To feel restaurants are a waste of time and money

[worldly123]

Have been on holiday this week here in the UK. Have eaten at quite a few restaurants, including one recommended, a top hotel, a teashop and a foodie deli.

It all reminded me why I rarely or never eat at restaurants. I splashed out on this trip but usually only cook at home. Without exception they were pretty awful and I ended up leaving most of it. The tough, stringey steak. The pre-cooked roast beef (ordered in like school dinners but presented as a fresh roast I guessed?). The tiny salads totally drenched in dressings. The cheapest, fattiest sausages you ever tasted - at an exclusive hotel! Teashop scones - tasteless dough and water. I felt like crying. Yet all around me people laughed and joked and seem to enjoy their food .

When I got home I made my own bacon and salad sandwich on white bloomer, and it was to die for. It probably cost £1, and was the most delicious thing I'd all week .

I know overheads are high in restaurants, its labour intensive and so forth. And I've had one or two excellent meals in the last 10 years. But honestly why would anyone eat out at a restaurant when so often it feels like an ordeal from beginning to end. And this at a time when we are bombarded on TV with cookery programmes ...

AIBU?

I like to cook I'm a good cook so when we go out it either has to be something exceptional (tends to be expensive) or not what I would cook at home (Chinese or Thai)

On holiday it can be a pain finding somewhere good to eat - we often go self-catering so have some meals "at home" - as I'm "off duty" it's usually bread & cheese, salad, salami & wine

I hate staying in hotels, and always prefer to self-cater. That way we eat well by buying decent local produce, and just have the odd meal out somewhere really good.

There are very good places to eat in this country but there are still some shockingly low standards to be found.

Cheap really doesn't have to mean bad, just as expensive doesn't equal reliably good.

We can't afford to eat out but on the very rare occasions when we do I just end up resenting paying such a lot of money for ordinary food with a few faffed about bits. And don't get me started on the wine prices!!!

Ate at "French Laundry" (loved it) last month, ridiculously expensive and not something we do that frequently but eating out at a great restaurant with friends is probably my favorite thing to do!

Actually thinking about it, some of the meals which are cheaper are my favourites.

I really enjoy a Toby Carvery ( please feel free to mock away) as I know I'm going to get roast turkey and a full plateful of vegetables and crispy roasties for less than if I cooked it myself. Ditto Pizza Hut - pizzas taste the same to me as the Pizza Express ones, are half the price and you get salad bar thrown in.

On the more gourmet side, I love seafood but find it hard to cook, particularly scallops and mussels which I've had some epic fails with at home. Therefore I love ordering them when I'm out as someone else has done the preparation.

One of the best places I've been to is very cheap, all home cooked and I've seen them buying fresh produce in the local supermarket. There are some good places around but some produce reheated catering packs. Youve just got to look around and ask them if it is prepared from scratch

It's the waste of food that gets me.... It's manageable when I'm in charge (I don't order for me & scavenge off of DC plates). But if I'm out with other adults, usually there's tonnes left. I hate it.

Given the many costs, I fully believe few restaurants are making much money out of punters.

I think that on the whole, the non chain restaurants in the UK are pretty amazing compared to say 30 years ago.
They have really upped their game in terms of quality, diversity and service.
OP, I think you were just plain unlucky.

I never ever ordered steak in a restaurant because I thought I didn't like it. One holiday we were staying in an Agriturismo in Italy 6km down a dirt track (which we had bravely done in our Fiat Panda) and were eating there - no choice over the meal. The biggest steak in the world was slapped down in front of us, so rare it was practically still mooing. There were no veg, sauces or accompaniments, just cow.

The host explained it came from his own cows he farmed organically on the mountainside. It was a steak to die for and I realised I very much liked steak after all. The meal was practically a spiritual experience.

I also realised that I must never ever order steak in a British restaurant ever again. This one steak had ruined all other steaks for ever more.

I have occasionally broken the 'no steak' rule but it is an ingredient to be treated with total respect and if you don't, then you will get horrid vile steak and frankly you deserve it.

Wolper that steak sounds amazing

I hardly ever order steak in restaurants.

