Quality and price of takeaway/restaurant food

[KenAdams]

We used to eat out quite a bit - 2/3 times a week. Combination of busy lives and medical conditions.

For that we used to get reasonably fresh, good quality meals and decent sized portions (reasonably healthy stuff rather than a fried Chinese meal or burger for example).

Over the last two years, we've noticed a reduction in the quality and price increases in such meals.

Sushi has massively gone up in price and other meals that used to be healthy have reduced their quality of ingredients and now seem full of oil etc.

I know prices have gone up but as an example, last weekend my friend ordered a chicken supreme for £22 in a local pub in the East Midlands. She got a piece of chicken which was about 10cm across (not a breast), about two tablespoons of potato and some pea shoots. Another friend ordered a risotto and wanted to add a salmon fillet, but it was an extra £10 for the salmon!

This wasn't anywhere fancy, just an average pub but the prices now are such that it's pricing us out, even taking into account the convenience factor.

I work in an industry where I know the price of ingredients and I feel like places are just taking the piss a little bit now. I'm also aware of the on costs but I can't really make them add up to the astronomical prices I see now.

The solution for us has been to move to low prep style meals so I can still manage to make these when I'm having a bad day with my conditions, but it's such a shame as it used to be something to look forward to and a bit of a relief that I didn't have to cook on a flare up day.

Has anyone else noticed the same?

Slightly off topic but any healthy, filling, low prep meal ideas would be welcome please!

And has anyone noticed the heating in restaurants has been turned down?

Yes @Gall10!!

We used to order takeaways from an independent through Uber. It is so expensive now, more than going to sit in. I know it is not the restaurants fault, but its just not worth it.

Yes - always cold in restaurants these days.

£7.95 for 3 courses! That's crazy! You can't get a starter for that anywhere round here!

None of your examples are places I would call ‘restaurants’ though.
Small independents and some chains provide excellent food at a price that is reasonable once you factor in inflation.

We eat out a lot less and I rarely get takeaway now as the quality is mostly poor. We no longer eat at chains like pizza express as the cost is too high but we have found some great local independent places where the prices are very reasonable and food is much better. So we go once or twice and month. Mcdonalds has been bad for a few years now. I used to love a cheeseburger and fries but now the fries taste like cardboard and the burgers have no flavour at all. They have definitely changed something - no idea what.

I wouldn’t call McDonald’s eating out (and I’m really not a snob). Neither do I believe someone who ‘ate out frequently’ in the context of actual restaurants would replace that with McDonald’s whatever the price.

I think the cheaper end prices have gone up a lot but some of the more expensive places have stayed stable. They are still more but it feels better value for a £25 set menu somewhere nice, than £17 on a pasta from a chain, when thst same pasta was £10 not long ago.

I am hearing more and more people saying that its too expensive to eat out so i think there will be less chains in the future.

@cardibach you do not think Las Iguanas is a restaurant? So what counts as one for you?

Agree. Adding to the Zizzi chat, when I was young it was a go-to if you wanted somewhere "nice-ish" to go that didn't cost the earth and you know what you were getting. Admittedly this was in my teens so 15/20 years ago!

However took DD to one on spur of the moment dinner during a shopping trip. Ordered on an app. Food was distinctly average. It came to over £90 for three starters, 2 adults and 1 kids pizza and soft drinks. Insane.

I absolutely understand why so many restaurants are going bankrupt, their service simply isn't worth the money they have to charge to make it viable.

This is it. Where I am we didn’t notice many places closing during the pandemic, quite the reverse in fact, but the current economic situation is now very obviously biting. Much-loved restaurants are closing (often after desperate attempts to change their offering or closing one of their two / three places) because not enough people will or can pay what they have to charge to stay in business. It really can’t be down to greed as presumably they’d prefer to stay open.

Like pps I haven’t noticed a lowering of quality in individual restaurants, but it’s the nicer places that are closing around here so quality overall is a victim if you like good food. People might have stretched themselves before, but it’s now a stretch too far.

