Eating in a restaurant/ pub is not worth the money

[HoppingKangaroo]

Not eaten in a restaurant or pub this year. Went for a pub meal the other day. The cheapest meal was 14 pounds. The food was just okay and not really worth the cost. I can make something just as nice at home. AIBU to think with how expensive pubs and restaurants are now it is not worth the cost? Especially if you can make something almost or just as nice at home.

I agree with PPs that you are paying for ease, atmosphere, a c hange of scenery, choice etc.

The one I don;t get is takeaways. unless it's fish and chips, you are way better off buying good quality supermarket ready meals. I get Waitrose Indian ones - a big starter, main each and two side veg dishes comes to about £22 for four people. I just microwave soem rice to go with it. It tastes every bit as good as local takeaway which is probably just frozen, defrosted from some central factory too.

"Pay more" doesn't equate to better restaurants. For the £150 bill I got last week for 2 the food should have been superb. It wasn't.

We rarely eat out as the food is generally disappointing and last week really just confirmed it for me. If the pubs and restaurants want to stay open they are going to have to up their game. Expecting us to pay top whack for poor food because their costs are rising is ridiculous.

I have a nice home made vegetarian butter "chicken" simmering away in the slow cooker at the moment. It'll be a lot nicer than last week's restaurant offering.

I agree with a pp, pub grub is crap. Wetherspoons are half decent for what it is but that's not saying they're amazing, just the best of a bad bunch.
Going out to eat cuisine from other countries is the way to go. They are far better than what I can make at home.
There's a Persian restaurant, half an hours drive from here, the food and service are amazing and definitely worth the money!
And a Vietnamese restaurant in the city is always worth a visit too.
There's a Greek restaurant on our list of places we want to go to eat too.
Expand your horizons.

@Elphame , where did you get the recipe from please

Completely agree with you Op. Used to love eating out, and we still do, but a lot less than we used to!
Cost is a factor of course in the current climate, but really, it’s the quality of the food that’s quite often a real let down.

Went out last week to a ‘Gastro pub’ with dh. Paid £13 for a fish pie which was completely underwhelming. It wasn’t seasoned properly, had little fish in it, and didn’t come with any side veg.
Could have made a much better version at home, or even bought one from the posh supermarket ranges like Charlie Bingham.
The total meal for two courses, sides of veg and a bottle of wine was around £80!

Totally agree with that. As opposed to 4, tripled cooked, beer-battered, artisan Pommes Frites served up on an old slate tile, which are more than the cost of the entire meal, plus a drink, at Spoons. The other head-scratcher is the price of wine ; £27 for a bottle of supermarket Prosecco. Exactly the same fare at Spoons is £10 !.

You can, of course, take out a second mortgage to add to Heston Blumenthal's investment fund account but take a magnifying glass with you so you can find your meal altho you can always drop into Maccy D's on the way home.

I like good food as much as the next person but the average pub/restaurant, IMO, serves pretty average food and charges 3-4 times what you can pretty much get at elsewhere.

Tomatoes are diamonds now! The wholesale costs are sky rocketing.

Agree eith pps. Depends where you go. Doesn't have to be ££££ to be lovely and eorth it, cheaper independents are often great

to us it’s the experience of going to a nice pub or restaurant, having someone else prepare all the food is exciting and itself. We have to go to places not far from where we live, One of them we frequent a lot and it’s average 15 £16 ahead plus drinks the food is very good the other is seriously expensive but it’s just a joy to eat there and the place Is usually packed that’s it for us just a joyous experience

Depends on the pub surely?
I‘ve had some very mediocre pub meals, but we also have couple of local favourites with pretty decent food. Plus, it’s also about the location and the general vibe.

We love Thai and Indian , especially South Indian food. Can’t cook it at home and even if we could we would still go out regularly to our favourite places.
For me, the way to go, is to eat those cuisines which you can’t easily replicate at home!

We always eat out on holiday though!

Also like many people during lockdown we started ordering from the likes of gousto and hello fresh, and continued to get a subscription to gousto once a month.

Went for a very enjoyable meal at local gastropub with DP, DS and his GF. Bill for four with tip was £220. Very happy to pay for a rare family night out, but…. If I had used that £220 to cook a meal it would have been stunning - best champagne and wine, finest ingredients, 3-4 courses, etc.

In my experience, the quality of food has really gone downhill at pub restaurants, since pre-pandemic days. At least half the menus are now taken up with burgers and highly processed 'plant based' offerings. You look in vain for much variety or locally produced, cooked from scratch food. Burgers in particular are a royal rip off.

