Restaurant prices are just ludicrous

[Mummyhokey]

I know that this is hardly breaking news, but seriously what the actual fuck is going on with prices in restaurants?

Went out to a High Street chain restaurant last night for DD’s birthday. So whilst the food was cooked fresh on site there was absolutely no local chef input into the menu etc. There were also only two waiting staff working a busy place so the service was slow even though they were doing their best.

The cost of the meals was, in my opinion, completely unrealistic in terms of what we were getting. Little change from £20 for a basic burger or chicken dish. Another fiver for a side order. So for the four of us, £100 gets us one course each. Drinks on top, £3.95 for a glass of watered down Diet Coke. Twice that for a beer. £6 for a slice of cake for dessert.

This seems typical now for restaurants. It’s just totally unaffordable for most families to do this more than very occasionally, surely? I get that utilities and wages have gone up, as have the cost of ingredients. But have they gone up by that much? The increases seem outrageous. That slice of cake works out at about £50 for the entire cake. I could buy the ingredients for that burger for well under a fiver.

And then the 12.5% optional service charge added to the bill so that the options are ‘Pay it’ or ‘Ask for it to be removed and feel like a dick for doing so’.

No offence to hospitality business owners or the people working in them, but this just can’t be sustainable surely?

How on earth can you decide what a 'fair price' is when you don't have the slightest idea of what anything other than the actual raw materials cost?

It's all very well saying 'I can buy meat, cheese, bread and lettuce for a burger for £3 so a burger in a restaurant shouldn't cost more than £10,' but if the combined costs for everything else that is involved in serving you that burger comes to £6.99 then you deciding the restaurant should only make 1p profit because of some arbitrary figure you've made up in your head doesn't seem particularly fair to me.

There will be, because the ones providing value for money and/or exceptional quality will survive. There will be less demand and less supply. But there will still be some of both.

No diners cried into their pillows round here when Frankie and Benny’s closed, because it was overpriced shite. They just went somewhere else. I was sad for the staff though.

Because I’m your customer. A fair price is the one agreed between supplier and customer. If I have unrealistically low expectations of what a fair price is then OK, but I’m still not buying, therefore you’re not selling.

Agreed. Fish and chip shops are great value fast food. Or upgrade to a decent restaurant. We avoid middle of the road dining out now: the worst food at OTT prices.

I'm not paying prices beyond my personal "pain barrier" just to keep restaurants in business.
Everyone has a personal pain barrier for things like this which is reached, obviously, when the cost of a meal out is more than they are prepared to pay. In the past I've been prepared to pay for the experience of eating out, a nice atmosphere, good food, not having to cook etc. and obviously that means it will be more expensive than it would be to cook at home.
However, the prices have now broken through my personal pain barrier (and quality and quantity has dropped) and I'm not prepared to pay those prices any more because the extra cost of the meal out compared to buying stuff from the supermarket is no longer worth it to me. And yes, I know they have to make a profit and pay wages, electricity etc but it's too much for me.

As you can see on this thread people have different pain barriers. Some people might get to 200 quid for a meal for 4 before thinking, ok, that's not worth it for us anymore.

I think a lot of restaurants will close as costs increase and more and more people reach their pain barriers. It'll go back to people eating out once or twice a year like when I was growing up in the 80s and there will be fewer restaurants.
We never ate out as a family, it just didn't happen. The only time I can remember eating out was a couple of times at a Little Chef on the way to or from somewhere. We couldn't afford restaurants.

But the customer has to consider affordability and value for money. If they don't have the budget to pay what the restaurant asks they don't go, or they get into debt or do without something else to go, which is unlikely to be a good decision.

Agree that mid market chain restaurants/pubs just aren't good value any more. Ordering from an app, bought in desserts, slow service.

We go either end of the market now tbh.

Cheap and cheerful - McDs, carvery or the local garden centre cafe full of elderly people - or high end.

We've never set foot in the Prezzo, Nandos or Pizza Express in the town. It's just not worth the money. We can afford it, i just get so resentful at the price for bang average food.

I live in London, where, as everyone knows, rent is astronomical. So why are restaurant prices in areas where the rent is way lower ( and staffing costs less)the same as London prices? It’s about profit and what they think they can get away with.
I ve just come back from a trip to the north east, and was shocked at the prices there, same as I was when visiting friends in the midlands.
I don’t think food in the pub is usually as good as food in restaurants,but the prices aren’t lower. Even in restaurants, I often think I could have had a better meal at home. I feel we often don’t get what we pay for, and even if I could afford to eat out more, I don’t think I would.

dear @Mrsttcno1, this is exactly why I've never been particularly excited by going out to a restaurant or found it to be special a treat. I can shop, cook with really fresh ingredients and put a meal on the table for a fraction of the price I'll pay in a restaurant. And I'm not a particularly great cook.
What I cannot do at all is paint any sort of a picture; make a piece of art; act in or put on a play; make & present a film.

So, that's where I choose to spend my money. I've seen plays that've left me breathless & exhausted with emotion; films that have led me to tears (joy or grief); paintings that made me feel "nourished" and "well fed" in terms of feeling and experience.
I'd much rather feed the family before we go out OR have something ready to heat up quickly for a supper + a glass of wine, when we get home afterwards.

