Are you eating out less?

[Solasum]

I work in London, and the lunchtime cafes etc are still very busy, though it seems to me mainly with a young demographic. As a household though, we are definitely eating out and getting take away less. It just doesn’t seem worth it unless it is something really special.

In your local area, is there evidence of people majorly cutting back?

If anyone works in hospitality, have things changed a lot in recent years?

Not a journalist, just curious.

Same!
I live in a fairly affluent area though and the local pubs and restaurants are usually fully booked at the weekends. I’ve noticed it’s mainly retired folk or couples eating out though.
our local micropub is closing at the end of the month as they can’t make ends meet and the chain pubs all seem to offer vouchers for 40% off food (just drop the prices?!) so something must be shifting

We cut back during Covid and haven't gone back to our pre covid eating out. We did do it far too often...2 or 3 times a week.

We used to go out for a curry regularly but that's gone up in price so much too. Rice for £4 etc, it all just adds up and we feel let down.

We are not. Currently having a meal in a pub with DD before the theatre. DH did remind me we go on holiday on Saturday though 😆

When ds was at primary we used to spend £30 every Friday eating pizza out.
That stopped with COVID, and we never went back. Now we only eat out if we are on a holiday or for a birthday meal.
It’s just too expensive.

Generally the quality seems to have dropped as well, probably restaurants trying to reduce costs.

We used to. We hardly do now as I’ve had long covid for four years. However on the rare occasion we get to go out (or even if I’m well enough to go to a supermarket), the prices have shot up and/or the quality is lower. I feel like a 90 year old comparing current costs to when they were a child, except it’s over a pretty short space of time.

Yes, did not eat out at all during July ( dry july ), after tallying up how much I spent eating out in June ( just over £300 ). This was higher than usual as had family visiting from the U.S. and met up with them a few times for lunch in Edinburgh.
My average monthly spend for eating out/takesways is usually around £200, this does include treating my son/s occasionally.
Because July was a great success, have decided to set myself a budget of £50 for the month of August. I do look for deals and my local Harvester sometimes have good deals such as 40/50% off food or go on a Tuesday for Chicken Tuesday where a few main chicken meals are £9.99 plus you can go to salad bar.
My youngest son has now started his first job after graduating, so will take turns of paying if we go out to eat.

Yes we definitely eat out less, because the quality is so much poorer everywhere these days! The places we do go on occasion are more expensive but the food is high quality and interesting tasty dishes. Pub food and chain restaurants are out of the picture.

No takeaways, but I am out and about all day on my days off so end up buying lunch out a lot. I never feel like eating my own packed lunches, especially in this heat. Lunch is usually sandwiches or jacket potatoes rather than a proper restaurant meal though. I do get a lot of hot drinks out so am throwing money away there 😐

No I’m not eating out less. We eat out at least once a week, sometimes twice. If not twice then we get a takeaway. Sometimes we go to a local independent Italian place where they have a weekday deal for 2 courses and a wine/ beer for £18. That’s cheaper than getting dominos. Everyone I know is still eating out/ going to the pubs the same amount. We’re a family of 3 though so it’s affordable for us.

I eat out the same amount I’ve done for years (a lot) but have completely ditched takeaways due to a combination of cost and they taste horrible to me now, much worse than I meal I make at home.

Yes we probably are I think. I think it's a combination of things one the food is often just not that great, increasingly the food is just kind of meh and what we would make at home would be much nicer. Then on top of that it's really expensive for what you get. I understand that hospitality is struggling but when prices exceed a certain price point and the food isn't anything special then why bother? In our case we're good home cooks and fairly adventurous and increasingly the food we make ourselves is just much nice than eating out so we spend more money on our own food shopping. We have a couple of local places we visit occasionally that we know are good (luckily they are always busy) but mostly we cook at home.

All of that goes for going out of tea and cake as well as I love fresh home baking and quality tea but every café seems to mainly sell kinder / biscoff / oreo type cakes now which all seem very dry and mass produced in a factory somewhere or it's very more elaborate and overly sweet doughnuts, just yuk. So I bake more at home and buy in lovely loose leaf tea and enjoy that.

I now normally only eat out or spend money in cafes if I am away from home or sometimes if I am meeting friends and we don't live close to each other. Most recently I paid £20 for 2 teas and 2 pastries for myself and a friend and both were just ok. Thats a lot to spend for just ok.

