Take away cost

[DyslexicPoster]

I know it's luxury and we hardly ever get take away now. Maybe once every three months if that.

I tried a new Chinese this weekend. There was no price list in the shop ( all covered over) no menu leaflets to take away so no prices anywhere.

Bought
Beef chow main
Chicken chow mein
Singapore noodles
2 lots of lemon chicken
5 mini spring rolls
Prawn crackers that was missing once I got home

In a rather rough deprived town it cost me £47. I did think it was really expensive at the time but with price hikes thought maybe it's all gone up a lot in three months.

Just checked the prices in my usual Chinese in one the most desirable SE towns to live ( according to the independent) and the same order but with twice as much spring rolls would have been £32 when I last ordered

It's made me think. 1) checking the menu and prices snd collection is more hassle than cooking 2) for two takeaways I could get a whole weeks food shop for 6 peopke for less than £94.

Restaurants have got very expensive but for a birthday or special occasion I don't feel to guilty.

But for £47 ( £15 more than the same takeaway two towns away was three months ago)I feel like a right stupid twat paying for it. I'm going to get a local menu with prices to see if it's just that takeaway but almost 50% price rise in three months?

You didn’t have to buy it 🤷‍♀️

That does seem a little excessive. Just totted it up, the same order would have cost about £34 from our usual Chinese (East Anglia for ref).

Yes takeaways have got more expensive. But that’s at least four main courses: two chow meins and two lemon chickens? Where I am in London, that would have cost us more.
I would be more annoyed about the missing prawn crackers!

That would have been about £40 here. As with everything, prices are going up. Our regular Chinese order used to be £19, then £27, now £35.

My usual Indian takeaway went up from £13-£20 this year- needless to say I don’t order as much as I used to

Yes our local Chinese is now £8 per dish, you ordered 5 mains so that would have been £40 + spring rolls (£5) plays prawn crackers (£3) so it would have been exactly £48 here too!

we just never do it anymore. Same with fish and chips, and curries

I would definitely have thought about £50 for that, that was a lot of food. I have just done a random Chinese order on JustEat and it was indeed just under £50.

But if I couldn’t see prices on a menu, I would not have ordered at all.

That seems good for 4 main meat dishes plus the extras? But its years since I've bought Chinese, I normally get Lebanese which is less meat.

You could switch to plain noodles and have them at rice from home, but defeats object I guess!

In a rather rough deprived town

Suppliers, NMW rules, and energy companies don't care about how deprived area is... The only difference is rent.

That was actually ok price for that many mains imho

I could have cheaper dishes but not there as no idea how much anything was, which was stupid of me. I normally pick out dishes that come to £35 total. So that would have normally been under £35.

We used to get fish and chips but not ordered that in years. We get chips and currey sauce and cook sausages St home now.

I wish I could make my noodles taste the same.

When prices are not diaplayed ask before putting order in?

You're not just paying for food though- the owner has to pay rent, rates, (extortionate, way more than domestic) utilities, staff, marketing etc etc (and a wage for themselves if they're lucky). All those things have gone up, so stands to reason that the end product has gone up too. Small business owners aren't putting prices up for fun - they're just desperately trying to make their businesses turn some kind of profit so they can afford all the increased prices too!

£47 I'd what I'd expect to pay for that. It's a good few meals. £32 seems extremely cheap, I dont know anywhere that does meals for around £5 anymore.

I was reading down your list and actually came to £46/47 before I read how much it cost you.

Beef chow main - £8.50
Chicken chow mein - £8.50
Singapore noodles - £8.50
2 lots of lemon chicken - £17
5 mini spring rolls - £4
Prawn crackers - free (orders over set amount)

It is so expensive nowadays though. DH and I tend to get a rice each, sweet and sour chicken balls and curry sauce and that still comes to £25! Mad when you think it's basically rice and chicken nuggets

How many people did it serve? You've got 4 main meals so assuming you split these? Plus sides.

I just checked at my local (SW) and it come to £40.60. I didn't include the cost of prawn crackers though as they are free on orders over £30

I’m in the North-West but I don’t think that’s far short of what you’d pay for the same in this area, especially at a decent takeaway that uses good ingredients. I generally find that a Chinese takeaway covers more than one meal, there’s always leftovers, so in that sense it’s better value.

No prawn crackers is a terrible affront though. It’d take me some time to get over that.

It's near impossible to find out the costs online as the menus are uploaded by customers, tiny and out of date too. Maybe they are £8 a dish on adverage now?

I can make lemon chicken just need a good alternative for the chow mein. I think I'm going to buy some ms.

I think it's time to admit we can't afford takeaway anymore.

I know 😂 having the cheek to charge that much and missing the prawn crackers is outrageous. I'd be complaining, loudly 😆😆😆

Can't you have a different take away that's cheaper than Chinese?

I’d be expecting to pay about that for that amount of food.

Our regular Chinese order (beef with green peppers, rice, Singapore chow mein and salt and pepper chips) has gone from £23 to £28 since last January (which is as far back as I can see in my order history) - that’s in a deprived midlands town as well.

That seems normal to me for those dishes.

They'd probably just repriced in response to the price rises they'd been hit with.

Takeaways have been hit with massive price increases over the last couple of years. If you think your food and utility bills have gone up, theirs is another level.

I know it's a fish and chip shop, but all takeaways are facing the same problem, this picture was doing the rounds a few weeks ago. Look at the numbers. They also don't mention the increase in the cost of raw ingredients.

These businesses are generally family owned and support 2-4 people. Unless they put their prices up and serve the same number of meals, which is extremely difficult given that a lot of people are cutting back on the amount of takeaways they have due to less disposable income and the higher cost.

Imo, OP is forgetting the ongoing supply difficulties and specific inflation in food. My household energy costs are nearly double. We went to a Chinese last night. The waiter pointed out some items on the dessert menu, they couldn’t get off their suppliers like lychees. Iirc, cooking oil has shot up in price!

We also discussed where to get authentic Chinese food from - Soho. He pointed out the main I had, which cost £7.95 there, was £13 - £15 in the West End.

Ime, food is never the major expense in restaurants - it’s always the property and staff costs, which are greater than the cost of food.