Same with trips out to the country / stately homes / museums / gardens / seaside. Take your picnic with you. Spend your money on things you are unable to do for yourselves.

Took dp and 2 teen dc out for lunch as a start of summer hols treat a couple of weeks ago - despite it being a higher end place that I've enjoyed before, a very underwhelming £188 later, it will be a long while before I take them out again!

I miss the "burger and pint" deal me and my friends used to go for on a hungover Saturday. It was a fiver, and the portions were bigger than you'd get from a pub menu now too. Can't even just get the pint for that now!!

Restaurants will sadly go the same way as shops and pubs - overheads continue to rise, so prices rise, so fewer customers, making them unprofitable. Not helped by fast food such as McDonalds, Pizza Hut etc that have taken the "bottom end" of the market meaning restaurants can't even fill their tables with "bargain basement" customers anymore either.

So, £25 for a main course £6 for dessert, ~£5 for a drink, that's £36 plus 12.5% service = ~£41. Which is about 3 hours 20 mins at minimum wage. I can't think when in my life a meal in a restaurant (rather than a fast food/counter service type place) has been widely available for significantly less than 3.5 hours of wages in a poorly paying job.

Minimum wage has sky rocketed compared to wages generally and hospitality, which is staffed largely by minimum wage workers, has become more expensive because of it. We're feeling the pinch on all these things where previously we were expecting people to work for a wage way below that required to cover their living expenses (and it's still somewhat below).

But also, our ideas of what we should be able to reasonably afford with children have become elevated due to having children later and spending a lot of time with a full income that supports just one person instead of one or two incomes supporting a family. It's only in the last 30ish years that eating out with children is something that people would expect to do more than once in a blue moon.

I agree. And the giveaway word was "chain".

Like most things in the UK, we're having every penny drained from us as consumers by cynical, cash cow chains.

They find a winning formula, then suck the life out of it gradually by clever charging. Soft drinks for £4.50, charging for extras like bread.

It joins the ranks of utilities, public transport, property and insurance as they go for every penny.

Monetisation, scalability, yada yada. I can just hear the dragons den rattling on.

I'm sick to the back teeth of it and I now frequent independents only. I'm sick of feeding the beast of globalisation, and instead I seek to support small traders and businesses in my local community.

But the threshold was lowered by £5,000 per employee too so businesses need to pay the full 15% on that £5k as well.

Yes it shocks me how much they charge for slithers of cheesecake 🙏

I paid £9.50 yesterday in Ask for a slice of chocolate ganache cheesecake with a scoop of salted caramel ice cream, 2 spoons. Delish, but £9.50!! Similar price for all the desserts.

For all the 'do the maths' people, it doesn't explain why restaurants in the same neighbourhood (so similar costs for lots of things) will offer such radically different experiences. You can have one charging high prices for mediocre food and the other charging same for a much better experience. People are saying they will accept the latter and clearly it is possible (and yes I am controlling for different cuisines)

According to Heston Blumenthal you can add the weight loss drugs to the restaurants' woes now - people aren't eating enough!

(I have to say I didn't really understand that one as some places serve massive portions and they could easily improve profits by providing smaller ones).

I feel the same, the price's are ridiculous and I haven't had a payrise I the last year.
Can't afford to eat out as a family anymore even for birthdays its getting to the point of finding the best value restaurants. The rents need to be lowered by councils for a Start or there won't be any restaurants soon as they just won't have enough customer's to stay afloat

You can go to some places that are really cost-effective. There's a pub near my mum which does a fantastic roast dinner for £17! Good quality, good portion size, plenty of gravy, Yorkshire pudding if you want it - I have no quibbles there at all. (You definitely don't need a starter - and I am too full for a dessert afterwards, so that plus drink is the total cost).

And there's a Turkish place in Central London which does great lunches - you can get a bowl of soup, flatbreads and a drink for £7. They also do quiches and salad for a little more.

So it can be done.

Totally agree! I stick to independents and have a good roster of faves.
They seem to be managing by increasing prices a little bit but not outrageously, and reducing portion sizes a little bit but not ridiculously (ie the PP with a single tomato for 5 quid!)
They have amazing food so always busy.
They also have smaller menus which I think helps a lot and more restaurants should think about.

I was a single mum on a low income 10 years ago and I used to take my DC to restaurants weekly because they had great deals on for 2 before 6pm. As it was just the two of us it was good value for money.
12 years ago I used to do a monthly pizza hut lunch with a friend, it cost us £11 each for half a pizza, a drink and a desert.

Now I earn much better and have a bigger family, but the price VS quality in any kind of chain or well known food place is robbery.
You can pay the same amount in an independent restaurant and get fresh cooked, non frozen, homemade food and it's worth it.
Chains have way more profits and income, they should at least match the quality of independents.

Sadly my favorite independent doesn't allow children in so it's been too long.

I used to go out to eat with my husband regularly before has kids. Now with children and all the prices have gone up, I only go out to eat if invited on occasion.

Wow that's great value