Join me in my restaurant revolution!

[wheretoyougonow]

Why? did I hear you not ask. I went out for a rare lunch today and ordered a ploughman’s. It came with three large different cheeses and one tiny piece of bread and no crackers. Who is eating blue cheese etc with these accompaniment’s?
The same goes for whenever I order pate. Normally one massive slab with two teeny tiny triangles of toast.

I am staging a restaurant revolution. If you are out at a restaurant and see a slightly eccentric middle aged women pulling a white cob out of her handbag you now know why. If you give me a nod I will share my fellow mumsnetter.

Please feel free to share your eating out lighthearted frustrations and we can rise up to make the changes.

A veg and two veg meal.

I love it. I feel it gives me license to make a gigantic pile of pâté on the tiny bit of toast and enjoy the glorious pâténess in proportions I would consider far too generous to myself at home!

DH & I went to a restaurant abroad that had waiters but no menus, only online ones. We had no phone signal and struggled to access the restaurant wifi, so that was a good start. Having finally picked what we wanted, the waiter came over, but it was a bit tricky to name and describe exactly what we wanted (remembered some and had to scroll through the web menu again for others ).

The first thing to arrive was completely wrong, as the waiter had misunderstood. Wouldn't have happened with a paper menu.

A British Airways meal I once had was pasta with a side of pasta salad. Do they actually pay someone to come up with their menus?

Pies that have pastry all the way round. Not casseroles with a lid on.

Op I'm with you and I often order two starters one of which is pate or something like it.

What a great idea to take your own crackers or bread ! I had never thought of that !

Serving salad, well 3 pieces of rocket, 1 cherry tomato and a scrap of red onion on a HOT plate
STOP....either give me nothing or surely a spoon of peas would cost the same and add colour to the plate and go nicely with hot food.
Its made even worse if they put dressing on the salad and there is sauce on your actual meal you paid to enjoy

When I was in hospital with Covid, I had some - interesting - combinations for my lunches, @SwirlyGates. Macaroni cheese, mashed potato and cubed swede, anyone? How about lasagne, mashed potato and carrots? 😂😂😂

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius , when I was a student staying in a hall of residence I remember dinner being chips, a big blob of macaroni cheese and sweetcorn. It was yellow food.

You pay £18 for a burger and chips in our posh local pub and it comes - very nice burger to be fair and with leaves and onions in it, and the chips are nice - but that’s it. I want some side salad with that - it’s a really unbalanced plate of food otherwise.

Yes! I am fine with piling the pate or cheese on but even then, there's not enough toast! We demand sufficient amounts of bread accompaniment!

Brioche gives me the rage
I hate supermarkets that don't stock a decent sesame bun
The sooner the Brioche trend fucks off the better

No worse than roast beef, yorkshire pudding etc, with a side of macaroni cheese smothered in gravy ( or maybe floor leveling compound), alternatively lasagne with chips and peas. Or what was offered as the vegetarian option in a French restaurant (maybe partly excusable, it was a long time ago) spaghetti with no sauce at all and chips

Chilli with/in everything. Hot honey!!!! Why!

I am completely sick and tired of 'nice ' restaurants that either have the food tarted up beyond all recognition, or the 'ordinary' options are fish and chips or burgers. No!!!! I neither want smoked chilli chicken breast with rosemary potato salad, beetroot emulsion and micro greens, nor yet another burger from which I will need to request several things to be removed. No mustard, pickles, mayonnaise or cheese for me please. When I want salad I do NOT want roquette, or spinach, or edamame beans. I would like proper lettuce, I'm not particularly bothered which variety as long as it is lettuce. I would like tomatoes, peppers, onions, sweet corn is fine, I'm happy with fruit in it. I do NOT want it to come ready-dressed or drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

I would like some proper, delicious, well made home-cooked style food. There is nothing wrong with a good pie. Or even a fish pie. A pork chop is a delight in itself and does not need to be tarted up. And what's with skin on chips! If I want skin on my potato I will have a baked potato. I don't want skin on my chips... it ruins the flavour.

And - I like cheese and love a ploughmans but why are these now full of fancy cheese? Looking at the menu of a hotel we are soon to visit, their ploughmans consists of smoked cheddar, a blue cheese and a brie-type cheese. NO! I want cheddar. Just ordinary cheddar. Yes, give me the option to have other cheeses but don't take away the cheddar! And give me enough bread. Proper bread, not a single ciabatta roll. crackers are fine if you're having cheese and biscuits but they do not belong on a ploughmans.

If you’ve gone to the effort of making an online menu where I have to order using a QR code PLEASE CAN YOU ADD PHOTOS OF THE FOOD!

I agree all the way with this! Hate, hate brioche buns 😖

'I would like proper lettuce, I'm not particularly bothered which variety as long as it is lettuce'

See I absolutely loathe lettuce and avoid ordering salads when I'm out because they usually come stuffed with lettuce.

I would ask restaurants and cafes to clearly display their menu outside. So many times I've walked past a place that looks nice but I don't have a bloody clue what they actually serve coz no sign of a menu!

Are £ signs and 0s rationed these days? I hate the trend of just putting numbers next to the item on the menu. Lasagne 12.5 for instance. It looks like they’re giving the food a score. Do graphic designers and printers charge for the extra numbers and ink? Just pretentious.

Set menus / early birds which include items with supplements. Why? Just offer another dish that fits the price point. Saw one the other day that had more supplements on than not.

Seats so close to one another you feel as if you are sitting with people you do not know. Who can hear any conversation.
Why do people put up with that ?

When they casually ask if you'd like some olives while having your drinks waiting for your mains and then you discover at the end that this act of generosity was priced at 7 quid fir 5

Getting a gluten free option with half of the dish missing but still being charged full
price!

Menus written in chalk that are become so crowded it is sometimes difficult to actually read.

Cold toast at breakfast in a hotel.

Yes. Very much all of this.

I hate the no £ symbol on menus as well. Everywhere bloody does it.