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Original poster

Do restaurants really serve microwaved 'ready meals'?

426 replies

AtleastitsnotMonday · 18/01/2023 18:31

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.

OP posts:
BarrelOfOtters · 20/01/2023 06:42

Frozen omelet x 36

2023bebetter · 20/01/2023 06:49

@Changechangychange you made quite a jump from my post there.

BarrelOfOtters · 20/01/2023 07:02

Went out for tea last night in a local pub, and had a proper home cooked steak pie and quite a long cha5 with the waitress about it and bought in food. The chips were made from potatoes peeled on site.

it was lovely. But I do also enjoy a CTM from the other pub that I’m sure has been mass produced off site….

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LadyOfTheCanyon · 20/01/2023 07:17

BarrelOfOtters · 20/01/2023 07:02

Went out for tea last night in a local pub, and had a proper home cooked steak pie and quite a long cha5 with the waitress about it and bought in food. The chips were made from potatoes peeled on site.

it was lovely. But I do also enjoy a CTM from the other pub that I’m sure has been mass produced off site….

See, that seems mad to me. Of all the labour saving things you can do, I would have thought buying your chips in ready to go straight in the fryer would have been a no brainer rather than paying someone to peel and chip them. Apart from goose fat fried triple cooked heart stoppers, I assumed this was standard across the industry!

BarbaraofSeville · 20/01/2023 07:31

BarrelOfOtters · 20/01/2023 06:42

65% egg. Yum.

I fail to see the advantage of frozen ready made omelettes. The time saved compared with cooking one from fresh must be miniscule, especially in a kitchen where the hot pan is there ready to go (and no, it doesn't need washing, ever).

And at £16 + VAT for 36 tiny (one egg?) omelettes, it's probably about double the cost of the same amount of fresh eggs.

rookiemere · 20/01/2023 07:43

Foinaven · 20/01/2023 00:58

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!

I totally remember Parrots - I used to love it Blush.

For amazing homemade dumplings try Streets of Beijing near Lothian road - they're actually made in front of you.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 20/01/2023 07:45

Hundreds of posts ago, someone said that they had worked in a place where the kitchen had lots of microwaves, a deep fat frier, a hot plate for fried eggs, a grill for steak and burgers, and that was it. No hob, no pots and pans. So making an omelette from scratch was out of the question. They've obviously made the business decision that installing a hob is unnecessary because they can employ cheap low-skilled staff who spend most of their time moving between freezer and microwave, with the odd foray to the hot plate or grill. In those conditions, you couldn't poach your own eggs or make your own omelettes.

It's not how I would choose to cook, but it appears it's how the mass catering industry has found it has to work to be able to turn a profit out of super cheap food.

SweetSakura · 20/01/2023 08:04

I have no issue with food being produced this way, but I do think there should be transparency about it.

I do have an issue with places that are charging a fair bit for ready meals and masquerading as real restaurants. Its clear from here that lots of people are taken in by the smoke and mirrors

Doodleboodle · 20/01/2023 08:13

About pub cocktails, my daughter works in a pub and has been instructed to go through a big show with shaking a cocktail shaker, pretending to make up a (££) cocktail, where in reality she tips a ready made drink into the shaker (surreptitiously under the bar). She said she finds it really embarrassing!

BarbaraofSeville · 20/01/2023 08:17

Cocktails are the biggest con going. I was charged over £10 for what was effectively a single gin, half a small bottle of tonic and a tablespoon of prosecco, all poured over so much ice that I couldn't actually get any of it out of the glass to drink it. Never again.

Squeakyegg22 · 20/01/2023 08:26

A lot of places will buy things in because of time/cost but if it tastes the same, why does it matter on what premises it was cooked? Unless you are eating at a high end restaurant where you'd expect culinary skilled food, I don't think it matters. Obviously when restaurants buy low quality food in, the price should reflect that so you should know what you're getting really.

In regards to things like poached eggs, they are never freshly made no matter where you go! Either they are bought it predone to be warmed through, or are batched cooked before opening on site then warmed through during service when needed. Both results in the same thing! Do you think a chef could stand there and make hundreds of poached eggs on demand when cooking for 20 + people? It would never work

LadyOfTheCanyon · 20/01/2023 09:10

I'm not even particularly bothered about transparency if I'm honest. The decision to eat in a particular place ( whether it calls itself a cafe/restaurant or whatever) is based on whether you consider the overall experience to be worth it ( taste, value, ambience etc).

M&S T shirts cost a lot more than Primark ones but they are also made in Indonesian sweatshops, but because M&S wang on about organic cotton and the like, the misdirection means the sweatshop element is overlooked.

I can't see a huge amount of ethical difference.

BarrelOfOtters · 20/01/2023 09:27

Surely everyone knows about pre made cocktails? Used to get them in cheap student places when I was a student back when there was dinosaurs. I wouldn't expect anything else unless I was in a 'classy' joint where you see it all being measured out and spend £££s.

