Pub food and more.

[LifeOnEarth]

Hi all, I’m a long time lurker, sometimes poster but I’ve changed my username for this occasion.

if you went to a pub restaurant for lunch or dinner, what would you like to see on the menu? Would you always go for classic pub grub or would different types of food entice you in? What would make you visit the pub if you had to drive. Would you even visit a pub if you had to drive?

What would you prefer on your table? Mayo and ketchup in their original bottles or decanted into ‘nice’ bottles. Or would you prefer to have your condiments served in a separate dish?

If you’re a woman, would you feel happy walking into a pub on your own? If not, what would make you do that, how would I make you feel comfortable?

Would you take your young children into a pub for a parent toddler meet up? Would you go to an out of town/rural/village pub for a business breakfast (probably via the local chamber of Commerce).

What could I offer you to make you feel comfortable?

Thank you 🥰

I agree with a PP who mentioned location and the target clientele

Ditto, what is the main focus of the proposed business - a pub, a pub restaurant, a community type venue?

Real homemade chips, I would pay more for these very happily.
No shenanigans with the food- DH hates the fish literally on the chips. Or hunting for roast beef under his mash. A gravy boat as an extra, proper gravy not a jus.
Yorkshire pud with all meats and vegetarian options. Option for extra roasties.
If you are going to be child friendly - an outdoor play area, with some family seating inside.
I like a bar / for when I just fancy a sandwich /baguette with chips and a pint with the dog and also a nicer, child free, adult seating area for evenings or boozy lunches with the girls.
I suppose you need quite a big pub to cater for everyone, it might be better to choose your ideal target customer and go with that. It’s difficult to cater for everyone.

Option of a plain side salad- just lettuce, toms, onion, cucumber- easy to knock up (I’d think), jacket potato.
I actually love a beyond burger and not a fan of veggie burgers.
Salt and vinegar on the table, so we don’t have to realise these aren’t on the table and hunt around.
Real craft ales and ciders if possible.
No sticky tables, chairs or menus.
Ensure it’s warm, nothing worse than a freezing cold pub.

Good luck.

An outdoor play area is a very expensive liability. Most pubs are removing them for this reason.

no children and IF children, only at certain times?
good grief

I don’t know of any pubs that serve up good food and Sunday lunches that don’t allow children.

Someone tell us where these places are that are adult only with lone men and women curling up with a book in a cosy snug. Ordering their favourite healthy poke bowl before snaffling a sticky toffee pudding from the great dessert menu 🤣🤣

We can all dream though I have found similar overseas. Not everyone wants kids running around the place when enjoying a good book/decent meal with friends, a lot of people would prefer a quieter adult only space . Whilst your little darlings may be well behaved there are far too many that aren't unfortunately. I'm also anti dogs in restaurants/pubs though I appreciate many feel otherwise.

Where is “overseas”? Haven’t come across this anywhere but would be interested to have a nosey, it really doesn’t sound like a viable business plan anywhere.

I blame insta for adults needing “cosy nooks and finger food”.

Agree that nobody wants kids running around, play areas are a complete nuisance and not viable for pub owners anyway, the liabilities are too high. I don’t like dogs in restaurant areas either.

Many European countries differentiate between restaurants where people, including families, primarily go to eat, and bars and pubs where people primarily go to drink. Quite a few countries restrict under 16s from anywhere in the latter group either at all, or after a certain time of day. (Belgium, which always tickles me, prohibits under 16s from bars and pubs where there’s a dance floor.) UK pub culture is a bit different, particularly with so many pubs rebranding as gastropubs, or choosing to focus on food service for its profitability as profitability falls on alcohol, which makes the division tricker.

Adult-only pubs used to be common in the UK (I have a vague memory that they needed a slightly different licence if admitting children). I think custom is so thin now that they can't afford to turn anyone away, so age limits have gone by the wayside.

I love seeing families out for a meal personally

Decent gluten free menu with more than just chocolate brownie for pudding.

Yes the Belgian dance floor rule is amusing. I’m still not aware of quite a few countries with a pub culture that don’t allow children. We have travelled extensively and never had an issue.

I was specifically asking where these warm cosy nook overseas poke bowl adult only pubs are though. Sounds ridiculously niche.

I remember adult only pubs in the uk. Wet pubs. Drinkers pubs. Not pubs with a restaurant.

