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.

I don’t really mind having a ready meal somewhere like Costa because it’s a cheap, fast takeaway. I’m not expecting proper cooked from scratch food. And to be fair, I actually really like their (or M and S!) Mac cheese so fair enough.

I do find it a bit sad though that so many places all seem the same now though. So many chain restaurants everywhere. Every city centre feels and looks the same. It’s quite hard to find good independent places now.

No place I've been to. Wouldn't a nuked meal be soggy ?

You've never been to a chain pub or restaurant I assume then, as they all use microwave meals, mainly from Brakes. In fact even a local independent restaurant I worked at used some microwaved sauces/side dishes from Brakes alongside a freshly cooked steak for example. They also used part cooked and frozen pasta that would cook in a minute or so, with a sauce that was pre made/microwaved.

I used to work in a popular pub chain (not wetherspoons) and yes, everything was either fried or microwaved. Including the Christmas Dinner.

The McDonald’s Chef?

I own an independent coffeeshop, we bake all our own cakes and make all our meals from scratch, although we do batch cook and portion things like chilli, curry etc for reheating. We boil rice and portion it, all our breakfasts are cooked to order. It's our USP in an age of bought in, and we do very well because of it!

I usually try to frequent independents that cook from scratch but sometimes Bella Italia prawn pasta hits the spot, even though you know it's been microwaved!

@sensechec - Ivy in CG is still good cooking. The rest of the chain does not taste like it.

The chain is the death of quality. They start with one restaurant say (making a name up) Perfection Pizza in Chelsea. Perfection Pizza has fantastic cooking and ingredients. Top quality and quite cheap.

People rave about it.

Soon, Perfection Pizza is in your town. You go, but the food is not very good.

That is because on a restaurant becoming a chain, all those quality ingredients and cooking are gone. You are eating a name.

Choose a non chain restaurant for good cooking.

The above business model operates very commonly in restaurants.

That is because the Best Pizza

Oh wait, the microwave. My brain is dumb

No shit Sherlock! How else do chain restaurants produce stuff tasting the same? Including premium ones like the Ivy and Cote? Brakes lorries were delivering all over the city on my early morning walk to work. You are paying for the experience of a meal out though, and the wages of the people who work in these places. It's always been cheaper to cook your own dinner at home funnily enough

Even top restaurants batch cook things and seal them in bags to be heated through. Do people think they have all the dishes on the menu on the hob in the kitchen every day?

@StarInTheHeavens it’s widely advertised as an improvement. I’ve got email from them not so long ago: your M&S favourites at your local Costa now.

@StarInTheHeavens yes M&S food at costa but it's advertised as such so no surprise. It's meant to be a ready meal from M&S, that's the whole point!

My system used to work at bhs cafe and when she told me about the powdered scrambled eggs it put me off for life

Of course they do, weird someone has reached adulthood without understanding this

No of course not. I'm well aware of that, and I don't mind one bit. But when I go out to eat I want to eat beautiful food that I wouldn't necessarily know how to make (or want to spend the time/effort on) or be able to source top quality ingredients for, and I want to eat it in a lovely setting with the right ambience. If it's literally just a microwave meal I can do that myself for a few pounds.

Ready made omelette!? I get the argument for some things being frozen. I used to work in a pub where we served a few homemade things, chilli, curry etc. we made and then froze so we could do large batches. But an omelette!

Batch cooking and freezing is totally different from just buying in from Brakes /Costco though

I used to ‘cook’ for a huge pub chain years back. It’s absolutely true.

Yup but do you think everything's is prepared fresh in the likes of Indians or Chinese? Most curry come from the same base curry and Chinese restaurants chop and prep most things prior to service sauces are often bought in. Only real fine dinning and artisan is cooked from raw ingredients fresh but even they often batch cook

I think if the menu has more than 15 /20 items on it you can bet most of them are a la freezer rather than a la carte.

Yes.

For example - Omelettes are generally frozen and microwaved.
They've not been near a chicken for months!

Definitely
Friend chose a fake French(ish) chain the risotto was microwave and tasted like M&as

Haha, this is brilliant! Really says it all.

I thought everyone knew most Indians /Chinese takeaway etc came out of jar?

I'm shocked about omelettes. They take like what five minutes?

Frozen omelettes. Omfg that's the one thing I'd never freeze because it takes literally five mins.

@SweetSakura nope I just didn't think about it. I should open up a takeaway lol