Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

British "lunch" times at the weekend - why so late?

292 replies

Howdoyoulikeyoureggsinthemorning · 23/01/2023 12:00

Riddle me this, MN. (I'm British myself btw).

Been invited to yet another pub "lunch" with the family. What time have they booked? 3pm!!!!

I just don't understand this tradition.

At school, lunch is usually 12ish, if not 1ish.

At work, lunch is usually 12ish, if not 1ish.

For this reason, most of us have been pretty conditioned to get hungry around the same time of day.

So whenever I'm invited to one of these super late lunches, I end up either:

  • Making a pre-lunch for myself anyway because I'm too damn hungry to wait (which often leads to overeating that day...)
  • Waiting until I'm so weak that I barely feel like socializing by the time I'm in company (morning ruined) and just counting the seconds till food is in front of me...

Oh, and these late lunches always ruin my appetite for dinner as well!

What gives?

YABU: Weekend lunches are not, nor should they be, like weekday lunches.

YANBU: You're correct and the standard for all pub lunches/roasts/buffets should be brought forward a couple of hours.

OP posts:
BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 23/01/2023 15:43

Just eat smaller foods at various points in the morning to get you by.

AttentionAll · 23/01/2023 15:53

@LuckySantangelo35 Some people really are very rigid in their approach to life.

Original poster
Howdoyoulikeyoureggsinthemorning · 23/01/2023 15:53

Swiftswatch · 23/01/2023 14:39

@MWNA I really don’t see how it’s cunty at all. OP has two options, loosen up and become more flexible with her daily routine or decline the invite. That’s just the reality.
Which one she chooses to do is her decision.

Blimey what did I miss. Someone called me the C word? It's a very lighthearted thread guys!

OP posts:
midgetastic · 23/01/2023 15:56

Fortunately in our family it's the 3pm lunch would be seen as being difficult

Yes sometimes you compromise abs sometimes you just say that's not fun for me

People who have a long lie on at the weekend such that 3 pm is fine for lunch - are you out late /drinking the night before? Especially at this time of year o hate wasting the daylight in bed !

LemonSwan · 23/01/2023 15:58

YABU

Obviously if your going out for a meal like a Sunday roast you don’t want to be cooking dinner after. So 3/4 is actually perfect.

saltinesandcoffeecups · 23/01/2023 15:58

Anonymous48 · 23/01/2023 14:45

If I had people who wanted to meet us for a meal at 3pm we'd make it work, but I would think it was very strange because that's not a meal time. However, I'm in the US, not Britain, so if it's a particularly British thing that would explain why it seems so strange to me.

We really don't time mealtimes any differently at the weekends. Breakfast around 7 or 8, lunch around 12 or 1, dinner around 6 or 7.

I’m in the US and wouldn’t think this strange. Well except the whole eating lunch on the weekend thing. On the weekends, 11 -1 is prime brunch time so a lunch is a little odd. I’d say drinks and light snacks @ 3pm would be more typical and then dinner ~7pm.

AttentionAll · 23/01/2023 16:02

@midgetastic I have teenagers. Getting them up, dressed and at a pub for lunch at 12pm would be stressful. What suits people varies.

midgetastic · 23/01/2023 16:10

Yes what suits people varies
I remember with my dd it was our lunch and her breakfast around
Midday - that worked for us

3pm isn't the middle of the day , it's mid afternoon, whilst lunch is a middle of the day meal so it's certainly reasonable to be surprised when people say 3pm for lunch. That's getting on for high tea

no one should be obliged to do something they aren't happy about . Tough if the other people don't like that .perhaps they could
Compromise instead .

KatherineJaneway · 23/01/2023 16:11

I'm with you OP, 3pm is far too late for lunch for me. I'm not being inflexible, I just get too hungry.

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 23/01/2023 16:15

I'm not being inflexible, I just get too hungry

So just have a small snack at noon.

midgetastic · 23/01/2023 16:17

Or just have your lunch at lunchtime and just have coffee and cake at 3

NoNameNowAgain · 23/01/2023 16:19

Howdoyoulikeyoureggsinthemorning · 23/01/2023 15:53

Blimey what did I miss. Someone called me the C word? It's a very lighthearted thread guys!

Show quote history

It was actually aimed at people saying there isn’t a problem, but it was definitely unnecessarily harsh anyway.

LuckySantangelo35 · 23/01/2023 16:31

midgetastic · 23/01/2023 15:56

Fortunately in our family it's the 3pm lunch would be seen as being difficult

Yes sometimes you compromise abs sometimes you just say that's not fun for me

People who have a long lie on at the weekend such that 3 pm is fine for lunch - are you out late /drinking the night before? Especially at this time of year o hate wasting the daylight in bed !

