to think the standard of restaurant food in England is, in general, very low?

[cailindana]

I love eating out. When I lived in Ireland I did it all the time. My home town is very small compared to English towns (though big in Irish terms!) and it had a wide range of excellent restaurants and pubs that served really really good food. Not cheap, but excellent quality and well worth what you pay for it.

Here I find the quality of food is really poor. It's very easy to eat out cheaply here but very hard to find somewhere that does really good food. I live in the East Midlands and it is exceptionally hard to find a restaurant that just does simple food but to a very good standard. For example the pub near where I used to work in Ireland did delicious homemade vegetable soup with homemade bread and gorgeous toasties on homemade bread as their lunch menu. Nothing at all fancy but very high quality and always done to perfection. Here, I can't find anything nearly similar and quite a few times, even in expensive restaurants, I've had food that wasn't cooked properly or just wasn't very appetising. Today we paid £34 for two very basic burgers that were served with frozen chips and tesco-standard coleslaw along with a very tiny children's meal. For that money in Ireland (generally) you would be guaranteed that everything would be very high quality, including handmade chips and coleslaw, frozen or packet stuff just wouldn't be acceptable.
Is it just that I live in a bad area for restaurants or is this just general thing around England?

I went to the pub the other day and had a fantastic burger made with steak mince and homemade hand cut chips which cost £10

I eat out a lot and there are loads of decent restaurants here that sell high quality food.

I agree!
When I lived in East Midlands I really struggles to find anywhere decent and often felt totally ripped off when I had to pay stupid prices for very average food.
I'm on the Durham/Northumberland border now and there are some real gems around here. Cuisines they seem to do particularly well around here are Game and Seafood. And the prices don't make me want to weep.
For me, I've found the trick is to seek out the few outstanding places and stick to them.

£34 for two crap burgers? I'd have cried!

Just find a good curry house and all will be well . . .

Depends where you live- but yes, it's piss poor here (Hampshire) too.
Doesn't help that we're veggie.

You must be going to the wrong places. I can think of several small cafés round here (up in the north east) that do lovely, inexpensive, freshly prepared food.

Even the chain restaurants don't cost £34 for two burgers and a children's meal. We went to handmade burger company at lunchtime and paid less than £20 for DH, DS2 and me. The chips weren't frozen.

I'm inclined to agree with you. The standard of food in the majority of pub/restaurant chains is affected by it being mass produced and I feel I can cook it better at home. I prefer to eat out at Indian or Chinese restaurants as I can't cook these dishes as well as their chefs, so I feel I'm getting a treat.

However on holiday recently in Norfolk we had delicious meals in The Vic at Holkham (fabulous chips) and The Chequers in Binham. Just wonderful.

I've had a couple of very nice lunches at The Bakehouse at Rothwell (Northants) too.

We live in London. In general the food is excellent

I live in the East Midlands - plenty of decent restaurants around here. Maybe you're just unlucky?

I've lived abroad in several countries, and travelled in many more, and I think it's perfectly possible to get decent food in England. The service often stinks, but the food is ok (if you avoid the chain pubs which tend to be dismal).

I haven't noticed Irish restaurants as being particularly amazing tbh - far many places in the world where I'd rather eat!

Depends where you are. Liverpool was great when I lived there. London is obviously fab. The service is shite all over though. I've moved to Canada and the contrast is stunning.

I'm in Sheffield & don't struggle at all to find a decent place to eat, suppose it depends where you are.

You're very right. I'm in the East Midlands and I rarely go out for food now, it's really bad around here unless you want fried/microwaved food.

If you're in Derby or near there, there's a pub on Ashbourne Road called Grundy's which cooks its own food, and it's fab. They brew their own beer too. Other than that, I don't know anywhere else.

You have to find the good 'places' and support them. But a lot of pubs are now running the Brakes Bros formula. I don't know whether to blame a skills shortage or lack of demand. A lovely 'fresh food' local caf near me closed, because they got depressed that (by a large margin) their biggest seller was 'all day breakfast'. Whereupon people would complain that the beans weren't Heinz!

I'm in East Anglia and we have lots of wonderful, cheap restaurants. Our local pub does a burger, fries or coleslaw and a drink (pint, glass of wine or soft drink) for less than £7. It's all freshly made and uses local produce.

I think you're going to the wrong places - I've never paid £34 for two burgers in my life, frozen or otherwise!

I think we have lots of good places in Hampshire.

Wouldn't really say they were cheap or good value though.

And what's with the mains that no longer come with vegetables? Not keen on that 'upmarket' trend.

You have to find the good 'places' and support them.

Yes indeed. I only go to independent restaurants and cafés, no chains. We have some fab places near us. :)

wrong pub, wrong eatery.

and they saw you coming with those prices!!

generally the more words on the menu, the worse the food.

Burger and chips for 11 each, 2 drinks, kids meal for a fiver - £34 easily...

Name and shame OP!

Bet you went to Gourmet Burger Kitchen

Homemade in Nottingham isn't bad. We're in one of the 'town's' outside though and there's really naff all here apart from a Wetherspoons. It's depressing.

Agree with the OP. But I'm also aware that a lot if people around me tell me how x and y places are 'faaanstastic' and I'm really disppoibtedcwhen I actually go to the place.
Most of the pubs/restaurants where I am will present you with 'industrial' foods ie they haven't actually cooked the food but bought the chips/meat already prepared so basically they've just assembled the bits together.
There is ONE very good restaurant where I live but it will cost you about £35pet person for a meal there.

And they are all independant too...,

I don't know about England in general but I know it varies on area within England a lot.
When I lived in Oxford there were loads of nice restaurants!
Now I live in another city and every time I've eaten out (apart from chain restaurants which are the same) it's been somewhere between disappointing and grim. Even the takeaways aren't as good [first world problems].
So you might just be in a bad area for restaurants.

That surprises me, captain - I don't think I know any independent restaurants that don't cook their own food. Not sure about pubs - I don't generally eat in them.

I'm in Oxfordshire, spoilt for choice here. I've also just come back from a holiday I'm North Yorkshire and ate in some amazing places (not cheap though).