To not expect to be served a ready-meal when I eat out?

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

We bought some gift vouchers for family members for a big chain 'restaurant' place named after two Italian gentlemen that they love and go to frequently. All fine.

But it got me thinking as we personally can't stand that place. When we went there with them once, the food was terrible - chewy, tasteless and thoroughly unappetising, the same as it was when we went some time ago - I suppose we were hoping it might have changed in the meantime, but it was actually worse. It wasn't cheap either.

We've experienced this at a number of other places too. Looking online, it appears that it's become the norm at a lot of restaurants to have dishes prepared centrally (often from a generic third-party wholesaler) that they then keep in the freezer and just heat up - often in a microwave - when they're ordered.

We don't have ready meals at home unless it's a real emergency - in such cases, we'd rather have something simple and basic like beans on toast or a sandwich than a microwave meal, which we invariably regret immediately afterwards anyway.

We're not snobbish in any way - we've had many a satisfying meal at greasy spoon/transport cafes and pubs where they've had a chef who actually cooks rather than just microwaving. We don't like and couldn't afford and would probably be turned away at first glance from 'gourmet' restaurants owned by a celebrity chef and with a waiting list, but we're happy to pay a fair price for a good meal.

The worst ones are carveries, where 80% of customers are eating pretty much the same thing all day, with a steady stream of demand, and yet some still use frozen roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings.

It seems like a lot of people don't mind it, and some obviously enjoy it, which is great if you do - maybe the atmosphere and theme/surroundings is what matters most to some folk - but I really wish there was some clear way of knowing in advance whether a cafe/pub/restaurant serves food prepared and cooked on the premises or just shoves an unpleasant ready-meal in the microwave for you. Maybe something like CAMRA accreditation but for food rather than just beer?

I have been to f&b several times. Usually because I am part of a group and out voted.

Despite their food being centrally produced (at least in part) I find the quality is very different from branch to branch.

2 in places where I regularly work are shite. Ones in my 2 nearest shopping centres are actually alright.

I can't work myself in about this. They don't hide what they do. They lunch deals are cheap. It's not cooked from fresh, if people like it they like it. If they don't they don't.

Even Wetherspoons is better than F&B. People rave about their full English breakfasts, and Ive had burgers and jacket potatos from there that's have been better than anything Ive had from F&B's.

Frankie and Bennies has its uses for very particular relatives who like very standardised, plain food and a predictable menu. There's enough selection to pick a few paletable options for those of us who like some taste. Definitely overpriced, but we've had too many fails at lovely country pubs and anything remotely exotic is a definite fail.

My theory with restaurants is the higher the number of available dishes, the lower the quality of food

I think you're probably right there, but I still don't see why a busy restaurant couldn't prepare and refrigerate the basic ingredients of some items that they know they'll sell earlier on and then cook them when they're ordered, rather than just hauling them straight out of the freezer that Brake's filled for them last week. A lot of the dishes will share a few basic constituents anyway.

This is one of the reasons we hardly ever eat out - if I wanted a ready meal I'd go for a Tesco or M&S meal deal for £10 (for two of us!)

Isn't the point of big chains that you get exactly the same thing, every time no matter what the location?

Well, that's what I go to McDonald's for. Which means that I am most likely to eat there when I am in a foreign country where I don't like the local cuisine.
At home, I have a kitchen, so won't eat out unless I expect the food there to be better than something I could make.

There's places you go to in order to not be hungry anymore, and then there's places you go to for the experience of eating out.

If a restaurant signals that it is the latter kind of place, and then serves me a ready made meal that's only been thawed, I do get very annoyed.

Yanbu. As a teen I worked in a village pub/ restaurant and the food was all packaged from 3663. Disappointing when I realised almost everything except the steak was microwaved.

When I eat out I want to eat freshly cooked food, not a glorified ready meal. Generally I avoid chain restaurants as independents tend to have tastier, fresher food and a more interesting menu.

