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?!)

Agree! We won't be going again! The prices have gone right up...

No they haven’t. Looking at their 2019 menu and comparing it with now, the pizzas are about £1 more than they were nearly 3 years ago. That is pretty much an increase equal to RPI over that time.

That was very nice of her to say but I have no catering experience and no idea how to make a restaurant work beyond knowing it would be bloody hard work with people constantly whining they could make it cheaper at home and they only had a sodding Sprite.

I don’t disagree @limitedperiodonly, I expect restaurants to make money and am happy to pay that. But I do bristle at the cost for a pizza. The mark up they make on such a cheap food is eye watering and I can’t help thinking the only reason we pay so much is because that’s what people expect to pay for it.

It’s the same with takeout. When you compare what you get from a Chinese or Indian takeaway for the same price as you do from a pizza place it’s night and day. Our regular Chinese order is less than 20 quid for 3 of us. Pizza for 3 of us is over £30.

You look at the price of every single item? Even the ones you have no interest in? And you'd be able to tot up the bill in your head as a result, when each person placed their order, so there are no surprises when the bill arrives? Whilst distracted by a toddler?
Wow. Ok. I didn't realise people did that

I can't imagine ever not doing that.
You must live in a very privileged bubble.

Around £50/60 mark at a guess, based on dominoes pizza prices.

wow, lol am not surprised, but thats more than i have to spend on a months shopping, and by shopping i mean everything including washinh up liquid and toothpaste! My reasonably carefree days are loong long gone. I have in the past spent that and more on what was then a very pricey but lovely meal for just me out! I dread to think what that experience would cost now!

I think a lot of these chain restaurants, like Pizza Express etc are priced for the discount. The menu price is for people who have enough disposable income not to need add it all up as they go along but the people who watch the pennies will make sure they have a coupon. This way the restaurants sell the same product to people at the highest price they are willing to bear. It also keeps the restaurant busy which is important , makes it an attractive place to be.

So you probably weren't just paying for your pizza, you probably paid for some of the pizza for the family who turned up with a coupon.

£75

..and yet because you don't agree with all these people saying the same thing you just lash out. Look at the end of the day it's up to you whether or not you choose to read the prices as people order and do a quick sum in your head, and if you do you won't get a surprise when the bill comes. It's not rocket science!

£82

I'm now wondering what goes through the minds of people who are still guessing on a thread that has nearly 500 posts and was started over 2 days ago.

Wouldn't you just use the 'see all' link to quickly see if the answer has been revealed and then either just move on or join in the argument about whether chain pizza restaurants are value for money or how lucky the OP must be to be able to order from a menu without knowing roughly how much it's going to come to and whether it's in budget?

@Bushgirl I haven't lashed out at anyone. I pointed out to you where you were wrong, as per my previous comment to you. If you want to call that "lashing out", that's up to you.

Never been to Zizzis. Last time we went to Pizza Express was at least 6 years ago, family of five and it was over £80 for 5 pizzas, one bottle of wine and three soft drinks. We had vouchers so paid £40ish. So I guessed £100ish. Even if the food is grim I’d expect to budget on £15-20 per head for food pretty much anywhere I’d be sitting down (ie not McD) and £2.50 for a soft drink is standard - the mark up on these is bonkers. Tbh I’d be pretty happy if I’d paid £75 to feed five people. And I live far from London, small town with a few eateries and two pizza chains plus DH who hates eating out!

If you can’t afford to absorb an additional £15 between four adults, in the nicest possible way, you probably shouldn’t be eating out. But I’m also surprised that you didn’t look at the prices as you were ordering, particularly as you’re clearly on a reasonably tight budget and it’s not like it was a huge number of you ordering.

I’d think in the region of £70

That’s a typical price and I would say overpriced. Just to let everyone know, restaurants had and electric has gone up and a box of tomatoes has gone from £7.25 to £14. You can only imagine the price rises of other things.

But household budgets are squeezed due to their electricity, tomatoes and many other things going up, and income generally not.

So people will have less money to spend eating out, so will do it less often and be more discerning about whether they're getting value for money.

Which is a problem for restaurants if they can't make a profit at a price people are willing to pay, especially chain restaurants where they've been propped up for the last 10 to 15 years by low interest debt, which is going to be harder to maintain going forward now interest rates are rising.

There’s a massive gap between the price of supermarket food and restaurant food in the UK. I’m sure it is much smaller in other countries.
think about how much you could get for £75 in the supermarket and yet we spend it on one meal out 🤷🏻‍♀️ I must admit it’s an issue for me, I’ve been enjoying cooking a lot more for quite a while now!

£90 ?
Im basing it on Pizza Express

About £120 depending on the chain

£78

£60 ish

Why are people still guessing when OP has already said what the cost was?

lancsgirl85 · 08/05/2022 07:14
@Bushgirl I haven't lashed out at anyone. I pointed out to you where you were wrong, as per my previous comment to you. If you want to call that "lashing out", that's up to you.

N/C fail?

Anyone fancy guessing mine?

Gastropub in a moderately expensive tourist town in Wales. Two Sunday roasts, two kids meals, two pints of alcohol, four non alcoholic drinks, three ice creams and one cake type dessert. Excluding tip. I was actually quite pleased with the cost and had expected it to be less!

Expected it to be more, I mean.