This is a Sunday lunches and burgers establishment that runs Halloween parties 🤪

I don’t mind well behaved dogs being in pubs, but if I had a choice, dogs would be in a designated area. I’ve been to a couple of pubs like that & it works well.

No that's the wrong way round, it's the kid's who should be in a separate area! 😄

Not about the food as such, but I find it very off-putting if I go into a pub and all the tables are set for dinner.

If I go out for a drink (rather than a meal) then I'd like to see a good selection of pub snacks available. Pork pies, sausage rolls, cheese or ham rolls etc. So not a meal but more substantial than peanuts and crisps. Very few pubs seem to offer this any more.

I find that pub food is often very uninspiring. A curry is better at a curry house, fish and chips at a chippy etc
I think it really depends on the demographic you're trying to appeal to.

I love that you’re enthusiastic and excited, and I’m sure your pub will be amazing.

This, and a couple of the other answers, make me think that you might not have worked in hospitality much before. The answer to why so many chain pubs serve microwave or freezer-to-fryer meals is because it is very hard to make a decent margin on home cooked meals without pricing yourself out of the affordable-on-the-spur-of-the-moment market. Because a lot of customers either can’t tell the difference or don’t care, so you’re competing with pubs whose kitchen staff cost is half of yours.

If you haven’t my biggest bit of feedback would be to spend a year or two running a mid range pub for a big chain before you commit to having your own. That will let you understand how back-end stuff like finance, staffing, H&M, insurance, upselling etc works before you do it with your own money.

Lots of sachets of ketchup and mayo. NOT the bottles. I have seen too many parents allow their kids to put the open top of the bottle in their mouths, dribble inevitably going into the bottle. I won’t use bottled ketchup or mayo when I am out. Lots of sachets on the table though

I used to know of several in Hertfordshire.

Cosy nooks and food (not poké bowls - nobody had heard of those at the time, but proper meals rather than just bar snacks); and either no under 18s or no under 21s in the whole pub, or children allowed but only in a separate designated area (where you could order drinks but there wasn't an actual bar).

[Edit: they often had carol singing, but definitely no Halloween parties.]

PLEASE may we have more home-made traditional British dishes? Steak and kidney (and other) pie, cottage pie, fish pie, stews and casseroles, liver and bacon, toad in the hole etc. Proper ploughman's with a good amount of bread - NOT ciabatta or a single dinner roll - some good English cheese, home-made coleslaw, home-made chutney, some fruit (apple, grapes etc), pickled onions, and a bit of non-poncy salad.

And - could there be a small portion option for everything? Not just for children, who can mostly eat anything on the adult menu anyway, but for adults who aren't very hungry.

And please, NOT chips with everything!

I don't like chilli (which seems to be in everything!) and I am generally quite picky and I'm so so tired of the only things I can eat on a pub menu being the ubiquitous burger or fish and chips. I love good food but so much pub food nowadays is bought in and the same everywhere.

If you can do a proper home-made steak and kidney pie or cottage pie I will travel to you for my lunch! (Provided it's not going to take TOO long).

I'd like something other than chips, burgers etc. I don't really lie chips and burgers always come in a white bun, or a brioche one.

At the moment, following illness, I'm really restricted on what I can eat as some ingredients are tating weird.

The reason pubs aren’t offering half portions and kids portions to adults is because of the amount of people that would then choose that option! They wouldn’t make any money.

I have been into lots of pubs, as I stated previously to someone else who was asking. I’ve been into pubs that have the sauces in bottles, I’ve been into pubs that serve sauces in a ramakin, if you ask for it. I’ve been presented with sauces in a sachet. None of that is right or wrong, I was only asking for opinions.

I’ve eaten in many restaurants around the world, they each have their choice of serving in a ramakin or in bottles. It doesn’t matter and it’s not an issue. Again, I was just asking for opinions.

My question was, what would you prefer. It’s not a big deal.

I hate a short menu. We go out to eat around twice a week as a family. If the menu is small it puts us off as we have 3 of us to cater for all with different tastes. Small menus remind me of OAP menus

So do you have the sample menu OP?

I like tapas-type things and stuff you can easily share with other people in a group. Pizzas, sharing plates, fajitas.

I also like pub versions of things like Thai curry - it's a bit different. Get very sick of the usual Hunter's chicken / bangers and mash / fish and chips sort of thing.