I ate at Zizzi for the first time recently and was pleasantly surprised by the menu and the nice food. Do Zizzi cook from fresh?

@theWaronPeace, reminds me of this parody about chickens served in restaurants

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

That's sounds great. But from a business point of view it's not. It creates waste because you can't actually predict what people will eat.

I owned a restaurant with exh. All cooked from scratch. To do it effectively without having a big staff bill for prep and service, the menu needs to be small.

It's a very popular restaurant. But customers do feel we should have had a big menu. But they don't realise that will run costs up......increasing prices.

If the menu is laminated or has more than 6 starters, and 8 mains, chances are it’s freeze and fry heaven.
Even wagamama’s Food comes in prepackaged. It’s for consistency and price.

Wetherspoons but eggs that are already poached. They come in tiny little packets! Everything comes in ready to be microwaved. The chicken comes in cooked, with black ‘chargrill’ marks on it already. It’s just then pinged in the micro.
The only thing cooked from fresh on the grill is the steak. They are definitely as bad as F&B.

I think you can guarantee that any chain restaurant is simply reheating frozen meals. It surprises me when people expect otherwise. However I think there is a big difference between accepting this at Wetherspoon's and not accepting this at Frankie & Benny's, popular Italians or pub chains such as Vintage Inns or Chef & Brewer where the meals are at least twice the price of Wetherspoon's, and frankly it is cheaper to eat a meal that fills you up at Wetherspoon than it is at McDonalds. @TheQueef's family must have eaten and drunk an unbelievably huge amount to pay £250 for 8 people at Wetherspoon!

A good rule of thumb is that if a restaurant/ pub is offering easily available discount vouchers then never eat there at full price .

Worst thing I was ever served was a Carbonara at F & B's. Didn't understand how an Italian chain could do a basic so revoltingly...

I was served the biggest pile of tasteless slop known to mankind at chiquito. It was awful.

I also agree that a local family run Italian is usual head & shoulders (& cheaper ) than the likes of f&b and ask Italian etc.

YANBU.

DWs birthday Monday.

For the past 10 years, offered a chance to go anywhere to eat, she always says she prefers for me to cook (something special, obviously) because of the dire food at any of the pubstaurants type places (that includes F&B).

The only time we've had non identikit food is at local independent Indian restaurants ( not the "buffet" type all-you-can-eat places).

haven't they just bought wagamama too?

and our local Beefeater is great - straightforward food but well done...

There would be a table full Pudding wedges and extra chips or bottles of wine. They don't scrimp but it ends up thrown away or half uneaten.

YABU. I can't believe anyone didn't know most chains are pre-prepared.

DH used to be supermarket department manager. One day, the manager of a local Italian restaurant came in and ordered 3 cases of the supermarket's own brand 'fresh' beef and red wine ravioli! DH was . We've never been to that restaurant since, though unsurprisingly it is 'under new management'...

It annoys me when they serve Tesco value burgers and chips when you wouldn't buy that for home cooking

YANBU and I can only assume that the majority of people who eat in these places have not tasted proper home cooked food. We have managed to avoid eating at any of these chains for many years. It's independent all the way in this household - that includes coffee shops. We had lunch out today at a lovely little chinese dumpling bar. We often eat at the Thai a few stalls away - these are both small eateries in our market hall. If I want Italian then I go to an Italian restaurant run by Italians! Most of these places are much cheaper to eat in than the well known names who frequent vast swathes of our HIgh Street.

I think that I read on a similar thread to this a few months back that if you do find yourself eating in 'branded' places then the burgers or steaks are usually freshly cooked - everything else is microwaved or boil in the bag.

You’re better off with a chippy tea a lot of the time or a curry.

Chain restaurants are generally awful. Not sure what they are so popular as they aren't cheap! Best restaurants are where they have a short menu or no choice at all!

Frankie & Bennys is shite everything is prepackage and frozen, bland and tasteless.

Your username is Awesome OP