Personally Not less nor more in recent years but both have always been rare events - holiday or birthday treat

what I have noticed over my life is that i eat out more and have more takeaways and coffees than we did as a child / early 20s

• but compared to many peers we never did that much. I know people who would eat out every week, have a takeaway most weekends, buy two or three lunches during the week and a daily coffee at work and then coffee out at weekends - and I never reached that level - seemed always to be to be a lot of money for what was often worse than I could do myself. The money I have saved over the decades really mounted up !

My friend who runs the cafe in our village has been really struggling this year with fewer customers - she feels it is due to cost of living that people just can't afford it

So much less. We used to eat out once if not twice a week pre-covid and a takeaway at least every fortnight. Then the 2021 cost of living really hit us hard with my income as I'm self employed and all non-essential spending ceased. These days it's maybe once every two months, I might occasionally go out with friends in between that and so will DH. Takeaways we hardly ever get now. It's so expensive and often the quality isn't there. I ate out at a local pub last week for lunch with friends. £23 for a lime and soda and a main. It was nice, but it wasn't £23 nice.

Locally, the restaurants and cafes are also feeling the pinch. I own a high street business so I hear from these owners that their takings are down considerably. Not only is the cost of food ridiculously high, but it's also clear that some places are scrimping on staff and training, so they lose out even more due to poor service stopping people from going back.

I moved house a year ago and I have had exactly 2 take aways delivered in that time. We might still grab fast food on a busy day like a drive thru but meals out and takeaways I have definitely reduced mainly due to cost but also reduced quality of food

Its very expensive and not very good value either .Sometimes a FandC from our good local shop .but we share a large cod and chips ! even then £16.00 odd! M and S have good deals, and Harvester is about the limit for us now!

We used to have a takeaway every weekend. Now once a month or even every couple of months. Just can’t justify the cost. Rarely go out for dinner as DH is a really good cook so feels like a bit of a stinger to pay a lot of money for a meal we could have had at home (and it invariably would have been nicer if DH cooked it!)

Much much less, don’t even eat out for birthdays or special occasions anymore because one meal equates to a weeks Aldi food shop. We are in the North.
Can’t justify it at all.

Yes, far less. We used to eat out once or twice a week, but reducing quality and increasing prices put paid to that.
We now only eat out at “naice” places for special occasions, but I have to say they are always busy, so I don’t think everyone is in the same boat.
We also only have takeaway maybe 2-3 times a year.

I think that the restaurant industry is in for a period of consolidation, where the weaker businesses will cease trading. It’s a shame but the demand isn’t there.

I see that the VAT rate for restaurant meals is being reduced but I don’t support it. Eating out is a luxury. People working in catering and hospitality need support and training for redeployment into primary production. The UK needs to increase domestic food production and we need a skilled workforce for that.

No. But we've never eaten takeaways, so that's not an issue.
Restaurants and cafes - no change.

And to answer the question - we eat fish and chips once a month, because there’s an excellent chippy nearby. It costs more than it used to but the quality is consistent.

I used to dine out every week before the pandemic, and go for coffee at least once a week with a friend or family member too.

It’s not just the cost now, although that’s a factor, it’s that the quality has declined, portion sizes are less, or things that used to be included are now extras.

I have also noticed that some of the smarter restaurants are using what were regarded as budget cuts of meat or fish and charging a lot for them. It amazes me how many will pay top dollar for a dish made with fish I’d buy for a cat, or offal, however beautifully it is prepared.

Yes we’re eating out much less.

Yes, barely eat out at all these days, nor get takeaways. It's all so expensive and far too often is a poor experience. It's really down to very special occasions now, just a couple of times per year, but that's more of a sense of "duty" to do it for a birthday or anniversary rather than the food/ambience being enjoyable like it used to be.

Yes, we are definitely eating out less and have almost stopped having takeaways. The exception is my ds7 often gets a Burger King kids burger after his swimming lesson sometimes, as he’s always ravenous.

It’s not just price (which has become ridiculous - how can I justify spending an amount equivalent to half o ur grocery budget on one meal?

It’s also quality and health. At home we eat free range meat and LOADS of vegetables. We usually cook from scratch - or at least I know the bread I bought is UPF free.

I just don’t want to be regularly eating food that is not really good for us, unless it’s a special occasion.