Portion sizes in restaurants getting small!!!

[SantaOnFanta]

Am I just getting greedy lol or are portion sizes in restaurants really going down??

A pasta dinner no more than 7 mouthfuls.

A roast pork dinner which consisted of six small strips built up like a Jenga and one plate of veg to share with husband with his meal. £17.

Two burgers and one side of chips and drinks £53!

Anyone else noticing this?

Went to Prezzo yesterday (on Tesco clubcard deal😀) - sadly prices have gone up as in all the pizza chains, but I'll give it to them, their pizza was massive (and certainly larger than I remember). I commented to DH that everyone had paid the extra £3 for a larger pizza and no wonder we as a nation struggle with our weight, to find we had exactly the same size. We brought back quarter of one and half of the other, and having it for lunch between three of us.

Portion sizes were way too big anyway and I think you just got used to that @SantaOnFanta

Good.

OP your post seems a bit 'exaggerated for comic effect'.

I've not noticed any difference in the amount of food served but if portion sizes were reduced it would be understandable and a sensible move to reduce waste and losses.

Sadly I think any sort of eating out business is really going to struggle to stay profitable going forward due to huge increases in costs at the same time that people are seeing pressures on their disposable income and are likely to eat out less due to it being unaffordable or at the very least, poor value for money.

I haven't noticed them being smaller, I do think everything is very expensive now though.

Surprised at the Wetherspoons pizza. DS used to work there and the food prep instructions are very clear about how much topping should go on each pizza.

I have noticed portions smaller but actually I think it's a good thing, the meals I've had lately are enough to fill me and make me happy but I'm not left bursting and needing a sleep like I have been previously.

I've adjusted my mindset to think that I don't need/want that bursting at the seams feeling. Although some of the portion sizes here do sound tiny

I suspect some of the posters on this thread are in danger of being a parent whose kids pick up a takeaway on the way home from dinner at their houses. 🤣

I find that restaurant portion sizes are stupidly unpredictable. Could be enormous, could be teeny tiny. You don’t know in advance. It’s a bit annoying.

I know prices aren't the same in all Wetherspoons, but that deal hasn't been £10 here since before lockdown

Went out for lunch yesterday and was presented with a laughably small plate of food,it was like a child's meal.

Yes , me and DH went out for lunch on NYD
Shared a loaded Nachos starter - it was huge.
I then ordered a chicken , pulled pork melt with chips again a massive portion. Probably couldn't eat half. I'm not a compatible under eater at all.
I like food but I think for year's restaurants have been bulking out meals with cheaper ingredients to increase portion size.
I would rather smaller portions/ better quality.
My local restaurants menus mainly comprise of 'loaded' burgers, 'dirty fries' it's all slop.

Find a good local carvery pub then you can have as much or as little as you like, although I can't say I've had the same experience of small servings when eating out recently. Last meal out was at Bistrot Pierre between Christmas and New year - £18.95 fixed price for 2 courses (including a wine or beer) and there was so much food I asked for a doggy bag.

@icanwearwhatiwant , I think the poster saying 'how extraordinary' was just being sarcastic for the sake of it .

No, the problem is you can now spend £30 on a two course meal and still be very hunygry afterwards.

I prefer places that have been honest about inflation and simply put their prices up, to those who have kept prices the same but halved the portion size in some bizarre game of “Let’s see if the customer dares to complain.”

I've not noticed, but is this always a bad thing?

Ouch!
Christmas Day had Indian meal with my dad
Poppadoms, 2 starters, 2 curries (one was king prawn), 2 naan, 1 rice, 5 drinks, a coffee and a dessert - £65. It was delicious too and decent portions

Portions were huge and you would go into a lot of places and the main alone would come in at least 1600 calories, often more. It's disgusting. Even for large adult men, who are unlikely to eat nothing else all day.

Of course prices have gone up and/or portion sizes gone down. You think restaurants are immune to inflation? Not to mention they aren't protected by the energy cap.

One local restaurant has stopped breakfast and closes an additional day of the week cos it cost them more to open. I know another (who has pissed off locals for years) is now begging for support. I couldn't give a shit if he goes under due to his attitude problem - he deserves it. However another has been getting rave reviews and is doing really well because the quality and service is amazing.

I think there's an awful lot of mediocre places which have survived because they were mediocre but cheap in relative terms. Staff were treated like shit and taken for granted. Now staff are in short supply, the good ones can go work in decent places and people will still want to go there.

I do think we have an excess of places to eat out. We eat out more in the UK than many other EU countries.

It says a lot that people don't want to pay the cost of restaurants being run and the cost of staff and ingredients.

It was inevitable tbh. Many took out loans to survive COVID, energy has gone up, Brexit has increased prices especially on luxury food items not produced in the UK and the cost of food generally has gone up due to the issues with Ukraine.

I am relieved that portion sizes are beginning to normalise and it's good to see that hospitality staff might get treated better for the hours they work.

I hope the good places survive but I'm meh about the multitude of mediocre places who often just stick something in a microwave and that's it. The chains are the worst for this.

Oh and tapas always cost the bloody earth no matter when or where I've been.

Do people in the UK really ask for a doggie bag rather than just asking the server to wrap the surplus?

Yes my local restaurants have little cardboard boxes that they will bring out to you so you can take your leftovers home.

So does almost everywhere in the US, I am just laughing at the doggie bag name.

Restaurant chains have been getting poorer quality for years. I've never understood why people will pay almost £20 for a main course from somewhere like frankie and bennys for food that's brought in mass produced and just microwaved. You can get much better quality food for that price or less at a proper restaurant with a chef that actually cooks things from scratch.
I think a lot of mid range chains will struggle and go under in the next year.

I hope the good places survive but I'm meh about the multitude of mediocre places who often just stick something in a microwave and that's it. The chains are the worst for this

YY to this. I don't mind paying restaurant prices for good fresh food, especially anything that's fiddly to make or requires specialist ingredients, but no way am I paying for what is effectively a ready meal, that I could get for a quarter of the cost to eat at home.

Lol I guess it is funny although I do tend to give the content to my dog on occasion especially if it's meat

My GPs were asking for a doggie bag in the 1970s. It didn't usually involve a special bag like it does in the States, but it was an universally understood way of asking to take your leftovers home "for the dog" rather than saying I'm too tight to see that thrown away.