Am I being tight/ greedy?

[Feebeela]

I ordered sourdough toast with avocado, tofu and plantain at my local cafe for lunch today. I was hungry. The dish was 2 slices of sourdough toast; 1 slice with avocado, 1 slice naked no butter, 2 small strips of tofu and 2 small slices of plantain with about 5 spinach leaves. I questioned the portion size as it seemed a bit, well, mean. My friend said it was about right but I was expecting avo on both slices and more than 2 slices of plantain for £4.95.

AIBU or AIB greedy?

Um, the key is in my name. I'm in Scotland, last I checked, it's a real fucking country. We use the pound here, and a loaf of sourdough from a supermarket is about £1.50, but again, this is a cafe in London the OP is patronising, with associated overheads. Imagine that?

I don't use names as location tags.
Judging by the price the cafe in London just takes the piss. And when I talk about sourdough bread, I talk about proper old-fashioned handmade loaf, not the shitty supermarket crap which is sourdough in the name only.
There's no justification for the price of OP's sandwich other than 'you're in London, we overcharge everything. The sandwich itself looks like an malnourished dog's vomit.

If there were no justification for charging what they do, then they'd be out of business or will shortly. If not then obviously people think it's a fair deal. £4.95 for a sandwich isn't deemed an ungodly sum in many places in the UK. She went to a vegan cafe, an independent one, not a Subway, so obviously they are not going to be serving ham salad and roast chicken. Rents are expensive in London, so their overheads are likely not going to be as cheap as some places in the UK, or the wages they pay to staff and this can well be reflected in prices. It's not a hard concept to understand.

If the OP thinks it's a pisstake, there are plenty of other places she/he can patronise.

I've no idea what a bakery charges for sourdough, this not being Ireland , but the cheapest you can get it is the 'supermarket crap' so I'd imagine the bakery's might be dearer and if their overheads are high, their prices will reflect that.

I've only been to Ireland a couple of times, but eating out appeared to be similarly priced, or possibly a bit more expensive, than the UK, but £4.95 in a cafe that serves something as trendy as avocado on sourdough is below average if anything. There will certainly be many big city cafes, not just in London, that charge £6/7 for that sort of thing.

Sourdough costs more than other bread, cafes often pay extra for ready to use avocados rather than play the ripening lottery and cafe/restaurant food includes many costs that are over and above the actual price of the food.

There is nothing on that plate that I would eat, apart from dry bread, so on that basis YANBU

Price is reasonable, I also think it could have been put together better though.

I think that's cheap for London.

You're in London. Do you know what their rent and rates cost? Seems a very good price to me.

We found Ireland bargainous and generous portion sizes. Northern Ireland especially so. We had some lovely meals there. We once stopped by a wee inn in Drogheda and had THE most amazing meal, one of the best I've had, and it was about £12 for loads of food. Never had a disappointing meal there. Another time, on the way from Donegal to catch the ferry home at Belfast, we stopped in Omagh for a bite, just picked at random. Delicious and so cheap we were shocked.

I don't care for the avocadoes here because I come from a country where they grow easily and I find them all old and hard here and tasteless.

As for putting plantain with avocado, just . . . eewww.

Very small amount and overpriced! I'm vegetarian - feel that they always hike the price up for veggie meals

Tofu is expensive, avocado is expensive, sour dough bread is expensive compared to regular bread. What margin are you leaving for profit? Wages, overheads?! Honestly just eat somewhere else if you're offended by this.

Being from the north-east, I'd have had a heart attack receiving that for £4.95 but everything is a lot cheaper up here 😊

TBH I can understand your disappointment. That looks like an airline meal.

One of those situations when you have to go home after lunch out for some proper food, alas!

Just don't go back to that place.

If it's in London it seems about right.

I think considering you're in London and it consists of - without meaning to cause offence - more 'arty' foods, it was about right. I honestly don't mean that nastily, just the likes of ham/cheese etc. are generally more popular and cheaper.

That being said, it's an area thing as well. I'm from the West Midlands, but live on the south coast, and there are differences in prices - £4.95 for that here would be decent, particularly the closer to the beach you get, whereas in the midlands it would probably come with avocado on both slices and crisps on the side too.

I think sometimes individual establishments are cheaper than chain places (someone previously mentioned it) - Costa charged me 65p for an apple for my nephew today! There's no way an independent coffee shop or cafe would charge that.

Can people please stop spelling avocado with an r in it? It's not 'avocardo'.

Right as you were sorry guys it's been annoying me the whole thread

Seems dear to me. I can get a square sausage on a roll for £1 here. With sauce.

I'm with you OP. I ordered beans on toast at a (pricey) cafe for £5 and was appalled to receive two slices of toast with a tiny ramekin of beans. Not remotely enough to cover the toast. Never again

Anyone asking for avocado in my local takeaways would get laughed at.

To me it's less the price or amount, it's the appearance. It just all looks dry and uninviting. And I don't understand the combination at all. Bread and tofu? Plantain and avocado??

For 4.95 I'd say that was about right. Last week I paid 7.95 for three slices of turkey and a very basic salad. I think that was bad!

Looks okay for a fiver but far better would have been to have bruschetta on the second slice. Looks far too dry overall tbh.

I've no idea what plaintain is either but I know that it looks like a bruised banana and Africans fry it.

What's with the hating of plantain? And it's not just "Africans" that eat it ("ewww" whaaaat?😐). Carribeans and south Americans eat it too. It's related to bananas but more fibrous so needs to be cooked. It's delicious! Also avocado is naturally oily so no need for anything to 'moisten' the sandwich.

OP I think it looks ok for London prices and I'd be happy with that for lunch.

The issue for me is less the cost / portion size and more the fact that it looks deeply unappetizing...too dry, too carby, unseasoned. But then I hate vegan food.