To think that restaurant food in Britain is fairly poor quality?

[partinor]

I live in a city that is supposed to have some of the best restaurants in Britain. I also am a good cook. Unless I spend £50 plus per meal, I usually end up eating a meal that is fine, but I could have easily made a meal as good or better myself fairly quickly.

Too many restaurants seem to basically buy in a combination of frozen ready made meals, and prop this up with fairly easy to make fresh food such as a fish cooked in a very easy to make sauce.

If I go out to eat I want something that is better than I can make fairly easily at home. I am beginning to think Britain must be a nation of poor cooks as I have been to so many places people rave about and I just think meh, that is fine, but no better than I made in 20 minutes after work last night.

I will carry on eating out with friends, just for the socialising.
Aibu.

It was not £54 including drinks. It was £54 without drinks or tip. So actually more than that per head.

When I lived in London I used to go to a cafe near me that did amazing Indian food very cheaply. I still miss it.

well if you think £54 a head is a lot then you're more than likely to get low level food. Why don't you go out more infrequently but to better places?

This is a crock of shit!

There is a fab place locally which has a reputation where people come for miles around with a set meal of 2 courses for £26. Even if you add in desert and drinks you'll still come in under £54. It has a far better reputation that a fairly local TV chef who tried to charge £100+ a head and subsquently had to drop his prices rapidly because no one went there and everyone thought he was a tosser and the food incredibly average.

I rarely eat out as I agree with you OP. Food is usually mediocre at best, and I can't help thinking what I could have bought with that money!

There's excellent restaurants but yes there's a cost associated with decent food. I regularly spend £10-20 on ingredients for dinner - I'm not calculating into that gas, electricity, rent, staff, cleaning equipment, licences. For a decent meal out I expect to pay £25-30 per head minimum for one course and a drink, lower than that no window they take short cuts. People like eating out and not everyone has big budgets

I paid much more than £54 per head. Wish people would read it. That was for the set menu, no drinks, no tip. Came to £150 for 2, so yes upper end of what I am prepared to spend. And if I am being unrealistic about prices, then I would rather meet up with friends at somewhere very cheap where at least I am not spending much.

RedTooth I really want to know where that is.

I don’t agree that great food had to be pricey.

Last absolutely great meal I had out was before Xmas in a little independent Italian in the nearest small town.

Bill for 6 of us came to £170 all in. Everyone had two courses (although some were starter, main and some were main, dessert)

"Go to a family owned independent restaurant with good trip advisor reviews."

This is good advice

Also experiment around

I work in city of london and go out for lunch a lot, a lot of the food is pretty average. I dont' go to the mega fat cat places but hav tried lots of different at the low to mid range. Average average average.

Meanwhile the Thai place near my house with a not very upmarket interior etc looks a bit clapped out is brilliant>
Lovely fresh well cooked food
Friendly waiting people
Always the right termperature (I get cold!)
Excellent value
You just need to look beyond the paper napkins and the clean but in need of a lick of paint surroundings!

It's finding a place where the person in the kitchen knows what they're doing and cares, and that can happen anywhere, so you just have to try around all sorts of things!

A lot of chefs are limited by the restaurant owners too. Owners get in a panic try to save money on ingredients and buy in rubbish.

People who focus on the price are not always a great judge of quality etc

See PP about city of london restaurants

Loads of wonga flying around, you expect lush and well, a lot of the time, as per OP, it's just "fine". Perfectly pleasant. Not bad, but equally nothing to get excited about.

Oh also our newish local steak place is excellent. They really know what they're doing and the steak is beautifully seasoned and cooked, all sides gorgeous, puddings are wow etc

That one is not so cheap but worth it IMO

threelocksstokehammond.com/ was very good, as was the beer on a recent weekend trip.

I've yet to have a bad meal here: www.lambhindon.co.uk/, or here, www.thehornofplenty.co.uk/ and this cafe does the best croques ever (and I've yet to eat a better one in Belgium) www.thekitchentavistock.com/

I'm a good and keen cook, so most of the time we eat at home. I do like a good meal out though - but always look at Tripadvisor reviews first, then check the menus (menu reading is a bit of a hobby!). If I'm going to eat out, I don't want to be sitting there thinking 'I could have cooked this better!'.

I rarely eat at chain restaurants. Not many Indian restaurants use Patak's sauces - it would be far more expensive for them than making their own base sauce, which is pretty easy once you know how. I learned to cook British Indian Restaurant (BIR) food when we moved somewhere that didn't have an Indian within 30 miles, and now mine is usually better than most you can find in restaurants. They may use Patak's Tandoori and Tikka pastes though - that's more common.

I live in 2 very different places - Brighton, and the far west of Ireland - and I can find good restaurant food in both places. We don't spend hundreds on eating out, either - a £20 main course is about average. Brighton has so many good places to eat, and in our rural corner of Ireland there's at least 3 places that are well worth a visit. Equally, there are hundreds of places in Brighton, and tens of them in Mayo which are mediocre at best, and minging at worst! If anyone's ever in Co. Mayo, I recommend The Tavern as a reasonably priced pub with restaurant - burgers available, but also some really good food! (The burgers aren't bad, but not exactly haute cuisine!).

I probably eat out between 4 and 6 times a year, so I like to make sure I'm going to have memorable food :)

Apologies, yes some places use the pastes.

I am a good cook too and I totally get what the OP is saying. It is very rare for me to have something better than I can cook at home, apart from proper wood fire pizza or authentic thai. I still like eating out most places as its nice not to have to cook and clear up but I tend to go for snack food like bacon sandwiches or chips - things I don’t make at home. Proper meals rarely meet my expectations.

