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'm in the East mids and don't think it's bad.

Try The Vic in Beeston, Nottingham. Great food and really good ales.

Plenty of nice places near me, although not cheap, but if I wanted a burger, chips and a drink for £5 I'd go to McDonald's.

It can be hit and miss, I do agree. Pubs that have a really great sounding menu but many of them just don't live up to the hype. Or you get there and discover it's actually part of a chain and the food is crap.

Do they make roast potatoes out of actual potatoes, Pobble, or are they Aunt Bessie's disaster's?

I grew up in the East Mids and go back on occasion - it used to be dire and is a bit better now.

My dad's family are Irish, and I never had a decent meal there that wasn't home cooked. It's no reflection on Ireland itself - but when you're trying to eat out, you have to get to know a place reasonably well.

Sat Bains is meant to be good, isn't he? I've no idea as never been. But he's in Nottingham. But best bet is, if you're able to get into Leicester, go for a curry. Anywhere down Belgrave road.

When you say "England", do you literally only mean England, or the remainder of Britain as a whole?

Anyway - we have some great pubs and restaurants where I live, albeit more expensive than £34 for three meals. IME, a child's meal comes in a pretty standard size, not normally particularly tiny, If it were, I'd find myself complaining too! However, I do find the choice for children is poor on the whole, if they are not keen on nuggets or sausages, etc. You only generally get this in pubs, though. We've been to some great private restaurants (NOT the chains, where they are restricted and sometimes obstructive) where the staff have bent over backwards to accommodate our children. Even if it only means bringing an extra plate so they can have a bit of what we're eating.

Wales, I find is cheaper. I live in the SE of England and would agree that it is pretty expensive to eat out, but then everything is more expensive here than the rest of the UK. London most especially so. But understandable, as rent and rates, etc, are more expensive. So the consumer is naturally charged more. That's economics!

Always brilliant places to eat out here - SW England.

I agree.

Even in places people rave about I'm
Yet to have anything that blew me away.

Some places don't even have a chef. Just someone in the kitchen following time and presentation guides rather than cooking.

I'm in the west midlands where they stake their families reputations on their curry!

Wherever you go though, if you go to a chain restaurant then you'll get passable food at best.

Generally if you go somewhere that uses frozen meals or sauces, the food will be a low quality. You need to go somewhere where they actually make what they sell. Chains never do.

There are some good places to eat in the East Midlands, and places I wouldn't go near.

i've had a couple of nice meals out in the nottingham area. pricey places though (someone else was paying )

i definitely haven't encountered this problem where i live, but it's more touristy anyway. it can be difficult to get away from the chains in some areas, but you don't have to look that far. there are some really lovely pubs

It's no reflection on Ireland itself - but when you're trying to eat out, you have to get to know a place reasonably well

I was going to say something along those lines. We have struggled to find places to eat in England, too, while we find it easy at home here in Ireland. We thought it was probably familiarity, too. And there may be a different eating style? We tend to know where we're likely to find the food we want.

I guess it's the same everywhere.

Wow 34 for two burgers!

With less than that (25) we have 4 huge plates with lamb kebab and fab rice, huge salad , side dishes of youghurt/mint dip and a hummus plate, olives and a big basket with fantastic flat bread. Free coffee ot tea on top and free turkish delight for the dcs. (thats in North London, most Turkish Restaurants have similar menu and similar prices). The food is fantastic, full of flavour and herbs.

Have you looked into Indian Restaurants?

In Ireland my favourite meal is soda bread and mature cheese, i can have that every day.

YANBU OP. Most chain restaurants sell poor quality factory shite food. Some independents are better. I don't eat out as much as I would like as I don't like paying a fortune for food I could make better at home.

If I don't want to cook, we get a takeaway or have something easy like frozen pizza, filled pasta or steak and chips.

However, your experience of Ireland sounds much better than mine. I've been a few times and found it hard to find food that wasn't out of the 1950s. Very plain, with all vegetables really overcooked. On one trip, the least hideous thing I had was McDonalds

apolcalypse - YY, definitely think it's about style. When I moved to where I am now (SE England) I spent ages trying to find where was nice because there were so many restaurants that were basically chains, all doing the same sort of thing. I thought basic Italian/French would be easy, but actually, most of it here is horrible.

This thread is making me really crave soda bread, though. Never as nice over here.

I suspect it is about not knowing where to eat out. You have to find people whose opinion you trust about food, where they would recommend. For example, there is a very good Nepalese restaurant in Nottingham, but their Indian food is very average, as is their Sunday buffet. So I would recommend it only if you want Nepalese food. You need that kind of local knowledge.

dp's parents eat out quite a lot, and will often try newish restaurants and recommend to us (or tell us to avoid). so we don't often have bad meals out because those ones have been weeded out for us

I think youve just had bad luck. Have you tried working your way through the good pub guide for bistro pubs? Having just got back from a holiday in england i was impressed by the variety and low cost compared to denmark. The availability of digferent cuisines is mind blowing.

London has excellent choice but is expensive, that said you still need a bit of a heads up as plenty of dodgy places.

Went back to Ireland recently - one place great, one very average - a bit like everywhere. A lot comes down to picking where you go and getting good recommendations

I really don't rate the Victoria in Nottingham for food, it's great for beers but not food. However there are several good places to eat in Nottingham ( and some really crap places too).

I enjoyed Sat Bains but it's not for everyone. My DH won't go near the place as he thinks it's 'pissy' food.

Ooh ... well, if you do go, I hope it's good, sandiacre! I have not gone for similar reasons I suspect. Besides which I bet it's hard getting a table.

Mr Mann's is a blast from the past - we used to get taken there as children. I used to lust after those fancy ice-creams served in a coconut shell.

West Berkshire here with local pubs where it's often hard to book a table because their food is to die for and it's reasonably priced. And they have several real ales.

Oh, well, if you're naming places, I'll name one of my favourites - The Fox & Hounds at Sheffield Bottom.