To think chain restaurants have become extortionate

[strawberryjeans]

DH and I went for pizza last night at a local independent place. £12 ish each pizza, £4 for a drink, all in all cost little over £30. This makes me want to leave them a huge tip. The food was fresh and authentic, too, and the people seemed lovely and like they really really cared.

To contrast (won’t name any names) but we were looking at meeting some friends at a large restaurant chain a couple of weeks ago and pizzas, pastas and other dishes were in some cases more than £20. I resent this because they are a huge corporation who probably don’t need to profit in the way they are, versus the unassuming small business who we felt were probably undercharging all things considered.

I would rather pay over the odds for a small business as it’s people’s livelihoods and whole world. I just think it is crazy how larger chains can charge nearly double for a very similar thing.

No, it isn’t crazy. The chains will have more overheads to pay for as well as dividends to pay their shareholders. I don’t know where you went but I see some pizzas at Pizza Express in central London costs £18, which is fair.

I object to the 12.5% supposed gratuity/tip that is added to the bill. This is very common in chain restaurants.
I suspect it doesn't go to the staff.

I am too embarrassed to object to it on the bill.
I worry that the specific waiter will be reprimanded if I object.

I leave tips for good service. In the UK this is traditionally 10%.

I left 15% at two independent restaurants recently.

It should be my choice not the management.

A friend says she is too embarrassed too. We both worked in hospitality as students.
She now pays but puts a comment about it on Trip Advisor and Google regarding the 12.5%.

I agree, OP. I understood the reasons why costs have increased so much, and I'll continue to eat out because it's important to me that cafés and restaurants continue to exist (apart from anything else, two of my children work in hospitality out of preference), but if I'm going to spend £20 including a tip on coffee and cake for two, or £150+ on a two course meal for four, I want well flavoured coffee and nice food with a bit of presentation to it, and few chains seem to provide this.

Most don't - the old statistic was that 80% will close within 5 years, many much quicker than that, taking life savings with them. That has become more worse since the war on Ukraine and the cost of living crisis - by 2022, closures had gone up 60% on earlier years.

Many independents are family businesses, which benefit from the unpaid labour of family members pitching in, and almost all work far longer than the offical legal hours if they were working for an outside company.

Independents tend to fear putting prices up more than the chains (who have years of data and plenty of staff tracking the finances) so are more likely to lose out of income themselves than charge whaty would bring them a living wage. Not tracking the increases in ingredient costs well enough can be a massive stumbling block. If one in eight make it to 5-7 years of solvency these days, they're succeeding.

Everyone who moans about the outrageous cost of eating out tends to misdirect their ire. The restaurants are not coining it in. We punters hopelessly underestimate how much it costs to keep a restaurant going. They are all clinging on by their fingernails.

It's a mug's game.

Yeah, it’s crazy. We went to a chain Italian place a couple weeks ago as we had £35 worth of Tesco clubcard vouchers to use. Even with those we still had to pay loads at the end for a meal for 2, and the mains weren’t even that great (starter and pud were good though!).

I guess they can charge what they want, people will just stop going if they can’t afford it. Drinks have always been overpriced in restaurants even before the COL increases- I try to make the DC drink tap water before going in so they’re not thirsty for £3 orange juice.

Where do you eat out that you can get nice food much cheaper than that???

I'd expect to pay at least £15 for a pizza even somewhere bog standard. Even domino's is like £22 and that's a takeaway (I know most people rarely pay full price but still)

I just posted on another board about this with prezzo. Before the pandemic they were alright -and we used to go regularly. Now they have completely lost the plot. They have shut a lot round us since Covid- I don’t know what’s changed but whatever they’ve done isn’t working. Haven’t been to one for ages, and I doubt I will again.

I think chains have lost sight of what people want

It’s about £15 for a pizza at Prezzo, so completely reasonable to me.

The quality of food in chains has went down. You can buy a ready meal that will be higher quality than most of the food served in chains. The best places I go to are independent and run by the owner who is on site and cares about the food they serve up.

I was absolutely shocked at the prices in a Harvester a couple of weeks ago - massive increase from a couple of years ago. It's certainly not family friendly prices in there anymore!

I worked briefly in a chain restaurant in 2015 and the food was bad then and overpriced
It's probably much worse now.
Even the local cafes round here are getting a bit pricy too.
I know the reasons why and it'll only get worse, but it's another thing that only the wealthy will be able to afford soon

Yup.

I do not know how people can afford to keep eating at these places

' They are a huge corporation who probably don’t need to profit in the way they are'
Lol. I think their shareholders and investors would beg to differ on that one.
Boycot them. You're right it's a massive rip off for total crap.

A lot of chains buy the food in and reheat it so they're not paying proper chefs.

Heard a really interesting radio phone in a few years back and the son of a famous Cornish restauranter rang in saying that basically when an investor goes into a restaurant chain it piles so much debt onto the business that for example each Pizza Express restaurant has to service debt of £1Million!!! A lot of the cost of your pizza is going towards that.

They also for example scrimp on in the ingredients. So literally 6 prawns instead of 7 or 8. The 'chef' has no discretion.

Personally I'd rather go to an independent and help make their business a success

How the hell was it £105 is the kids ate for free?!

Pizza Express is crazy expensive...we used Tesco vouchers too but i was still annoyed at what we got for our money....eating out now feels like such a rip off.

We love Wagamama but it’s so expensive