What will happen to restaurants / cafes

[LaCouleurDeMonCiel]

Pre Covid / COL increase we would eat out as a family 1-2 a week. Eating out would often be spontaneous, places like Bills, Rosas Thai, pizzeria, etc. when we passed one while shopping or because we didn’t fancy cooking.

Now we have stopped the spontaneous meals because the prices are ridiculous. We still go out when we want to go to a specific restaurant or celebrate something but we don’t visit the casual low/mid range places because £100+ is too expensive for a quick ‘not that special’ meal.

Are we the only ones?
Will we see a change in the type of restaurants on the high streets? High end restaurants + cheap fast food ones but nothing in between?

Restaurants seem to be struggling here but takeaway places OMG they are everywhere. I just had a think and within 1 mile of my house I can think of 5 small takeaway places plus another 4 large chain places with another 1 due to open. We only ever use 1 of these occasionally.

We used to go to our local
italian a couple of times a month. It was a cheap family night out. We can now only go for a big treat every so often as it’s over £100 for the 4 of us, with one drink each, and eating the cheapest meal options. It’s not viable to go more.

we’ve also reigned in on takeaways etc.

I stopped getting takeaways/deliveries because I just couldn't any more justify paying what was about one third of my weekly grocery bills for one or one and a half meals. Also I noticed that my local restaurant had started adding more pasta and less seafood into the main meal. 🌹

We are lucky enough to still go out for dinner as before (we only go to low/mid range places like pizza express/bella italia) but a lot of these sort of places have closed near us like Frankie n Bennys, which was great for my coeliac child.

I watched a member of staff pat a dog which was licking her hands. She then went back to the counter and immediately started handling cakes. Some people might not care. We stood up, demanded a refund then walked out. I put a bad review on TripAdvisor.
You got a refund and gave them a bad review? aren't you a delight 🙄

We have also cut back on restaurants and takeaways. Restaurants used to be a fairly regular treat but we just don't do it now after a low key meal in our local pub cost close to £100. This was two kids main and dessert, 2 adult mains and a small amount of alcohol. Same with takeaways, stopped after realising two portions of crispy seaweed from the chinese cost us a tenner - for cabbage!!! We tend to do brunch instead now if we go out. I have also stopped takeaway coffees and sandwiches when I'm at the office.

I worry about the impact on local restaurants as I don't want to lose them. Having said that some places still seem to be very busy so there is still money being spent.

There are barely any independent restaurants near me and the few ones that do exist aren't cheaper either. If you have a lot of choice where you are, it's maybe because you live in a city?

We've stopped eating out as much, not so much because of price but because service / quality of food has gone down massively since Covid. Plus all the Deliveroo drivers in the chains and no I dont want to order on a bloody app.

Had a weekend away on the south coast recently and ate in three independent places over the weekend, not cheap but good value, amazing food and service that I don't mind paying for.

I've noticed that a lot of places I used to go to, pubs and small independent restaurants, are offering virtually the same very reduced menu at considerably higher prices. That's not to mention the ridiculous cost of even just a glass of wine or black coffee.

The only place I've found that offers a varied menu at a good price with excellent service is my local Wetherspoons, so I meet friends there. And I've never had a bad meal there yet. Well done Sir Tim.

As others have said it's the starters and sides that have gone up massively in price. We now mostly just have a main course if we go out.

Kelly51 If the owner had been gracious and apologised of course I would not have left a bad review. But trying to argue that a member of staff handling cakes with dog saliva on her hands was ok does not deserve a good review imo.

Yes the UK is full of dog loving cafes and restaurants, it is saving us hundreds of pounds a year 😁

I agree about apps. There is a new pizza takeaway in town. I went to order a couple of pizzas but no, they wanted me to install an app.

I laughed in their faces, went to Waitrose and got two pizzas for half the price of theirs.

