What would you expect a "bottomless brunch" to be?

[ImFree2doasiwant]

Girly weekend away, bottomless brunch suggested, at around £20 per head. All agreed. Ended up being £12 more.

What would you expect from it?

The food and potentially bottomless tea and coffee. You've lived a sheltered life if you're thinking unlimited tea and coffee. It's all about the alcohol, that's the point!

Where are you? Not much for that price. That's Uber cheap. A thread was asking about bottomless brunches in London, last week. She was looking at a Deal at the posh Roka, £50 instead of £75.

Oh on the contrary, I find Prosecco is a good choice for daytime drinking!

For that price I'd expect 2 courses and unlimited prosecco or cocktails. The ones I've attended are usually limited to a set time I.e. unlimited prosecco for 90 mins, so not truly bottomless but that's probably for the best!

I've had bottomless brunches which are lunchtime/late morning and ones which are afternoons.

You get a brunch/lunch option, a pudding and as many drinks as you like during your 90 mins or whatever. I personally found I wasn't rushed and it depends on which venue you go to and if in city etc for value for money.

I've gone to a local restaurant and had great cocktails as well as everything else and it was really good value and would return. Gone to more chain type places where cocktails etc weren't quite as good. Yes, you get drunk quickly, yes it's fun. It's a really good catch up/celebrate with friends option and you don't have to do a meal to make it a celebration which is probably why restaurants like it. Earlier on this year I took a birthday cake for a friend with candle firework and they brought it out for us and gave birthday girl extra free pudding which she was chuffed about and they also included an extra free cocktail for each of us which was kind on top of the bottomless time! So obviously we returned!

@Poppins88 - yeah most of them are timed for e.g. 90 mins, some have restrictions on what you can drink - last weekend I went to a place which was either rum punch or prosecco. And also, it's good if you keep an eye on the time to ensure you have the alcohol you're entitled to, which I've done. I've noticed wait staff sometimes have to be reminded like last weekend to fill up my glass and others with Prosecco!

OP - £20 is very cheap - what was the £12 extra for?

I recall one many years ago that started at Sunday lunchtime and was still going strong on Tuesday evening!
Fabulous!!

The one in our village was amazing value when it started but a couple of groups really took advantage and ruined it for all of us! It's still pretty decent though so can't complain .

Not sure if anyone has already mentioned this but bottomless brunch in Scotland has a set number of alcoholic drinks you can have due to alcohol licensing laws. So bottomless brunch would be a plate of food and four drinks for example

One plate of food and unlimited cheap prosecco. The sort that strips the enamel from your teeth.

Only served by questionable establishments.

Was the £12 extra a massive service charge? We went for a large family meal recently at a chain restaurant and the CF'ers tried to add 22% to the whole bill as we were a large group!

I know, I didn’t suggest that…

I meant in my experience in London, that’s what it means. But it’s very possible that elsewhere in the UK it means something else…

I agree with Louis. Come on ladies, all this twee .... oh I might stretch to 2 coffees if it's allowed.....if you don't drink, of course I get it. If you are a thimble of sherry at Christmas, this might not be your cup of tea vodka.

But bottomless brunches in London are big big business. A little on the expensive side. But you get a few dishes to eat and endless Prosecco for example. Clearly this is all the rage for motherland middle class mums.

Before I understood what bottomless referred to - I thought food as well as drink.

Some venues have a separate bottomless brunch menu which saves time and confusion.

I can't see it going out of fashion anytime soon though tends to be geared more towards women than men in my experience.

My local one is £20 for a 'virgin' so no alcohol unlimited juice / tea / coffee and a starter / main and sweet treat (all much smaller than the regular menu).

£35 to include unlimited prosecco / bellinis / mimosa

£45 to include as above but porn star martinis and aperol spritz.

Two hours. They're not particularly quick to come and refill and the mimosas are very heavy on the juice

@GonnaGetGoingReturns Oh I got caught out with that on the last one I went to, it was a Ping Pong brunch. They don't let you refill your cocktail pitchers (only specific cocktails) until all of them have been drunk! Definitely should have read the small print on that one!

Not very much for that price.

Expecting 'unlimited prosecco' plus food for £20 or even £32 is into CF territory.

I've mainly seen a menu with choice of breakfast dishes like smashed avocado on toast, eggs benedict, eggs royal, smoked salmon and scrambled egg, a full cooked breakfast, choose one. You'd expect unlimited tea or coffee or juice. Possibly unlimited prosecco but that's usually the £60 mark.

Go on what did you get?

I think they might even do them in Manchester
They even do them in my tiny little village in the Pennines - very handy for walking home!
We also get proper cocktails not just cheap prosecco.

DD and her mates go a lot at Uni-usually a birthday outing.

Think they order brunch food from a menu and it is unlimited cocktails but they may pay a premium for them?
Not sure of cost.
And "brunch" the last time she went was booked for 4:30...

Expecting 'unlimited prosecco' plus food for £20 or even £32 is into CF territory.
The one near me is £35 and it's unlimited beer, spirits, prosecco and cocktails for two hours. I think it does depend on location.

They must make a fortune. I bet they get the prosecco dirt cheap and how much can you realistically drink in a couple of hours...even if you had a whole bottle, they will still be making a huge profit. It's like afternoon tea... apparently it became all the rage because its basically very cheap to produce so you make a big profit

To be fair to the OP, I found the following about the Bottomless Brunch at a chain pub in my city:

www.emberinns.co.uk/nationalsearch/northeast/thestonetroughrawdon/bottomlessbrunch#/

'On Saturdays and Sundays from 10am-2pm, let us spoil you with a gorgeous main meal from our brunch menu and bottomless house prosecco for only £20 per person' above a brunch menu for the food options with prices per dish.

Within the T&Cs 'You may order one Brunch dish and choose from a 125ml glass of Prosecco, Aperol Spritz, Pints of Peroni, Sex on the beach cocktail or from our range of fruit juices. 3. Your drink will be replaced once it has been finished. 4. Price is per person and drinks cannot be shared'

From that, I am really not sure if you pay for the food on top of the £20 or if your 'one brunch dish' is included in that price.

@Poppins88 - ah - see that's a rookie error to make - not checking!

I'm quite lucky - my part of suburban SE London/borders Kent has a few venues locally so if I'm off to one I scour the menus for what's included.

Which reminds me - our local 'posh' restaurant has a bottomless brunch but it's 10-12 only and on a Saturday, for me - if they expect me to finish brunch by 12 that's too late, also not really a morning weekend person. I deliberately didn't book to go there last weekend and went to another venue.

I agree: Prosecco/fizz generally is actually FOR drinking in the daytime (or all day!)
I don't drink any more but I always preferred drinking at brunch/lunch; then you have loads of time to drink lots of water and get it out of your system before bed. Getting drunk and then going to bed on it is madness IMO.

This