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?!)

I have to say, I think hospitality could be in a lot of trouble. Just when they need us to be spending to recoup their pandemic losses, all their overheads are going up AND their customers are having to make cutbacks because of the cost of living crisis. Recruitment issues too. Not only that but as people are out of the habit of eating out very regularly, they are more likely to scrutinise bills when they do go out and think "Jeez, this is just so expensive for what it is, we should have got some posh ready meals at home, or a takeaway, for half the price".

I don't know what the answer is but I fear that the options for eating out will lessen over the next few years and eating out will switch back to what it was years ago, when people only really did it for a special occasion, and there was much less choice of venues.

We should all be supporting our restaurants but circumstances are very very difficult for a lot of people.

Depends where it is but anywhere from 55-75

£88

I thought 75£ , so its not very off the mark OP. Were you expecting just 60 or less than that.

80

€80/€90
€10 tip

any more than that I would think was a bit much

80- this is average for this type of meal sadly.

I would have said about £70-75 , we had lunch at Zizzis yesterday and had 2 x coke zeros , a gf pizza and one of their classic pizzas and it came to just shy of £30 without the tip - if you had the rustica pizzas they are more expensive ( I’m not keen on them ) . We don’t eat at Zizzis often because they have reduced their gf menu in favour of increasing the vegan options which is highly annoying .

I’d have said about £75 which I don’t think is unreasonable. I recently got a chippy dinner for 2 (2 fish, 2 chips, 1 small mushy peas) and it came to £17, so in comparison I don’t think your meal was overly expensive.

Without reading the answers about 70gbp

£11ish for each adult main
£6ish for kids meal
Probably around £3 for each soft drink so around £62 roughly is my guess (haven’t RTFT)

@Sofielou

I would have guessed about £70. I see it was £75 at Zizzi's.

When I go to Zizzi's I use Tesco vouchers and we get the kids menu as adults (never been refused yet!).
We get 3 small courses (the bread and crudités, a small pizza or pasta (but it's enough with the rest), pudding and a hot chocolate), and you can bulk it up with a side of potato or courgette fries for 50p each, and glasses of squash are only 50p with the kids menu too.

Usually have to use no more than £15 of vouchers, costing £5 if I were to alternatively use them in Tesco. It's my go to bargain eat out meal.

About $50.00, USD, without tip.

£66.00

I would say 75-85 plus tip.

£72

I am north and would have guessed £80-90 by the order.

Here the problem is, chains don’t generally make you feel so special, or unique, which actually counts for a lot

£75

£65

£64 - £70, I would start to be unhappy if that then went above £80, as it is not in London.

£29.50!

£7.50 without a drink?

For ‘cheap’ food like pizza and pasta, plus soft drinks I wouldn’t want to pay much more than £60, but I’m guessing I’m way off and it was more like £100?

£70. These ( pizza express, etc) places have always been expensive for what they are . That's why we only okay with Tesco vouchers/ nectar points.

About £60-ish.