To Wonder When Starters Got So Expensive

[AnotherBoringSaturday]

DP & I went out for dinner last night to one of local pubs.
It is a lovely country pub.
Starters were £8.50 + !!
I just had a main (£22.50) but DP has a starter as well. It was a piece of mackerel the size of my thumb (literally 2 mouthfuls) for £8.50
We did mention it to the waitress & they sent us another piece but I’m just shocked at how expensive it was.
Don’t even get me started at the price of pudding

Wetherspoons weren’t in trouble themselves. They dropped their supplier because the suppliers hygiene was substandard. One thing about Wetherspoons is that they are pretty shit hot on hygiene in their kitchens.

I thought they knew though but let things carry on, might have been relevant government department who was to blame and ignored the old meat thing. anyway, my curry was good and tasty and I didn't feel I'd been (somehow) fleeced-with-smiles as I walked out the doors.

I must take exception to the poster who compared eating out with Indian food.
The day I pay for, eat "mystery meat" soaked in spicy slop will be the same day I'll hurl myself off a bridge.

I honestly dread to think what the poor bastards are chewing on.

I'd sooner take my chances eating out of public rubbish bins that's been shared amongst the vermin creatures.

strong words Charlie. do you not think some curries eaten out are nicer - they have all the original spices, cooking methods etc? I struggle to emulate the recipes at home ...

Mrcharlie you have either never tried eating at a good Indian restaurant or never had a curry.

That is quite an offensive post I think.

mrcharlie, for a start me and DH are both vegetarian so we, obviously, don't eat meat in an indian restaurant. Secondly I dread to think what indian restaurants you have eaten in if you think curry is "spicy slop".

Vegetarian indian food can be delicious. There is a vegetarian indian restaurant in Covent Garden where the food is really good and the prices are very reasonable. The food is quite different on the whole from restaurants that serve meat and fish.

TheoryPractical, I buy spices either from my local market stall or an indian supermarket. I have just about all the spices ever needed for any indian recipe and I have a pestle and mortar so grind them myself.

As I said, our curries are as good as a restaurant's except for the naan bread

I was on a pay freeze for 5 years then last year got 2% this year nothing, so 2% over 7 years!
Price of everything has increased way beyond that
I very rarely eat out as I’m a very good cook and a savvy shopper so it needs to be worth the price, and either better or something I couldn’t or wouldn’t cook myself
I would expect to pay £30 to £50 a head, with maybe a single drink, for 2 or even 3 courses
I’ve also eaten at some fabulous Indian restaurants and do not recognise the mystery meat in spicy slop at all! One I’m very fond of does a delicately spiced fish tasting platter and is delicious

Just checked my local pub menu where we go fairly regularly. South East, not London.
Starters about £5, Mains £12-15, puddings about £6

I stick wth wetherspoons. Burger, chips and a glass of red and I’m going home with change from a tenner.

little pond, i am with you, wetherspoons is good value.

i just had one pie and mash ( not huge portion) in our local cafe and it was really nice and only 4.20. its always packed out in there on a saturday and a cup of tea is a £1.

you cant beat fish and chips at the seaside, although that is also getting pricy with a cup of tea or a roll thrown in if it a sit down place!

everything has gone up a lot though and eating out at anywhere a bit posh or chain restaurant isn't cheap anymore.

Don’t mince your words there MrCharlie.

I eat here a fair bit (menu link!) http://newcontinental.net/UserFiles/Files/Continental%20Menu%20-%20APR2018%20-%20WEB.pdf

Good food, really decent size portions as well and not mega pricey

I like Bills, but again, not that cheap, only been once mind.

lunch time menus are sometimes better value, Wildwood do two courses and a drink for a tenner between 12 and 2 or something like that, so thats not bad and the portions were good.

The other thing bargainous about London is the pre and post theatre menus - I paid £12.90 for 2 courses of really fine food at Browns in Covent Garden a couple of weeks ago.

Amazing beetroot starter. We then paid the extra £4 for desserts as the other two courses were so good. So that’s under £20 for a very fine lunch.

mrcharlie, good to know what you really think.

We went to the pub last weekend around lunch and I ordered a starter for £8.50 but it was a full plate of food and was too much for me to finish so I thought it was quite good value especially for a commuter town in the South East

I cook a lot of vegetarian food and it isn't much cheaper than meat and fish at all.

I buy good quality ingredients though. And it does take more prep than when I cook a steak and sauce. And interesting veggie dishes can be quite expensive just on ingredients.

Also, I love a la carte dining when I have something like a steak as it means I get everything I want.

I had one of the best fish pies I’ve ever tasted at Bills. They must be mass produced but wow they are good!

Wasn’t that long ago starters and desserts were sub £5, now they’re £6-7. That’s a 20-40% increase!!

Sometimes we choose 3-4 starters and share instead of a main, but I loathe having to order at the bar instead of table service, especially when the food is expensive, also having ridiculous buckets/baskets for about 7 chips £3!, frozen desserts cut into a small portion served on a huge plate or shallow dish dusted with cocoa powder/icing sugar/smear of coulis etc etc...just a rip off
Since when did every pub become a gastro pub?, even getting a chippy tea is a dear option nowadays

All that's happened is that now ai fancy going to the pub!

On the subject of prices of eating out, what about the cost of eating lunch out?

Me and DH like to have lunch out if we are out for the day but the prices are getting ridiculous. Some places are charging £8, £9 or even more for a sandwich. We are both vegetarian so you are not even talking meat or fish which I know are not cheap.

So a sandwich and a coffee each can cost over £20 which is a joke really.

We have taken to buying sandwiches in M&S, buying a coffee and sitting somewhere to eat. Plus M&S seem to have a bit more imagination when it comes to vegetarian fillings. Pret is probably the best but there is not always one of those where we go

Not a starter, but I was reaching for the smelling salts at the price of a cheeseboard (for 1) in the local hotel we occasionally go to for Sunday lunch - £17 friggin quid . It's not five star or anything and we are in the north. That's a shitload of Carr's water biscuits in anyone's book.

Someone at another table ordered it. Consisted of: sliver of blue (origin unknown); slightly larger portion of posh cheddar with rind (was mostly rind) and a soft cheese. There was the obligatory biscuits, a couple of slices of apple, celery and some pickle.
I.Was.Agog.

You think that's bad, a friend went to Le Manoir Aux Quat'Saisons and had the vegetarian main, which mainly consisted of a cauliflower, and was charged £55 for it. It better have been a bloody good cauliflower!