How much would you expect this meal to cost?

[Sofielou]

I'm not sure if I'm a bit unrealistic with my expectation here so I thought I'd see what wise Mumsnetters think!

We had a meal out at popular chain Italian restaurant. We ordered:

4 x main meals (3 x pizzas and 1 x pasta dish)
1 x meal from child menu (pasta dish)
4 x soft drinks (3 x Coca Cola, 1 x Sprite)

No starters, no desserts, no alcoholic drinks.

What would you roughly expect the total of the bill to be? (Not London if that makes a difference?!)

More than you'd think.

I'm thinking £80+ (including service charge).

The price of going out to eat seems to have massively risen since the onset of the pandemic.

@Sofielou

I don't have a menu in front of me but I do know roughly what food and drinks cost.

When I read your initial post I totted up an estimate in my head and it came to £75, so no your bill wouldn't have surprised me a bit.

And the cost of ingredients is the smallest cost for the restaurant they have to pay for the rent for the premises, gas and electric, water bills, the alcohol licence, staff wages, allow for discounts and theft (which seems to increasing sadly), tax, uniforms etc. All of these costs get passed down to the customer and that is why the prices are going up. Alot of people can't afford to eat out anymore and for the people who work in these jobs, that is terrifying. Hours are already being cut despite being understaffed because even the big chain restaurants can't afford to pay them the hours they need.

£64.

Mains 12.5ea tot £50
Childs meal 6 tot £6
Drinks 2.5ea tot £10

(North East england)

I'd say around 50 - 60 quid.
Nearer the 60 mark

£60ish depending on the quality of the place.

Just seen your update, 70 sounds about right actually

I’d guessed £73-75 so I’m currently sat here all pleased with myself. I’m clearly the next Martin Lewis 😂😂😂😂

But all joking aside OP, I’m not really sure why you’re being a bit sneery to people who add up the bill in advance and check prices when placing an order. If you don’t need to that’s great, but not everyone has the luxury of not worrying how much the bill will come to when having a little treat like a meal out.

£60

For that amount of food in either Pizza Express or Bella Italia I'd Expect to pay about £80-85 these days. Which is why we hardly eat out any more.

I've not got to the end of the thread and seen if OP has answered but nowadays I'd expect to pay £84.

I’d say about £75. Never actually paid full price for Zizzi, though. Always used Tesco clubcard vouchers.

She's posted the cost at least twice.

Yes, this!

That sounds normal for somewhere like Zizzi, even pre pandemic. Would closer to £60 at somewhere like a Harvester.

Your sanctimonious "it's not hard, is it" comment.

Yes, to me it is hard to mentally tot up a bill beforehand when I haven't even heard what other people have ordered and I'm busy sorting out a toddler who is overtired and hungry.

Congratulations on being sanctimonious and judgemental, assuming that I have enough money to "wander through life" not adding stuff up. I don't. I'm just mentally distracted and overwhelmed pretty much 24/7.

But as long as you feel better for your judgemental bollocks on my thread.

@MasterBeth

Yes we all had the same stuff, but (again) I wasn't aware of that before the food arrived because I didn't hear what others ordered! I would have had to ask for a menu after the meals were brought to check the costs of what had been ordered by the others. Clearly I didn't do that. So when the bill arrived that was when I was first aware of the total cost.

Not hard, is it.

And if I "had enough money to wander through life not caring about costs", why the fuck would I start a thread wandering if I'm being out of touch for feeling that £75 is a LOT of money for a meal for 4 plus a child?! Surely if I was loaded I wouldn't give a shit?

Things are so expensive now to eat out. We ate out over bank holiday 3 times as we didn’t go away! Reckon it cost us £300! In the past that would have got us away for the weekend.

£17.50!! I’m still thinking about to weeks later. I’d had a bit of wine pre pub, if I was stone cold sober it would have been sides for me.

I don’t think it’s that you needed to play attention to what everyone ordered just that you know what yours cost so that x4 plus a kids meal gives you a bit of a guide. If yours cost more than £15 in total you know it’s likely to be more that £60 for the adults alone.
I totally get that you were dealing with the toddler and not really aware of it all or in the headspace to do the maths but equally, you are here saying you are surprised when you know what yours cost and how many people were there. It’s not like you have just had this thought to yourself. You’ve brought it he so it just seems a little confusing that you are biting back so much when people as surprised that you are surprised at the total.

But it’s no biggie in the grand scheme of things. No one is digging you out on anything other than your surprise and possibly maths. I wouldn’t let it get to you.

£75-80.

Prices have gone up massively, including for the ingredients and energy used in restaurants :(

.... But Zizzi is almost exclusively found in larger towns, cities and shopping malls. Anywhere there is a Zizzi there is bound to be a better/ more authentic place not too far away.

Fair play OP. There is a trend here to examine every comment through a microscope and interpret it through the most cynical lens. If you had money to chuck around I guess you'd be at Salt Bae or whatever and unlikely to write a thread about the cost of a mid-range chain restaurant, you just had a shock at what you thought would be an ok-ish bill.

Yeah that does sound a lot. You don't often get a meal anywhere for less than a tenner these days. I was thinking in the region of £12-15 for an adult meal. Soft drinks aren't cheap either. In their defense, a (slightly grumpy) pub landlord recounted a story to me about how he dealt with a customer who complained about food and beer prices.

Landlord: Nightmare, isn't it? Has your heating price gone up?
Customer: Yes
LL: Council Tax?
C: That too
LL: Have you had to give your staff a pay rise, or see them walk?
C: Yep
LL: Sky TV?
c: Yep
LL: Well so have ours. So there you have it.

Being a big chain though, we don't always have that much sympathy!