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?

... commercial rubbish collection, PAT testing, fire extinguisher testing, extractor flan cleaning (to prevent kitchen fires), cooking oil, cooking oil collection, theft, beer spillage, dine and dashers, CCTV, fire alarm upkeep, accounting, payroll, etc etc...

Rent is extortionate also. My local Indian closed down and I saw the place to let for £60k/year in the estate agent window. I feel for them but now I only go out or get takeaway for food that is better tasting than my own which is once every 2-3 months these days.

Oooh, where is this, please?

The problem is, like with most things, that costs have gone up but the businesses don't want to make less profit.

Same with Heinz and other brands that are charging ridiculous prices but making record profits.

So it's always the consumer that takes the hit, usually for a lesser product.

We used to go out for lunch every weekend and it usually came to £40 for two including drinks, coffee and dessert. Now it's much more likely to be once a month.

I noticed yesterday that a place we go to once a month had put up it's main courses by £4 each since last month. Proportionally my salary hasn't gone up that much in a month. When we go out now I just have a main and table water.

The trouble is the prices increase to cover costs which on turn reduce customers which in turn increase prices possibly.

Exactly. I’m glad where we go is busy I know how hard it must be to make a good amount from it.

The National Minimum Wage has gone up by 50% since 2021. Has your salary risen by that much since then?

Because that is what hospitality is having to cover, as well as increased food prices and utility prices. Not to menion the rise in NI contributions.

Yep, way too expensive. I had an average roast yesterday for £21. Times that by a family and it’s not affordable.

I understand they have to cover an increase in wages. And no my salary hasn't increased very much at all.

I was just pointing out that as things increase less people will go out.

The figure shown here has nothing to do with wages, NI, NMW or anything else to do with staffing.

It shows that before you even open the door, you need to find £2,000 a week. And that's not a city centre swanky-wanky location.

And the fewer units that get let, the more the landlords need to make from the rest.

I agree. I'm always amazed at how much the price of rice dishes from Chinese or Indian restaurants has rocketed. It doesn't seem like that long ago that you could get egg fried rice or vegetable rice for 2 or 3 pounds. Now it's more like 6 or 7 quid. I think that is OTT for such a basic food stuff.

I don’t think many restaurants are making record profits. They are simply reflecting their costs: food, utilities, rent, labour. All of those have sky-rocketed.

Exactly. It’s just rice ffs.

I’ve pretty much stopped eating out. I have no problem paying for a high end meal for a celebration … but standard restaurants I can cook so much better, so much cheaper at home. These days I feel like every tomato in the salad is counted and the portions and ingredients are so profit controlled it’s joyless…

I know that the UK doesn't do maths (exhibit A being the thread about maths in AIBU).

But it would be nice if some of the whingers showed us what they think a fair price would be, and then work backwards from that to work out what level of wages, rent, utilities, and cost of supplies would be needed to provide that service returning a modest 10% profit. (Meaning it's better to run a business than put your capital in a high interest account).

I'm sure some of us will be here to see how they solved all the problems.

You seem to forget increase in ni,.minimum wages, electricity going up everything has gone up and in order for businesses to survive they increase their prices.

I regularly do the "financials" for business plans for new clients/new business start ups, and people thinking of buying existing businesses, and clients are often shocked at how little profit they can make, often from very optimistic sales levels, once all the costs are factored in.

I have a few "off the shelf" models for cafes and restaurants, working backwards from number of covers, average occupancy levels, average spends on food/drinks, etc., then minimum wage (plus other employer costs such as NIC, pension, sick/maternity pay, holiday pay, etc) linked to how many staff are needed for the variables, i.e. occupancy levels and covers.

Then, the rent, business rates, water rates, gas & electricity, bank charges, security, fire, training, telecoms, marketing, interest, etc.

After VAT, I'd say 90% show a loss, even with very optimistic client sales levels and that's before owners "wages".

Wages, gas/electricity and rent are absolute killers.

We go.out very rarely. We socialise once a month and may eat out before a comedy show or whatever we are going to. As a family of 4 its rare and only for special occasions. We all went out for our wedding anniversary in May. Early bird was on. We all had that plus drinks €120 euro. The place was busy but emptying out while we ate. Everyone there for the early bird it seems. We buy lovely food for home and get pizza every Friday pm for our 16 yr old DS. Its just soo expensive now. We cook a lovely dinner at the weekends. Have wine and maybe a dessert from M and S so it feels like a treat. Restaurants are really struggling sadly. We were in Italy on our hols and eating out was so affordable. Just said to DH, we will only holiday in affordable countries. I mean who wants to cook on hols !!!! Was in Switzerland 3 years ago. Steak was €55 euro sure thats what it is here now. Like I dread to think what cost is a steak now abroad. I see pizza express are advertising their menu all over social media with offers. ......

Same here in NE Scotland. I normally have fish and chips. Local cafe is now £19.99 and says we should be prepared to wait 45 minutes for food as it's so busy - who's paying these ridiculous prices?

As a previous poster demonstrated, it is possible to provide a good quality family restaurant meal for about £70, including (if I remember right) two starters, two desserts and and two drinks as well as four mains. That’s what that previous poster got at a local independent restaurant.

That would be about a fair price, in my book.

As I demonstrated (using top quality maths) choosing the cheapest items of the Prezzo menu came to £97 for the same number of dishes.

That would be not a fair price, in my book.

Obviously as someone who can ‘do maths’ (unlike the entire U.K., apparently) you’ll know that working out whether this is sustainable for a business looking to return a 10% profit is impossible because we don’t know various crucial details. For example, the number of diners will determine the rate of return on staffing numbers and fixed costs like keeping the lights turned on. Precise menu choices will make a difference to profit levels as well because I imagine you make more off drinks than steak. As a maths whizz you doubtless know this.

But my point has always been that, charging three figures for a bog standard one course meal for four plus a drink each ain’t sustainable for your customer base, no matter the reasons.

Yesterday in Zizzi I paid £82 plus an £8 tip for 4 starters (they were big), 4 main courses, 4 soft drinks and a large beer.

@Mummyhokey You don’t know anything about the other restaurant’s overheads (just like you don’t know the details of Prezzo’s overheads) or where the restaurant is located, so your comparison is meaningless.

The problem with people saying they will just eat out less is that, if everyone does that, then when you do want to go out for that odd special occasion or when you're on holiday and don't want to cook, there won't be any places open, because restaurants can't survive just on tourist trade and people eating out twice a year.

because restaurants can't survive just on tourist trade and people eating out twice a year

Last family meal we had was £220 - so no, we won’t be dining out anytime soon just to ‘keep the restaurants going’ we can’t afford to subsidize them any longer.

That’s not the point. I know how much I consider to be a fair price for a meal out. If a restaurant has overheads that make that too cheap to be profitable, that doesn’t change what I consider to be a fair price for a meal out.

There are lots of comments on this thread saying ‘Ah but wages + taxes + utilities + ingredients + everything else means that the lowest we can charge is X’. Fine, but if X is considered too much for your customers then they’ll stop coming, and that’s not a sustainable business. That’s not your fault, but it is still true.

Nobody sensible is saying that most restaurants are profiteering. Especially the independents. We’re just saying that your prices are too high for what you’re selling, so we’re not buying.