I agree. I'm vegetarian and my food is usually dreadful even when the meat eaters say their food is great. For example, we went out to eat in a local restaurant that has has very good reviews in national newspapers. The only veggie option was celeriac with couscous salad. When it arrived, it was literally a slice of boiled celeriac on about two tablespoons of plain couscous and four leaves of normal, no even fancy, lettuce. It was basically like having a main course of boiled carrot. Or the time I went to a Michelin starred restaurant, admittedly for the bargain lunch menu, and the only veggie option was pesto and pasta. It tasted exactly like the pesto and pasta I cook at home once a week only it cost 10 times the price. Or the very smart restaurant we went to in a posh hotel in Norfolk that had a vegetarian menu alongside the normal menu so for once I had some choice (hurray!) only to see that every recipe featured non-veggie partisan cheese. Just odd.

wolper im also with u on steaks that sounds amazing

op where were u on holiday-yes some places are good some arent-i find cream teas are better in the country than the city

I think certain things are best cooked at home ( steak, roast dinner, risotto, pasta) these can often be a let down in restaurants. I love eating out but I agree that it's disappointing to pay a lot of money for pretty average food.

I'm a keen cook and up until a couple of years ago didn't eat out much at all as I became very disillusioned with the food and would stick to going out to restaurants that served food I wouldn't cook better at home ie Chinese, I would never opt to go out for a Sunday Roast as to me it is an easy meal to cook and home-made is best. For the last two years I have been eating out as a mystery shopper and have loved it!!! Some of the food is poor quality and some is excellent, some value for money some no so. I love eating out at someone else's expense. We had a family meal at Wagamama yesterday and I have a hotel restaurant meal to look forward to on Wednesday (taking MIL as a birthday treat) - three courses with wine will probably be around £100, it's not somewhere I would consider is good value for money and would not spend my own money there but it will be a nice evening!
There are a few places I have had really good food and would go back to using my own money but overall I find that many restaurants vary a great deal from visit to visit and between branches of the same chain.

Tellastory that's a great job!

Not really a job more of a hobby. Free food in exchange for following a the brief and submitting a comprehensive report. I have been lucky to have a few overnight says in boutique hotels with dinner and breakfast included, they have been a real treat as I would never pay that much money for 1 night out of my own pocket.

I'm in NI, near the North Coast.

The food here outstanding. Mostly locally caught seafood & Irish beef & lamb.

Just today we ate in a restaurant by the sea & although it was full of tourists & an offer on cocktails, the food was mouthwateringly delicious & the beef was melt in the mouth. #ourweecountry

(This is Northern Ireland Tourist Board year of food & drink so for anyone thinking of a trip to NI, now is the time!!)

Rainbunny I'm envious. I've had the French Laundry cookbook for years, and would love to go there at some point.

I agree with the OP - I am a pretty good cook, , and have worked in the hospitality trade for years so perhaps I have a jaded view but my pet hate is being served average food, badly cooked, over priced, by 'youngsters' who have clearly no idea what good 'customer service' means.

I've eaten out lots of times in Norfolk and don't consider it that good .

I too remember lovely Italian restaurants in the 1970s - what's happened to them ?

First - Do it! You'll not regret it! The wine tasting in Napa/Sonoma is worth the trip alone! We had a great time although one couple with us did take pictures of every food course which drove me a bit crazy. I'm really not into photographing food, a personal gripe!

Personal tip! If you venture out there - have an easy night and enjoy delicious burgers at "Gott's Roadside Diner" in Napa. It's owned by Joel Gott, a local wine producer and if you bring bottles of Gott wine (easily bought from local supermarkets) to the diner they'll give you plastic glasses and a ice pitcher and open your wine for you - no extra cost. Delicious burgers with delicious wine and it's a bargain!

Surely one of the best things about eating out is that all of you can order separate meals that you want to eat? For a family of 4, I don't think we've ever eaten out and all ordered the same thing, at home I would never cook 4 different meals for serving at the same time.

I think you've been very unlucky op

I too remember lovely Italian restaurants in the 1970s - what's happened to them

There's still a few where I am. At least two have been owned and run by the same people since the 1970s, but I suppose that some small independents struggle because a lot of people seem to prefer the generally worse and more expensive food served at chains. .

I find it genuinely baffling. WTF would you eat at somewhere like Bella Italia or La Tasca when you can get better food for less at an independent?

They might say 'but you know what you will get at a chain' but when it is usually mediocre at best and at the independent there is a good chance that it will be a lot better, I just don't understand that way of thinking.

Me, dh and the DC love eating out and do so at In once or twice a week! In the summer we can often be found at a country style pub with a beer garden/play area/ grass with a football and the dog, outside having dinner. We always find it enjoyable. Date nights although rare are always an Indian restaurant and we try a new one every few months. We love it.