Do restaurants really serve microwaved 'ready meals'?

[AtleastitsnotMonday]

As it says really. This has come up several times on threads about eating out recently. Basically people saying they are not paying restaurant price for microwaved food. Is this really true? What's the point in having chefs if it's a case of sticking things in a microwave? Surely they wouldn't get away with it. It's often mentioned in discussion about pasta dishes in Italian chain restaurants, surely buying in ready made meals would cost them a whole lot more that cooking a bit of pasta and sauce anyway.

They do indeed.

maybe not the fancy pants triple cooked kind...I don't know, but have definitely known of places microwaving chips.

I feel like I missed a boat here...when I had a very busy social life, I was constantly looking for excuses not to eat out as part of the night - I always wanted to save the money and would happily have people at mine, or just go for drinks only.

Now it's becoming more common to microwave food, I would have much more chance of talking people out of it! 😂

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll surely pasta can come in many ways!

I don't make pasta with clams at home therefore that's something I would choose when out. Pasta in tomato sauce however can do one!!

Spaghetti vongole is so easy. We always have a jar of clans for when we need tp do something really quick.

I was very disappointed when DH and I were visiting Venice. I ordered a Lasagne in a restaurant and it was very obviously a microwave meal and a pretty poor one at that!

I am old enough to remember when a fruit salad always came from a tin. As kids in the 60s we used to holiday in hotels in either Bridlington or Paignton. Small, family run places. Fruit Juice was squash or Britvic, in tiny glasses, and fruit salad, or peaches or pears were tinned. Didn't really know any different so we were quite happy. Don't know what our parents thought though.

Yes! To have the singular cherry from the tin of Fruit Salad ( which was always mainly gritty pear) bestowed upon you was a great honour in our house in the 1970s.

That Fawlty Towers scene is absolute gold.

I think a lot of people who are low carb order pasta as a treat. My best friend won't have pasta in her home!

I know Rick stein does this...shocking really, people get suckered into the TV program, pay a premium for what they think is good food. A fool and their money are soon parted as me gran said. No microwave in her day tho.

Having the kitchen refitted
Fridge/freezer/cooker broken
Getting something quick between work and going out.
Can’t be arsed to cook.
Meeting friends
Already in town.
Power cut.
Water is out.

I can’t believe you couldn’t think of a single reason.

I don't think that's the technical term of course but that's what I called it, I was horrified! Mash is so easy to make anyway.

Yes. Frankie & Bennys is one of the worst.

So I guess when we see chefs cooking in a Chinese or in the windows of a pub they are just "stunt chefs". Actors paid to create some stream and vigourously shake pans?

Agree with transparency for customers. We should know if we are paying for a microwave ready meal or freshly prepared and cooked food.

I would expect a ready meal in a coffee shop, but not a restaurant. I don’t expect Jamie Oliver to be cooking fresh pasta dishes in Costa, but it’s deceptive to be working out of a proper restaurant kitchen and heating up frozen food in a microwave.

I can happily skip the ‘ambience’ and often frustratingly poor customer service. How am I paying for convenience when there is no actual preparation or cooking involved? It’s more convenient to heat up a ready meal at home at a fraction of the cost.

I could.

i’ve been in hospitality for years now and it really does depend where you go! for the most part things are ordered in frozen and pre portioned, and they’re heated typically in a big oven/steamer or on a grill, occasionally you’ll get things that are done in a microwave but it’s not usually the bulk of a meal - something like a side of beans or a quick portion of gravy! i have heard from coworkers that places like wetherspoons microwave pretty much everything which i’d expect for the prices you pay - but i couldn’t say for sure as I’ve never worked there!

You are deluding yourself if you think most Chinese restaurants in the UK cook everything from scratch.

An expensive dim sum place might (Ie not a branch of Ping Pong), but your average restaurant or takeaway will be steaming frozen mass-produced dumplings, and stir frying frozen pre-prepared vegetables with pre-cooked meat, sauce from a vat and dried noodles.

They aren’t stunt chefs, and they are really stir frying, but they aren’t cooking from scratch, no.

We went to a place in Prince Edward Island where they clearly hadn’t got the memo and the owners mum was making everything from scratch, to order. We watched her chop every vegetable by hand, very very slowly, then warm the wok up, mix up a sauce, measuring everything out carefully, make the rice… we were the only customers, and we waited over an hour for our food. And it wasn’t great food, honestly.

No successful restaurant is doing that.

@dontgobaconmyheart
. wow what an insightful post.

Costs co rostitere chicken??

Would Waitrose do this do you think? I'e use nearly rotting chicken for it?

Did they have lots of additives? I can see that a frozen omelette would be handy so wondering if I should try freezing my home cooked omelette!

@Icantakemyselfdancing I think they are stunt chefs

Frankie & Bennys are fucking awful for it. It was the only place we could go to last year in a shopping centre and our order arrived with 3 mins of choosing 🤣 they didn’t even TRY to hide it

Well this thread has seriously depressed me. It must be funny working eg @ The Ivy and seeing people all dressed up , and you are bringing out a microwaved meal. The service is great. That’s what we are paying for really.

Well, my 2023 resolution is stay in , cook at home, and if I want a treat night I’m off to good old M&S for a micro wavé dinner.

I’ve worked in a few restaurants - admittedly a good few years back now - and it was only the chain restaurants like Bella Pasta and Pizzaland (neither of which exist any more) that microwaved the food. In my experience, ‘proper’ restaurants don’t - the reliance on the deep fat fryer is something else though!

I go to a restaurant called Japanika. Asian food. It's very good and you can see the chefs cooking. I do know that if my food isn't hot enough they'll reheat it in the microwave. Actually there's another one virtually opposite called Cafe Zelik and you can see the kitchen too. I'm very unhappy to think my food is just microwaved.

I think if a non-chain sit-in restaurant has more than 6 or 7 mains then they are probably microwaving some. There was a place in Brunstfield (Parrots) in Edinburgh that had a huge menu but everything came in a the same little casserole dish. Ding!