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?

Took 3 adults 3 children to local cafe. 3 baked beans on toast from children menu, 1 adult BB on toast 1 ham sandwich, 1 tuna sandwich. 4 waters, one tea, 1 coke, 3 single scoop ice-cream £79. I was stunned

I've never understood buying beans on toast in a cafe. At least have an egg that takes a bit of cooking or some meat or other expensive ingredient to justify the cost. What's the point of "treating yourself" to something you can produce cheaply, easily and in less than 5mins at home? In a restaurant, the ingredients are a very small part of the cost.

Did they not put the prices on the menu? For that lot to come to £79, the mains would have been about £10 each, assume the water is free tap water, leaves about £4 each for the drinks and ice creams - anyone seeing those prices for that sort of food on the menu would have known that it was expensive and if you didn't want to pay £10 ph for beans on toast (who would unless you were starving and it was the only option around) then you'd go somewhere else or wait until you got home?

Buy a can opener and a clue.

So we're back to this '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'

If it's come to the place where a cafe has to charge an average of £10 ph for very basic food like beans on toast to pay the bills, then it does not have a viable business, because there simply isn't enough people willing or able to pay it.

@BarbaraofSeville restaurant friend says the tax bill due at the end of January plus VAT will see many businesses close, they've held out for the Christmas business. Dalton's weekly is showing premises for lease rather than going concerns now.

I that didn't take long!

I agree that there are a lot of mediocre places that should close.
Portions have got smaller. Even weatherspoons breakfasts have reduced portion size.

You still can't get a table, at the weekends, without booking well in advance here.

Went to a local pub for my birthday a week ago and portions were so generous. Couldn't finish. Even my glutinous dad didn't touch his chips as the main part was so generous. I over tipped as it was so good.

But elsewhere, takeaway and chains are deffo seeing shrinkflation.

... and what about Wagon Wheels?

This is how I remember them!

Hmm, maybe my mouth has got bigger? 🤔

I find eating out quite disappointing really. Yes, in some places portion sizes were too large but seven forkfuls of pasta is clearly too small.

Most places have taken the more interesting dishes off the menu and don't offer as much choice as previously. When I eat out I want something better and different to food I would have at home.

Hotels annoy me as well. Nine times out of ten the coffee served at breakfast is appalling and they can't even cook tomatoes properly. If you are paying money for something you want it to be better than home.

😅😅😅😅😅😅
Well said

Agree.

Friend has an Airbnb in a popular area. Said the kitchen used to be lightly used the rubbish minimal. Now the kitchen is being hammered. The amount of kitchen rubbish increased substantially. Holiday makers have really cut back on eating out

I find that restaurant portion sizes are stupidly unpredictable

Exactly. Even when they have calories on the menu, if I order something which claims to be 500 calories and you get a couple of lettuce leaves and the tiniest sliver of fish then I know I've been short changed.

Portion sizes were far too big. People are obese. Everything costs more now, including stock the restaurants need to buy, especially fresh produce. A combination of all three.

I don't mind so much the smaller portion sizes as recognise the COL. What I do mind is the lack of presentation on the plate, surly manner of waiting staff, unclean surroundings, extended waiting times etc (put down to lack of staff which is probably true!), lower quality food, Which is what seems to be happening around my way.

We went out before Christmas for Sunday Lunch at a gastro pub/restauranty place which we frequent normally 3-4 times a year. It was £90 for 3 mains + 3 drinks. In summer it had been £60. It wasn't so much the increase it was the fact that the portion sizes were much (much!) smaller, the quality of the food was poor (I wouldn't have minded paying £20+ for the main if it had been from the usual rarebreeds/local farmer as in the past but it had obviously come from the food wholesaler), the food wasn't presented nicely on the plate, the veg was just heaped up in a serving bowl rather than separately and we sat at a table with a wobbly leg. The whole experience was just a bit rubbish/ okay.

When I go out I want to look at and eat something that I don't bother with at home. And I definitely eat with my eyes first so I like the springs of Rosemary and edible flowers and the jus poured artistically onto the plate.

If I can produce fancier/tastier/nicer looking food in my own kitchen then the only benefit of going out to eat is not doing the washing up. What we ate for £90 I could have done for below £20 at home. I begrudged paying the £90 - it just didn't feel like I was getting £90 of product (as a package - the food, the ambience, the staff, the surroundings etc etc).

I go out with a friend every few weeks to a local farm shop/cafe. Their prices have gone up but the rest of the package remains as it was so I don't feel taken advantage of /ripped off with an inferior offering.

Went to a nice restaurant for a birthday meal - £150 for 2, for 2 courses, 2 glasses of wine, 2 cocktails and 2 coffees. I've been to this restaurant loads of times and they always used to bring bread to the table, and chocolate with coffee, but not anymore.

People aren't going to spend £10 on two coffees or £18 on a salad or £8 on a non alcoholic cocktail for very long - it will end up that only very wealthy people can eat out and everyone else will stay home.
I had a nice meal but I keep thinking of what I could have spent £150 on that would have been better value!

For example - and not picking on Nando’s particularly, someone on here mentioned it (and it’s possibly one of the healthier ones 😳) fairly typical chicken, 2 sides one of which is fries, you’re looking at around 1000 calories for one meal?! This is not normal or necessary for one person. Portion sizes are not even the biggest around either!

It's the cost of living. Restaurants want to minimise the price rise, so cut back elsewhere (amounts or types of ingredient, or length of time to cook)

If you want same as before, there will be places selling it, but the price will have gone up more than the others who are spreading the increase.

Portion size on a night out isn't going to be an important cause of obesity - unless you eat out al the time. Or unless you normalise those sizes and overeat daily.

The example you have chosen is less than 1000 calories. It clearly says the chips are for 2 people.

I guess think are going to return to how it was when I was a child, ordinary folk (WC/MC) just ate out on special occasions.
My family was very MC growing up, we had a takeaway once a year, and ate out a few times a year at a restaurant.

I'm so used to eating out very regularly now, but my wages haven't increased with the cafe/restaurant prices, so I can afford it, but it looks crazy expensive and not good value because (I'm not over weight) when I eat out I expect it to feel slightly decedent and not feel I'm eating mean portions of average food.

Agree with the posters saying they had gotten too big. I rarely finish a meal in a restaurant. (@MissTrip82 has hard as that is to believe).

Our local has cut back on sides. It used to be a bowl of chips, a bowl of veg, and a bowl of garlic potatoes per person. Absolutely ridiculous amount of food. Now 1 between 2 which is still more than enough!

I think take aways have gotten extremely expensive, but the flip side for them is its hard to reduce portion size as they are served in the containers!

The actual calories of that nandos meal is about 780 calories. Perfectly fine for a main meal out.