We go out at least 2times a week & always at Christmas as we just couldn’t do with the fuss, s nice lazy day, just what’s required

While I agree that you are paying for the experience and for not having to cook and being able to relax with friends, there comes a point where the meals are too expensive even taking that into account.
I'm in another country and it's definitely reached that point here. Whereas I used to go out for meals with friends regularly it's now become too expensive. Restaurants have had to cut costs too so the quality has gone downhill and on top of that the prices have gone up significantly.
I used to only buy meals in restaurants which I couldn't make myself at home - usually the specialities of this country. But I spent quite a lot of time during the lockdowns learning how to make those dishes so I can make them at home too, much more cheaply and they taste great.

I haven't noticed an increase to the degree of some of the examples here although I only go to average restaurants and pubs. Both seem to be as busy as usual though...you wouldn't know there is a cost of living crisis.

I feel like there's a real tendency now for people to judge the cost of things that other people spend on. Like to spend money on anything at all over the absolute bare minimum is a waste. People are allowed to spend money on meals out and luxuries if they can and want to but it's like you'll be judged on someone else's idea of what's value for money. I really don't like it.

I haven’t eaten out in years. Mainly because I was diagnosed with coeliac disease a couple of years ago, and oh my god, no I don’t want a jacket potato and the sense of dread of cross contamination that will have me on the loo for the next 8 hours.

I used to live in a place years ago with a couple of pubs that did nice food.

What puts me off though is the money. We could probably stretch to a frankie and Bennys or the like once every few months, but I don’t want to pay for that sort of food when I can produce far better at home.

If we could afford to eat at nice places, we would eat out more.

I enjoy eating out. We do so as a family at least once a week. No stress about what to cook, cleaning up etc. I love it! And no it most definitely isn’t frozen food.

It’s all a matter of perspective isn’t it, and what you choose to do with your money. Some people love going out to eat and it’s a big part of how they socialise, others would think they’re better off cooking for themselves and saving the cash. Some pick up a takeaway coffee a few times a week as a treat on the way to work and others would just bring their thermos. You might buy flowers to brighten up your house but other people might think it’s a waste of cash because they die.

there’s no ‘right’ way as long as you’re happy with your choices and live within your means.

Well I don't buy food out that I can make at home. I buy food out that is a treat. I go to places that I know are nice. £14 in a pub is ridiculous, do you live down South?

A restaurant is about the relaxed vibe, same as pub really, a drink, totally kick back, chill, no dishes, no food prep, and something very nice to eat.

Maybe you're just going to the wrong places because you shouldn't be paying that much for food that isn't nice.

We’ve got a few very nice restaurants where we live. With prices to match.I don’t mind that as I know it’ll be better than anything I can do and be a proper treat.

what we are lacking is good places to go when you don’t fancy cooking but you want something reasonable and nice. Or something with vegetables.

on those days we’ve e taken to getting a ready meal instead…reliable and less fuss than cooking.

and I like cooking but sometimes it’s nice someone else does it all….

Since the pandemic the quality of both food and service has gone downhill.
Even so called nice independent restaurants with good reputations. Like they are doing you a favour.
We barely eat out now, too many expensive disappointments.
Plus everyone seems to be trying to charge central London prices for very mediocre wine. 8 quid for house white? Nah. I'll have water ta. If it was closer to £6 a glass I'd probably have a couple, or a bottle.
I can excuse expensive food if the experience and staff are great, but they aren't.
Recently I've found a lot of restaurants don't include a service charge or sort the card machine to allow a tip (I hate tipping so this suits me)
Is this because they realise they are not giving decent service?

It's increasingly becoming a luxury, if it doesn't feel special, I won't bother

It feels like people eating are cross subsidising the bar where booze isn't making the margins it was

I think this is the case. I was discussing this with someone the other day and ultimately pubs used to make their money from "regulars". People who were in there multiple nights a week. A lot of the heavy drinkers smoked. That's why when the smoking ban came in a lot of pubs closed down. People just stayed at home and drank. Cheaper and more comfortable. There were 4 pubs in my High Street when I moved here in 2006. By 2010 the only one left was Wetherspoons. So for a pub to survive, they had to offer food. But people having the occasional meal doesn't make up for the money they've lost from solid alcohol sales.

Of course now, the percentage of smokers is quite low. But it caused a cultural shift. The pub used to be somewhere for adults to go and have a few drinks and a laugh. Now it's families, food, play areas. It's not the same. I'm not saying there shouldn't be family pubs, but increasingly they're the only ones surviving and they're struggling.

We eat out once a week ..usually Lebanese/ Turkish/ Greek food. Rarely in pubs.

It's difficult.
The quality of lits of stock is lower now so it will sadly show on quality in some restaurants.
The rising prices are because prices of ingredients shot up (a LOT), energy bills are disgusting and companies actually now often want xxx thousand deposits to take a business on(!), VAT..
Everything is going up so much. Like for households but with extra multipliers

Too much buyer's remorse after eating out at the moment, for me. I won't go out to eat anything I can make just as well at home. And, as a pp has said people have done, I have learned to make a LOT of things!

I feel bad for everyone in hospitality at the moment but, until better times roll around again I don't really see a solution.