Eating out is always an expensive let down.

[istheheatingonyet]

I'm just not doing it any more. Granted I am "older" but the last offering was bread, mashed acocado, feta and some sort of sauce. Is it a meal, is it brunch nobody knows?
Cheap ingredients, silly price.
What a waste of money.

Ah well, you live and learn.

I reckon the best idea is coffee, nice treat meal occasionaly and swerve the weird descriptions.
Any thing that says sourdough instantly doubles in cost.

Agreed. I used to eat out regularly when I was younger and it was far cheaper. But I rarely eat out anymore because I feel like the food isn't great and I can make something better for far less. Not sure if my change in perspective is because my cooking has improved or if food quality served has gone down.

From the title I thought I was going to agree with you, as pre-covid I used to love going out for a nice meal, but the service and quality of food has declined since (as the cost has gone up). But this specific example doesn't seem worth getting worked up about. £13 isn't a lot of money for a sit-down meal. I disagree that eggs, bread and cheese are cheap ingredients. You're also paying for someone to cook and clean up, someone to serve, use of their premises, heating, lighting etc. If I was to make smashed avocado with sourdough and feta I'd be what, at least a fiver just for ingredients?

Can I ask what did you expect they would bring when you chose this?

is it maybe you just don’t like spending the money ? So were always going to complain? If it is this, then just don’t have anyting or don’t go. Or chose places where you can split a baguette between you both.

Very much this..which is why I usually avoid Italian places...if I want pasta with a bit of pesto on it I can do it at home...banh mi, not so much.
We have a bunch of favourite places that we know will be good food and good value. Reasonable prices too, a couple of Chinese, Turkish,Thai. We try to avoid chains if possible. Pub food is usually horrible I find, except maybe for a Sunday Roast.

I have a 3 course meal at my local pub every week. It’s £22 and it’s a 2 rosette restaurant so the food it always great.

Ok so it’s money for you. Then do as you say, don’t eat out much.

We have stopped eating out. It costs our family of four about £70 for a chain meal now unless we have a wallet full of vouchers.

It was " all wrong" from the off. Just one of those things. Sadly I don't have money to spend often. The baguette place was nice. I'm a fairly small person and I love " a bit to eat" as my Mum used to say.

Never mind eh?

Thanks for that.

Eating out has become more expensive because gas & electric, groceries, wages, and council tax (at least in my area) have all gone up fairly significantly. We all complaining that our supermarket shops are costing way more, so it's not really a surprise that businesses that primarily sell food have to increase prices. It does make it more of a let down when it misses the mark as you have forked out more. But I don't personally feel places are getting worse or that you are more likely to have disappointing meal than 5 years ago. Sometimes you get a dud, but most of the time (if you have a personal recommendation or have looked it up in advance) then it's the quality you expect. And the menu options and prices aren't a surprise!

I had lunch at a Thai place the other day that's part of a small local chain.

Fish cakes and pork fried rice for £12. It would have been quite difficult to make it as nice myself and I'd have needed all sorts of ingredients.

Far better value than the OPs avo toast and I was so stuffed I didn't eat for the rest of the day - would normally have taken most of the rice as leftovers but I was on a day out and CBA to carry it away with me.

I live in London and there are some amazing restaurants but also lots of crap that I have decided isn't worth the money and I might as well have a microwave meal from M&S instead.

Love eating out… my hobbie!

Me and the kids agree - we still eat out sometimes, but to save us effort, rather than as a treat. We can normally cook better at home for cheaper.

Especially since I have boy tweens who both eat adult sized meals these days (the eldest has hollow legs)

@SummaLuvin Yes, you are quite right.

We’re currently on holiday near Wales. Eating out is a rare treat atm, so was really disappointed by yesterdays cafe lunch of soup which tasted overwhelmingly of stock.

thought a brownie after might help, but it was dry.

eating out can be so hit and miss.

Best to go for something you cannot make as well yourself. Pizza is one. There is a small chain called Rudy's near us that do neopolitan style. So good and reasonable prices compared to Pizza Express.

Another one is Dishoom for Indian style. Everything tastes amazing and very cool setting (not cheap admittedly).

Every town has a few really good places so I would just stick to those few places. Obviously in cities there are probably a hundred very good places but if you know of 10 very good places close to you, you can visit on rotation and are sorted but maybe occasionally try a new place if you have heard it's amazing.

So you went to a cafe, saw avocado and feta on toast for £13 on a menu, ordered it, and were then annoyed to receive avocado and feta on toast for £13 because you would have preferred to share one tuna baguette with a friend? And from this you've extrapolated that 'eating out is always an expensive letdown'?

OK.

Just out of interest what do you think would have been a fair price ?

I find it depends on where you go and what you order.
8.5/10 times my food is really good.
I stay away from foods I make regularly, because I'm a good cook, so always compare.
My friend also told me that if you're buying a particular cuisine and the clienetele is not heavily 'native', don't bother - it's not that good.

For us eating out is usually only when meeting up with family/friends, so TBH the food is somewhat secondary. We rarely choose very high-end eateries - we’ve been to enough of those in the past and have not been impressed with the enjoyment of the food compared to the expense!

I loathe the term but maybe it’s different if you’re a ‘foodie’.

I'm quite happy to pay for something well-cooked and completely different to anything I can do myself at home.

Pub Sunday roasts are another matter, though - no matter how seductively the menu is written, the actual food tends to be disappointing, especially the roast potatoes, which are often "chewy".

I wouldn't eat omelettes and sandwiches and stuff like that when I eat out. It has to be something I'd never easily be able to create at home. So like Vietnamese catfish, morning glory, Thai curries, Pakistani tandoori etc. with lots of ingredients I don't usually use. Or meat that I don't have at home. I wouldn't order something like salmon, it's too boring and easy to cook. I like ordering pork, game, quail, squid, langoustines etc.
So I could see why an avocado and feta toast might seem a bit of a rip off.

Honestly, OP, you’re emerging as someone who doesn’t emerge into the world a lot — avocado toast on sourdough is pretty standard cafe fare and has been for quite some time. I wouldn’t order it in a cafe, because I can make it better at home, and I like it with chopped fresh chillies, but it’s not new or ‘weird’.

I appreciate that if you’re on a tight budget then a disappointing order is really disappointing, but surely that’s all the more reason for choosing where you eat very carefully, and what you order once there? And restaurants and cafes are absolutely struggling with rising costs. Several good, popular, long-established places near me closed in 2024 because they couldn’t make a living.