@midgetastic

some may have been out drinking the night before

some get up really early the rest of the week and need the weekend to catch up on sleep

JudgeRudy · 23/01/2023 16:34

We booked a Sunday lunch at 2:45 which was later than we wanted but the pub we chose wanted 3 weeks notice for tables of 8.

I generally get up later at the weekend and tend to eat later and often miss a meal.

NoNameNowAgain · 23/01/2023 16:36

Toddlerteaplease · 23/01/2023 15:36

People would turn down a lunch invitation just because the time wasn't right? Are they actually insane?

The question has never arisen and I do eat Sunday lunch in a pub with other people at least twenty times a year. If it was an invitation to someone’s house I wouldn’t quibble.
I have several memories from this century of almost missing the window of opportunity to order by 2pm so this 3pm pub lunch ‘tradition’ can’t be all that well established can it?

YellowAndGreenToBeSeen · 23/01/2023 16:44

@LimeCheesecake an 11.30 brunch isn’t a compromise for people who like a late lunch - it’s the opposite (or am I misreading your post?).

11.30 at the weekend would be really stressful for me. I’m frequently up at 5am during the week, starting work at 7 and often don’t finish till 8pm or later. Weekends are for much looser timetables!

NoNameNowAgain · 23/01/2023 17:03

Needmorelego · 23/01/2023 15:40

@Toddlerteaplease if it was a typical Sunday roast dinner I would desperately find a way to turn the invitation down. I hate roast dinners. I think they smell horrible and look horrible.
"That's too late for me" would be a great excuse 😂

The trouble with giving any excuse is they might try to compromise to accommodate you.

Rewis · 23/01/2023 17:04

If its too late. Have a snack. If its too early skip breakfast. If you don't want to go at that time, suggest another time or decline the invite

TheBigWangTheory · 23/01/2023 17:07

Your premise is flawed. You think everyone has lunch at 12, or latest one o-clock, but that's patent nonsense, isn't it? PEople have lunch at kinds of times. I have lunch at work at 2, for example.

Sunday lunch at 3pm is totally normal.

Toddlerteaplease · 23/01/2023 17:09

@NoNameNowAgain I'm just astounded that anyone would turn down a lunch date!

lieselotte · 23/01/2023 17:10

For what it's worth OP I've never heard of a 3pm lunch. A lot of pubs don't even serve food at that time, so it can't be that common.

The only time I have a late "lunch" is Christmas Day.

At home, I usually have lunch dead on 12 noon (sometimes even a bit earlier). If I go out for lunch I will book for 12.30.

Needmorelego · 23/01/2023 17:14

@NoNameNowAgain thankfully in my family going out for Sunday dinner isn't something that happens very often so I don't have to come up with excuses.
(I say "thankfully' just because I personally don't like doing meals out - I just find it very boring)

ThreeRingCircus · 23/01/2023 17:14

Now the children are a bit older, I think it's fine. We have a later start to the day on a Sunday and have a bigger breakfast around 10am so a later lunch is fine and then we'd just have a snack in the evening.

With toddlers though, 3pm would be a pain in the backside for lunch so I get it from that point of view!

LimeCheesecake · 23/01/2023 17:37

@YellowAndGreenToBeSeen - it’s a compromise because many on here are saying that 3pm is reasonable time to meet for lunch, because they’d have breakfast on a Sunday around 11am, so would need several hours to get hungry again. The compromise is to meet for brunch as they eat breakfast food, those who want lunch as a midday meal can order a normal meal, everyone’s happy.

if genuinely getting out of the house until mid afternoon isn’t possible, just meet for dinner and take the pressure off. (Or afternoon tea, always better mass catered than pub Sunday roasts)

YellowAndGreenToBeSeen · 23/01/2023 17:59

LimeCheesecake · 23/01/2023 17:37

@YellowAndGreenToBeSeen - it’s a compromise because many on here are saying that 3pm is reasonable time to meet for lunch, because they’d have breakfast on a Sunday around 11am, so would need several hours to get hungry again. The compromise is to meet for brunch as they eat breakfast food, those who want lunch as a midday meal can order a normal meal, everyone’s happy.

if genuinely getting out of the house until mid afternoon isn’t possible, just meet for dinner and take the pressure off. (Or afternoon tea, always better mass catered than pub Sunday roasts)

Breakfast at 11am in pjs at home is very different to brunch out of the house.

Home means stumble downstairs, put coffee on, get bread out of bread bin, eat a biscuit, decide whether sweet or savoury toast, make it and take all above back to bed! 😀

11.30 brunch in a restaurant means getting up at 9ish…It’s not a compromise for me

Compromise would be Brunch at 1. Shall we have Bloody Marys?!

And you should come to the pub near me. EPIC roasts - with none of it bought in (I know the chef). I do hate afternoon tea though - all that bread and cake. Not a fan.

(this is all meant very lighthearted - am not criticising you!).