgets. Families can afford to go out and take all the dc. People can eat out 'just because', because the food is so cheap. If you are only paying £6 - 8 for a meal, then you aren't going to get the same quality of ingredients and time spent on preparing it as if you are paying £35 per head.
I'm glad we are not still in the days of my youth, when 'going out for a meal' was a once every 18months thing. I'm glad we can sometimes go out just because we cba to cook, without it breaking the budget.

I have the option of going for a 'higher quality meal' then, on the occasions I can justify spending the higher amount of money. But I'm glad there is the choice for people without the budget.

We’re eating out much less than we did, but buying more expensive ingredients for home cooking instead.

Oh and the family that ran it - mum and daughters serving, son behind the bar and dad helping chef in kitchen - were lovely and the place was clean and tidy. More old world pub mind - think low beams, open fireplace - not a fancy modern bar. Depends what you like.

I have found my people!!!!!

Yes. Agree absolutely.
I've almost got to the stage where I count myself lucky if it's as good as mediocre!

In the hospital near where i work, theres a cafe that do lunches. Gone there many times and neverr had a bad meal. The portions are generous, resonable price and locally sourced ingrediants.

Its always packed and even the pensioners go there because its so good.

Not many places around here that are like that.

I’m with you, OP! I resent eating out and thinking I could have easily done that myself, and better.
We now mostly go out for the company or for food we wouldn’t or couldn’t do at home.