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.

ahhh food snobs, the most insufferably smug of the all the snobs.

and arguing about whether £50 a head is a lot of money for a meal makes you both look embarrassingly stupid. stop it, for the love of cheese.

hiphop I like zaap, some of those other places are meh. Petit Paris in particular is I think way over rated. I do go for the sociable side of eating with friends, but I don't rate them at all. Although I know lots of people don't agree.

Have you tried Hammer & Pincers in Wymeswold or Johns Kitchen in Mountsorrel? A bit further out than Nottingham, but worth the trip I reckon. Both places are lovely.

I also had an absolutely delicious lamb roast in a pub in Mountsorrel, cooked to perfection. I think it was called The Swan? Looks like a dive from the outside, but the food was absolutely delicious.

I think you’re eating in the wrong places. The current restaurant scene in the U.K. is amongst the best in the world.

Alchemilla is good as well but a treat as a lot of money.
I haven't tried Mowgli as it is a chain so tend to avoid them.

Both the ones Gotstuckwiththisname mentions above are fab.

@SoyDora - howdy neighbour

Gotstuckwiththisname No I haven't tried them. Thanks will have a look.

I’m waving to you Gotstuckwiththisname!

I agree OP, but I’m vegetarian so my options are even more limited. I’m really delighted when I find an inventive vegetarian meal on the menu (one that isn’t pasta or pizza) but so often it’s a lazy thrown together thing with goats cheese as its main component. Cheap and cheerful I can live with happily but once prices get mid range I’d like to see better food.

It’s possible you do have, let’s say different, expectations. I’ve learned not to rely on other people’s enjoyment of shows, films and events as evidence that they will actually be any good. I went to an Ideal Home Christmas event on the same day as a friend. She spent the whole day there, loved it, enjoyed everything, DD and I looked around dolefully for an hour or so at all the tat on display, decided we were bored senseless and came home. Horses for courses.

I completely agree OP. I used to enjoy going out for a meal but it is such a waste of money when I cook better at home. I used to enjoy the lasagna at Pizza Express then after I had my DS and began cooking from scratch, I would rather make my own lasagna than waste money on theirs.

I have noticed the general standard of service in places seems to have got generally worse in the year or so. I've had a couple of really bad experiences of late.

I think the UK has some of the best restaurants in the world. We are spoilt for choice with variety, budgets to suit all. There are chains that are fine for a midweek lunch but these are disappointing as they are set menus and no real scope for individual amendments.
There are fine dining restaurants that don’t provide for all budgets but do exceptional food - mainly for special occasions for most people.

Then there are good independent restaurants in abundance. Some are gastro pubs, some are specialist restaurants and some just good simple restaurants. I think the U.K. restaurants are hard to beat.

Currently in Verona and food choices are much more limited. There is fine dining or trattorias serving very uninspiring and similar menus.

Where would you think had greater choice, I wonder?

I agree. Places like Harvester always leave me feeling like I've wasted my money.

Maybe part of it is nowadays there is a vast choice of foods varying from cheaper to expensive in the supermarkets so it's far easier nowadays to cook a fairly nice meal without paying £££s for the ingredients?

Years ago some restaurants probably seemed better than what you could cook at home but now it's all changed like drinking. Nowadays it's so much cheaper to buy booze in the supermarket and drink at home than it is to drink out in pubs and bars.

LordPickle, I agree I can cook more or less any meal to a very good standard. I've never eaten anything in a restaurant where I haven't thought I could do better at home.
Also all my friends are outstanding cooks as well. I think unless its somewhere very expensive and different theres no point going.

Mowgli is a very small chain. Two in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham and I think Oxford. I’ve never had anything but amazing food, I’m in Liverpool where Mowgli started.

To be fair it’s as much of a chain as the Gordon Ramsey restaurants are a chain, but the owner of Mowgli is far more hands on than he is.

I think unless its somewhere very expensive and different theres no point going
This is exactly my attitude ( but I seem to have accidentally come across as a food twat!)

Just to clarify on the 'quick' curry thing - restaurants (and I) will pre-cook the meat - for lamb dishes I cook the meat in a spice mix for up to 2 hours, chicken for around 20-30 mins- as long as it takes to make it tender. Then when you come to make your curry, you fry whole spices in oil, add garlic, ginger, tomato puree, whatever, curry gravy that then gets reduced (over a high flame), a spice combination/added veggies etc for any given dish, then the pre-cooked meat, then stuff like garam masala, or yoghurt/cream (sometime the yog goes in earlier) finish off with fresh coriander - but the idea is to have everything pre-prepped so throwing it all together is pretty quick and the curry is ready not too long after the order comes in. There's a lot of prep that goes into this 'fast' food!

Mowgli is fab and definitely shouldn't be considered in the same way some of the other "chains" mentioned have been. The owner is very involved and ensures the quality at each one.

Not uk but there's an excellent seafood restaurant in Los Cristianos called El Cine. It's pretty much a shack with nasty plastic tables and chairs but the food is sublime, best grilled octopus I've ever had

And in this country there's a placed called La Boheme in Lymm, £30 for 3 courses of locally sourced food.

Mowgli is lovely and is not a chain restaurant (defined as 10 or more). It was incredibly successful in Liverpool and branched out to Manchester, Birmingham, Oxford and the owner is very hands on.

I know what you mean OP about wanting food that you can't cook at home. I agree with pp to look for independent, family run places. There are so, so many mediocre places around though. Maybe because eating out is so common now. It's so normal to just nip out for dinner during the week when it used to be a treat. It was very rare we got taken to restaurants when we were children

I got taken to a place like that in KL imsosorry. Basically an old caravan in the middle of nowhere with a few plastic chairs and tables in the dirt outside. Served the best steaks I have ever tasted in my life for about 3 quid. Amazing

When I eat out, I will only eat at small independent restaurants that are owned and run by people of the same ethnicity. I find them to be of better quality and the prices much more reasonable.
So for example, if I want Italian, I will go to a small restaurant that is owned and staffed by Italians with an Italian chef.
Chain restaurants are absolutely dire. Overpriced rubbish.

I’ve just come back from a lovely meal at my local Harvester, really good food and great value.