Food inflation is because of brexit in the UK. It is much harder and more expensive to get stuff into the country now plus growing our own is more expensive due to wage inflation because the people that were happy to work for min wage and live in portacabins in the middle of nowhere have all gone back to Eastern Europe. Denying the massive negative effect leaving the EU trading bloc has had on prices in the UK is wilfully stupid.

I used to love eating out but it's just not worth it now. Tiny portions, clearly reheated, poor service. Plus, order on an app, pour your own drinks and then get asked if you want to pay a tip ... for what?

Over the last year or so, we started having takeaways instead, but this weekend was the last straw in a long line of non-deliveries, long waits and disappointing food - we had a Chinese with a 2.5 hour wait, cold food and tiny portions.

I've noticed too yes.

I nearly fainted the other day when PapaJohns wanted £17 for a small pizza.

You didn’t mention food there, so I sort of ignored it.

I'll say it again. I'm in Spain at the moment. Spain, where they grow lots and lots of vegetables. I'm staying in Murcia, the fruit and vegetable capital of Europe. The fruit and vegetables I can buy here, cost exactly the same as I buy in M & S. The meals I'm eating out are costing the same as a similar standard restaurant in SW London. People here are complaining too.

There's a lack of lorry drivers in Germany, there's a lack of waiting staff in Denmark. There's food inflation everywhere in Europe. It's nothing to do with Brexit.

Even Gail’s near me is suffering. Six months there would be a queue out the door several times and we day. Now I rarely see a queue even on week ends.

Comparing like with like, the UK is the second most expensive country in Europe for Domino's pizza. So no it is not the same everywhere. The UK is expensive.
https://www.netcredit.com/blog/average-cost-of-pizza/

£19.95 for bread and then three courses at Zedels in Central London.

@jackstini I went to a revolution de Cuba place and thought the food was dire. It was close by and we needed a quick bite, staff were very nice though.

Prices have gone up but quality of my favourite local places is still good. Local basic cafe just paid £12.50 today for a milkshake, flat white and scrambled egg on toast and beans on toast, owner is my mate and I get 10% off. Really lovely cafe up the road we paid £26 for 2 steak Philly cheese sandwiches and 2 coffees recently. You are paying for the surroundings there as well as really lovely food. Off out for a curry at the weekend that will be £25 per head for a starter and main plus share a rice and a naan, you can take your own alcohol. There are very few chain places where I live. @Hereyoume the latte in the very nice cafe near us is £4 which had DH having kittens as our little local cafe is £3.30 . We are up North, I can’t imagine anyone even attempting to charge £7 for a latte round here. Obviously the likes of York and Harrogate may do.

Lots of chefs left after the pandemic and recruiting them was costly.
We didn't want to give up our social lives just for the love of the job anymore.
Fuel costs have rocketed too.

A friend has recently closed her restaurant and put her business in liquidation, I have seen the figures. They bounced back after covid, it was a really good and popular restaurant with all sorts of special evenings, guest chefs etc but over the last 18 months the combination of massively hiked fuel and food costs plus fewer and fewer customers due to COL meant they just couldn’t go on.

We would indulge in good quality take away regularly before Covid. Since then the quality has plummeted. Out of 5 decent take aways we are down to one.

It's a tiny kitchen in an old Victorian alleyway shop. Run by two older gentlemen who have run it for decades. They give generous discount for cash or take card. No drop in quality or volume at all.

It's the only one left that I'll use. Even our local restaurants are cutting down many corners now. Eating out isn't worth it anymore.

I'm in the same neck of the woods as you. Can I ask what sushi place you order from?

Our local Turkish place has gone up in price but it was so cheap to begin with it's still a good deal

I prefer to only pay for something more involved like a curry. I can pan fry a steak or salmon or some chicken easily myself and serve with salad or steamed veg or a microwave grains packet for a quick dinner.