We went to Wagamama’s last night…

[Starrylawn]

We had one main course each, some edamame, some cucumbers, two glasses of wine and two soft drinks.

What do you think this cost in this day and age?

I’m guessing without looking to see if there’s an answer posted already!
£85
mains around £20 each, sides about £6 each so that’s £52 so far, soft drinks £5 each so £62 and 2 glasses of wine about £20 in total, so actually maybe £90 including service charge/tip?

I can imagine approximately £65 .
For a chain restaurant it’s a bit pricey .
When I’ve been there I just get a main and a green tea or tap water because it don’t like most soft drinks and I don’t drink alcohol.
I quite like a more local ramen and noodle restaurant Less pricey

Somewhere between £60 and £70.

My son and I went to Wagamamas for a quick lunch during the week. We almost left because we coukd not get anyone's attention to order (they came when we stood up), the server upsold a main to my son, the food we had was not as ordered e.g duck bao bun had no hoison sauce and then the server lied about whether it did or not and we had a soft drink each. They were efficient at taked our money which was over £60 for a quick lunch.

On the way out my son said he'd rather we didnt go there again as he said he felt guilty asking me to spend so much on a not great experience.

I think wagamamas is quite expensive. They don’t really do offers like other restaurants and I usually choose somewhere with a good offer on. Although they are now doing blue light discount I think that’s fairly new, or at least new to me. So £80 isn’t that bad considering you had two alcoholic drinks plus soft drinks

£90ish

£70?

About £90? Sides are expensive and so is wine.

I went to a restaurant recently (not a chain, and a restaurant rather than a casual cafe) where they really rushed us - we were in and out within an hour. They were constantly hovering trying to remove dishes that we were still picking at, and they cleared away my companions' starters and gave them their mains while I was still eating my starter. The food was nice but I won't be going back.

As for prices, I think I need to adjust my expectations. I just booked a meal out and was struggling to choose as the menus all seemed so expensive. In a restaurant that's nice but not posh, in my head it should be about £6 for a starter or dessert and £12 for a main, but really it's around £10 for starter/dessert and £20 for a main.

I think it a a fair point. I took my friend and our two teenagers out to a chain restaurant recently. My friend’s daughter suggested getting tap water as they weren’t bothered about fizzy drinks: it brought down the bill a lot so I was grateful for the suggestion!

£20 is definitely the norm for mains now. The first time I saw £20 for scampi and chips in a pub I nearly fainted! Now we stick to Hungry Horse or Spoons. Fine dining indeed!

Wagamama is owned by private equity. You're paying for someone's very nice life up in the ivory towers.

I don't go there anymore. Only order take away and never any drinks.

In case you didn't know OP, the place where restaurants make their money is on the drinks.

The food much less so. If I do find myself going to one of these places I ask for tap water and just eat the meal.

Probably it would have come out at £40 or so and be half the price.

You can still eat out, but you have to be sensible.

Drinks cost around £5 each. You had 4. Sides are also a complete rip off. You had 2.

Yes, eating out used to be a fun throwaway thing to do but not any more sadly. I feel you. We used to eat out a lot but now, we don't nearly as much.

PS, Easyjet just passed hands in private equity. Watch that company get stripped over the next 3 years and turn into a complete wreck of a company.

Again and again, another one bites the dust.

Around £100, conservatively. The soft drinks will have been expensive and you had two side dishes as well.

£73.00

Haven't looked and £78. Off to look.

No idea as I have not been to one of their restaurants for years.

I always thought their food was bland and overrated and did not like the concept of sharing tables.

Get me and my very close guess! It was the wine that got you!

I don't understand your shock unless you haven't eaten out for a few years.

I never eat in Wagamama anymore as it's not my cup of tea these days but I'd imagine a main course to be at least £20, then you had two side dishes, which must be about £4-5, wine at about £8 a class and soft drinks at £3ish? Then service charge, so it can't come in at much less than £80

I also don’t understand the shock, the prices are on the menu, you know before ordering,

That is steep. 4 family members all ate out at country pub last night (adult portions): mains, dessert & drinks (2 had alcoholic drinks) for £100 which I thought was very reasonable and the food was pretty decent!

I hate the normalisation of sharing a table. I don't want to sit down next to a stranger. I want to be able to talk in privacy. Another reason I don't go to Wagamama.

It’s on the drinks menu and marked as free but you still have to order it 😂

DH and I both have the app. We always pay the bill through the app and split the bill in half so we both pay part of the bill. That way we both earn a star each time even though both payments are coming from the same account. When you’ve got six stars you get a free main and you also get a free side somewhere along the way I think. So we eat out for free (excluding drinks) once in a while. We like Wagas for a quick drop in meal.

7% according to their figures

@whippersnapper55 made a very useful point. Soft drinks and alcohol add considerably to the bill and it is very easy to fritter away money on extras.

Two main courses with water will come to around £30.