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?!)

This

Haven't read past the OP - my rough guess is about £70 not incl service charge.

I’ve only read the OP and I’m going to guess £60-70.

I’m going to read all the other posts now!
Love a good guessing game!

I think £15 quid a head for dinner anywhere that's not a fast food restaurant is pretty good going

I was surprised that the very nice Thai meal DP and I had the other day (starter, main and a large beer each) was under £40.

We'll certainly be going back there as post pandemic a lot of similar places have started to be nearly £60 for the two of us.

I'm also surprised that there are people seemingly struggling with the concept that it costs 4 times as much to feed 4 people as it does one

OP, why would you be shocked? When you were deciding on your main you would have been browsing the menu and had a rough idea of what a main costs. Usually prices are similar for things like pizza, pasta, drinks especially at chain restaurants.

So £75.
I’m not surprised. Eating out is expensive.

£75 - £85

I hadn't read the replies before I posted.

Eating out is more expensive post covid, so I'm not at all surpried by the cost. I don't even think it was much less than that pre covid.

I do. That way you won't be surprised or need to put a post in mn.

If you're in the position where your teens can order whatever they want without checking with you, and you don't know the prices of what anyone is getting, you clearly don't give much of a shit and can easily afford it!
People who need to think about money always know the price of what thyey are getting.

About £60?

Around £60

Around £80 I'd say. £15 each minimum for main meals, around a fiver for child's meal and around £3 each for soft drinks.

£65 - 90

I understand that having an overtired toddler at a restaurant will mess with your brain but if your main and drink cost about £17, even if tired, you shouldn't be shocked that 4 of those plus a kid's meal is going to be more than £60.

£75 is standard I'm afraid

It's going to go higher I'm afraid. Around here steak and sides are now £28

Around here waitresses are getting £11 per hour a chef 38k. And it's still hard to recruit. Anti social hours

I'd guessed £15 per main, £7 for child's meal and 4 quid per drink so wasn't far away.

I was a bit taken aback when we were £215 for a pub meal at Easter for 5. That wasn't so much about the food, but the drinks weren't on the menu, it was quite busy so service wasn't very fast and we rattled through a few beers and ciders (not driving) and then found out that the ciders were £6 a pint! Beers were £5 so bad enough, but that was a a bit of a shock - at least the meal was nice.

Never go to a chain restaurant without looking up a voucher code.

@BarbaraofSeville coincidentally our local Thai is still a great bargain. Pre theatre two courses are £12.95 or later there is an amazing set dinner for two which includes steak and monkfish for £50. It's BYOB which also cuts the cost a lot.
We used to eat out a lot, but I've noticed the cost going up and quality going down in a lot of places, so now we either go high end to places we like and are expensive ( but have set price menu like Fazenda or Six by Nico) or ethnic restaurants where outside the centre, value for money is much better.

£70 ish

You need to join the rest of us eating out with a code or discount

www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/zizzi/

Lots of ways to get your bill cheaper next time

I saw that Pizza Express were doing 50% off 3 of their pizzas a

It also explains why people have switched to takeaways or delivery. (You save on drinks)