So why pubs go through the charade of putting a pre mix in a cocktail shaker...??

Of course stuff, even in 'posh' restaurants is made up prior to service and then finished off. Veg is prepped the day before a lot of the time. Poached eggs made up in batches and then heated up again.

Go to most bit posh brunch places and the pancakes will be pre made.

PenelopeTitsDrop3121 · 20/01/2023 09:30

One high end restaurant in Teddington (not there anymore) used to serve smash potatoes 🤢

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 20/01/2023 10:07

I think the worst thing is the pretence that they are freshly preparing and cooking the meals, when they clearly aren't. If they didn't try to hide or obscure the fact, I wouldn't have an issue with it - then people could pay their money and take their choice.

Going through the charade of trying to fool people that the food is freshly prepared and cooked is all just a bit too Peckham Spring for me. Even describing them as 'chefs' is deliberately misleading, imo; I would never claim to have any kind of actual chef skills, but I can press buttons on a microwave and boil up a saucepan of water to pop a plastic bag of something in it.

By the by, but do they specially make these industrial super-microwaves with an extra quiet (or non-existent) ping when the food is done? If not, do they have to carefully set out the seating areas to make sure that nobody is in ear-shot of the kitchen, to hear the constant high-pitched frog chorus?!

ivykaty44 · 20/01/2023 10:12

I fail to see the advantage of frozen ready made omelettes

food poisoning risk is reduced I guess

I worked in a hotel many years ago where we weren't allowed to crack eggs to make scrambled egg due to the food poisoning aspect - we used carton eggs that had been pasteurised instead - I would suspect the omelettes are pasteurised and therefore less of a risk

wildchild554 · 20/01/2023 10:17

Yes a lot do, unless it's something that isn't ordered regularly.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 20/01/2023 10:19

One high end restaurant in Teddington (not there anymore) used to serve smash potatoes

Were the packets regularly delivered by Two-Ton Ted along with his baked goods? Grin

PenelopeTitsDrop3121 · 20/01/2023 10:20

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 20/01/2023 10:19

One high end restaurant in Teddington (not there anymore) used to serve smash potatoes

Were the packets regularly delivered by Two-Ton Ted along with his baked goods? Grin

😂😂👍

Bluesheep8 · 20/01/2023 10:29

I learned this in a pub that offered cheese omelettes and ham omelettes. But couldn’t do a cheese and ham omelette because both came ready made

Why couldn't they put cheese on the ready made ham one? (Not the point of the thread) but still......

Bigweekend · 20/01/2023 10:30

Bluesheep8 · 20/01/2023 10:29

I learned this in a pub that offered cheese omelettes and ham omelettes. But couldn’t do a cheese and ham omelette because both came ready made

Why couldn't they put cheese on the ready made ham one? (Not the point of the thread) but still......

They probably don't have any cheese that's not already in a ready-made dish

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 20/01/2023 10:36

They probably don't have any cheese that's not already in a ready-made dish

They could always have pioneered 'the mixed double' with one on top of the other, but Brake's probably have something in their strict rule book to ban people from re-selling 'chamelettes'.

Justinthebath · 20/01/2023 10:38

SylviasMotherSaid · 18/01/2023 19:19

I think there must be somewhere like Brakes for cakes in my local area as although so many places pass them off as home baking they nearly all have identical tray bakes and sponges and none of them have any taste . It’s a sort of hobby of mine to find anywhere local that does proper home baking as someone who is rubbish at baking themselves and I do love a nice sponge or chocolate tray bake .

Yup they are called Sidoli - excellent cakes en mass - frozen, you see therm all over the place - 5* to your local cafe, they work with all the chains as well

Changechangychange · 20/01/2023 10:46

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 20/01/2023 10:07

I think the worst thing is the pretence that they are freshly preparing and cooking the meals, when they clearly aren't. If they didn't try to hide or obscure the fact, I wouldn't have an issue with it - then people could pay their money and take their choice.

Going through the charade of trying to fool people that the food is freshly prepared and cooked is all just a bit too Peckham Spring for me. Even describing them as 'chefs' is deliberately misleading, imo; I would never claim to have any kind of actual chef skills, but I can press buttons on a microwave and boil up a saucepan of water to pop a plastic bag of something in it.

By the by, but do they specially make these industrial super-microwaves with an extra quiet (or non-existent) ping when the food is done? If not, do they have to carefully set out the seating areas to make sure that nobody is in ear-shot of the kitchen, to hear the constant high-pitched frog chorus?!

We have industrial ones at work (NHS), and yes they just turn off when done, no ping at all. Like they have just shut down. Disconcerting the first time.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 20/01/2023 10:58

Yup they are called Sidoli - excellent cakes en mass - frozen

Is that the company or you describing them as excellent? The 'none of them have any taste' would seem to beg to differ!