Special occasion/out with others we might eat somewhere nicer, but just us at a couple of local pubs (cheaper) or somewhere cheap and cheerful in town at lunchtime, so see a selection of venues. We lived three miles from a main town, and have walkable Indian and Italian restaurants and three pubs. Indian tends to be a bit quieter early in the week, but our local pubs, the Italian (you have to book at least a week in advance) and most places in town are packed and thriving - I wouldn't go into town without booking.

We're in a central part of London and all the restaurants and cafes are busy here. We've never really eaten out spontaneously like in the OP, we've always treated it as an occasional treat although we have a high income. I definitely notice the higher prices but as it's only a few times a year I don't mind paying it for birthdays meals etc. I think we are more frugal than our peers though, they seem to eat out a lot and have more branded clothes etc. We are the type who'd rather overpay the mortgage than splurge on everyday things.

We used to eat out 2 or 3 times a week pre Covid..probably twice or 3 times a month now but in nice restaurants.
Never get takeaways.

Restaurant prices have also gone up disproportionately compared to wages - somewhat akin to inflation I suppose.

So we used to go to a fancy seafood restaurant and treat ourselves to the seafood platter for two. We last went about 8 years ago and I think it was about £60. I just checked and it's now £120.

Our wages certainly haven't gone up 100% in the intervening period, and that's before you even add in the allegedly discretionary tip which seems to have morphed from 10% to 12.5% in most restaurants for no reason which I can fathom.

We’d like to support local business. I’m sure most people would and I don’t want to see independents of good quality going out of business, but I look at the prices and think about what that would buy in Aldi. I know that’s not the point of eating out, but fixed income means reducing costs as much as possible.

We eat out less, used to as a family at least once a week but now it’s once every 2-3 weeks and usually meeting friends and family.
Takeaways aren’t worth it, the delivery apps like Deliveroo charge the restaurants 45% so have to increase their prices, still can’t see how any money is made with those fees

SE commuter town - most of the high st is now cafes and restaurants, lots of shops have been turned in them.

They’re all packed out, all week long. No sign of COL crisis here.

Deliveroo and so forth has also altered the nature of some of these places.

Went to five guys the other week for a quick burger, place looked pretty empty so we expected we would get our food quickly. But there were a lot of Deliveroo orders so it took a long time then the people collecting it were thronging round the collection bit and it just made the whole experience a little less enjoyable than it should have been.

So next time we'll probably just get something at home to eat before we go.

I hadn’t really realised but I have started avoiding places that do Just Eat/Deliveroo etc - those services have completely changed the ambiance of sitting in and I no longer find it a pleasant experience. If we do go out we are choosing local/inde places and thankfully all our faves are still pretty busy

@ichundich Indeed - i live in London and the new generation of Neopolitan style pizza places are generally nicer and better value than Pizza Express i find.

Our local one - http://www.bonapizzeria.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Food-Menu-Custom-Size-NEW-JAN22.pdf

The bad review would be to warn other people, surely, regardless of the refund you wouldn't want to eat there

I think there is some truth in this. I used to eat out a lot when I was a student then living in a first house share for example. A lot more so than I do now I have a nice kitchen and a more regular hours job so time to cook etc. I don't have kids and only have a small mortgage so really the COL crisis has not fully caught up with me yet (not a boast, it may well do in the future!). We'd think nothing of going out for a chain place on the way somewhere, if it actually appealed, but there are only so many wagas and nandos you can have. I agree that deliveroo has kind of ruined the appeal of the mid range chains because they are so slow to serve you now. The local cafe to me has started taking reservations which is I suppose good, but it's annoying you cant pop in for a quick cuppa and find somewhere to sit because they reserve all the lunch tables from opening. Since Covid we are finding the little tea room / bacon roll and a brew type cafes much less inviting, or not open outside working hours. There's a local cake place that looks fantastic, open 10-2.30 M-F only...

We've stopped going out as much now that it's become commonplace (at least where I live) to add a 10% and sometimes a 12.5% percent service charge to your bill. Food and drink is expensive enough and I don't know why we have to pay this extra charge for someone just to do the job that they're supposed to be doing!