I agree wholeheartedly that you don't have to spend a lot of money to get a decent meal.
but OP seems to want a meal that she wouldn't be able to produce at home.
I can follow any recipe so in theory food in most restaurants I could do myself, for cheaper but sometimes it;s nice not to bother cooking.
if though the OP wants soemthing she can't cook herself, then that's when you do need to spend a lot of money

@Shoxfordian might be because people who live in Richmond can generally afford to eat at better restaurants so more of them. I worked near Richmond for years and some places were lovely. Thankfully business expenses were paying for it

I think it depends on why you are eating out and on your expectations OP. For example, no doubt you could put together one of the curries from the Indian restaurant you mention for tea (although a meat curry should take rather more than 20 minutes). But would you bother to shop for and cook the sides, alternative dishes for those who fancied them, breads, chutney etc, all to be ready at the same time? Add on costs for premises, staff and other overheads and it's not surprising that it costs more in a restaurant. I do agree that some restaurant/pub kitchens aren't very good, but there are a lot of good ones around too. This is a general comment as I don't know the specific restaurant scene in Nottingham.

themoomoo Person above you agrees with em and talks about wood fired oven pizzas. I agree with this. If it is a good place wood fired oven pizzas can be delicious.
And no, it is not just that I want to eat food I can not cook myself. It can also be food that is a faff to make. But as I have said lots of decent places do simple to make food such as pan fried fish. And that is what Gordon Ramsey advises places to do.
Now I understand this is the way to make a profit. But pan frying a nice piece of fish is easy to do. I understand it is harder in a restaurant kitchen when you are doing many orders at once. But this an easy thing for me to make.

If I take a break from cooking I want something that is a bit more of a faff for me to make. Not something I can quickly do myself after work.

So in Paris I had a proper beef borgoigne. It was not a very posh place and it had obviously been cooking all day. And it was so delicious. Or where I used to live, the local Persian place used to do dish that you had to give 24 hours notice for as the meat had to be marinated. Again not expensive but very tasty and more work to make.

I am not saying I only want to eat places that do food masterchef style with lots of bits and pieces. But I do want food that is tasty and that takes me more than 20 minutes to make at home.

You've had some good advice about La Rock, they change the menu each week based on what's fresh. It's delicious.
Have you tried
Mowgli
Sexy mama
Zaap
Pelican club
Calcutta club
Alchemilla
Petit Paris

We have been to loads of Michelin star places all over the world, and I actually think Nottingham is quite good for eating out 😬

Thewifipasswordis I live near Richmond too and eat out fairly regularly. I very rarely spend spend £54 pp though and I find most restaurants that I eat in pretty good. I’ve had the three course pre theatre meno at the Savoy a couple of time which was excellent and at around £35pp much cheaper than the OPs £54. I mostly eat in restraint where food come to less than £20pp and very rarely have a bad meal.

steamed Yes meat should be cooked for ages. I prefer veggie Indian dishes though and they do not take long to eat. And I can shop very easily for all the other bits. I am talking about Pakistani or Bangladeshi shops where this stuff is cheap to buy.

As I said there was an amazing cafe where I used to eat aloo gobi and matter panneer regularly in London. Very cheap and better than mine. And I miss it so much. I understand overheads but I don't understand why somewhere in London can do better food cheaper.

"Go to a family owned independent restaurant with good trip advisor reviews."

I think this is the way to go. Places that try to be trendy are not necessarily the places to go. They are just fashionable for a short time. I know that a number of the supposed 'go to places' in Manchester have not lasted long as there is ultimately a reason for it. Shiny nice interiors are not always the be all and end all.

There is a trend of people 'being seen to eat' at certain places, almost as a status symbol, rather than because they purely want a damn good meal.

A nice refurb doesn't improve the standard of the food on sale.

Family businesses that have long been established often have very established relationships with suppliers so can beat prices without compromising so much on quality. They know how to buy in a canny way and what to buy when. They have survived when trends have changed and when competition has increased. There is always a reason for it, as its a tough business and market.

I actually believe that even when it comes to 'bog standard pub grub' there is a huge range of quality in the standard price range which is enomously frustrating and annoying. They are not all slinging stuff in the oven or microwave from frozen. And yet they still turn a profit too. Often because they manage to turn more tables and don't have too many quiet periods through the year due to their reputation.

I think there are a lot of misconceptions about eating out and people do fall for the idea that if you are spending more you'll always have a better experience. I don't believe its necessarily the case.

I agree about wood cooked pizza. It's a wonderful thing ( and cheap!)

We've got fed up of paying £50-£100 for a basic family meal for 4 at the "usual" chains such as F&B, Pizza Hut, Pizza Express, and typical pub chains - not only is the food crap, but the service is usually pathetic too - and they expect you to pay a premium for it.

We just go to supermarket cafes these days. If you're only going to get served something frozen/processed that a minimum wager pings in the microwave, I may as well pay a hell of a lot less for it. A main course for 4 at a Morrisons cafe is less than £20.

There's no chance that I'd spend the equivalent of an entire fortnight's food budget on a wanky restaurant meal, I'd be sitting there thinking "How much?? For this????" and wouldn't enjoy it as a result.

The wines can be an eye-watering ripoff as well.

Having said that, there are some really decent pub restaurants round here (semi-rural home counties) which serve quality produce from local butchers and growers, and they are very good indeed. And fairly reasonably-priced too.