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.

I agree. I've become quite a good cook over the last 15 years and I avoid restaurants - I've been disappointed too many times. It's just not worth to pay 25+ quid for cheap, tasteless ingredients from a supermarket, rubbery meatballs and premade curry sauce laden with sugar. Why pay so much for something I can do much better and cheaper at home? So we rarely eat out, unless it's Nandos or on special occassions - a buffet-style restaurant. I'd even prefer a pizza tbh. Now only eating on holidays e.g. Spain - we've rarely been disappointed, always fresh seafood.

Back from the run now, no heating obviously.

Ah yes the £18.00 burger. Would you like artisan hand crafted fries with that?

Bargain at 25 quid.

I feel like this too, I stick to my local Chinese where you can get all you can eat for £25 and it’s soo good!

Agree. I stick to one or two places that never disappoint when I want a meal I know I'll enjoy ( treat meal out with dh). When I have to eat out elsewhere I'll always pick the same one or two cheap things, because every time I try something else I'm disappointed and think what a waste of money! People sneer at chain pubs like Weatherspoons but at least you know what you're getting.

Agree - the roast potatoes are nearly always a huge letdown. Though I’m far more lenient about the yorkshires. V fussy about the potatoes. It’s a shame because the rest of it is often pretty good!

If you know that you are the sort of person that likes a place which sells hotpot for £5.99, why did you order avocado on sourdough for £13?

There was no way you were ever going to like it. It's aimed at a completely different market of people who like the 'gentrified' experience.

Local to me I can go to a pub that serves good quality gastropub food or a pub serving ginormous pies. One caters for people who want to know where the ingredients came from and serves small portions, the other caters for people who think it was a rip off if the portion size isn't a feat of endurance. Both businesses doing well but they mainly are not catering to the same people.

We are fortunate to have some very nice pub/cafe eateries around our area. We go out with friends, choosing a different place once a month, and also sometimes on our own. We tend to study menus carefully (pescatarians) as sometimes there won’t be much that we fancy, and, because I can cook some decent food, I want to think I am getting value for money, but tempered with the understanding it is being cooked for me. We tend to do independent pubs rather than chains, last thing we want to eat is a microwaved offering of any kind, but don’t mind paying a bit more for freshly cooked stuff, even if we have to wait a bit longer for it. I have on occasion sent things back, usually if it is not hot. Another tip is to take your time ordering, have a look at what other folks are having delivered to their table, does it look nice, are the portions ok for you, I have asked someone if they could recommend what they are eating, if it’s an appropriate moment.
Somewhat surprisingly, a couple of the nicest and best value meals we have had recently were in a Leeds hospital restaurant. Totally different, very tasty, and I have even adapted one dish to make at home. Decent price as well.

If they'd bought you smoked salmon and a sprinkle of capers on bread instead of eggs and avocado, the ingredients would have cost them maybe a pound more, at wholesale prices; but the salmon option would have used significantly less prep time, and all the other costs of providing you somewhere to sit down and eat would have been exactly the same.
It's not very reasonable to focus on the ingredients as a measure of whether you're getting value from a restaurant or cafe.

Just reading some of the local restaurant offerings for valentines and the prices are a joke. Being a lot more selective about eating out these days , we are (well mainly husband) quite adventurous home cooks so really look for something we wouldn’t be able to replicate easily at home.

We actually went out lastnight , £14.50 set menu at a local Indian and it was great value for starter , main , veggies and rice or side

I'm in my 50s and tend to agree, I used to love going out to eat, but now unless I spend £££ it's meh.

As previously said wagamama is ok (my teens love it and it is fresh and tasty), but most of the other mid-range places are disappointing.

I do think a lot of places are overpriced for what they are. I’ve had some amazing meals in restaurants in the past. So many places are just reheating bits. A lot of the talent/ expertise has gone out of kitchens in favour of a standardised approach which is cheap/ easy to prepare.

I worked in a hotel for a while. None of the deserts were prepared in house they were bought in frozen from a supplier then defrosted and plated up with a bit of sauce. On the menu for £9. I think you could probably just buy an equivalent desert for a quid or two tbh.

I don’t mind paying for really nice food/ skill involved. However really object to paying £££s for slightly rubbish, I could do that better myself at home.

We discovered that cafés on larger business parks (intended, I assume, for the business park staff) tend to be subsidised in some way, perhaps on reduced rent? Found a café (Park Kitchen on Thames Valley Park if you're passing) charging about £6.50 for a full English. Amazing value and delicious. Could pay more than double that in eg Henley on Thames for the same thing. Only downside is they stop serving breakfasts at 10.

Set meals At set meal times sounds deadly dull to me and I’m 60.

Post Covid I’ve noticed this and I think it’s because the price of everything has gone up so much that places I used to go to for cheap eats aren’t cheap anymore but the quality has remained the same or got worse so I’ve started to begrudge it.

For example pub grub is just pub grub and when it was a tenner I didn’t mind but when the same meal is now £20 it feels a bit… Meh.

I’ve also always been a Nando’s fan and whilst I still like Nando’s, my rice bowl and chips with a drink came to £25 in there recently. Their Caesar salad alone is £16! When I was first going there my whole meal with a drink used to come to £14 so it felt like you were getting great value for money, but it’s losing its appeal now.

Anything remotely “festive”, Valentines, Mothers Day, Christmas is often a huge let down. Over priced, kitchen busier than usual so quality declines, service more stressed.
Once went on a Fire Service Xmas do with OH at Xmas, and there was a near riot when big men were presented with two small roast potatoes, a smear of pea juice, a tiny sausage and a small slice of Turkey. Everything sent back, staff asked WTF was going on, and you have an hour to sort something out. No mention of “nouveau cuisine” when booking, just traditional Xmas dinner. We never went back and the reviews were chastening to say the least.

Also my air fryer has helped. There are fakeaway things that I didn't trust myself to do in a pan that are foolproof in the air fryer.

Not a fan of wagamama at all. My DD also dislikes it, and she loves all asian food. The 'dumplings' last time were an abomination and the noodles were very bland. Hare and Tortoise is levels above. Great service also, I'm always amazed at how quick everything comes out. Like being in Japan or Korea.

For example? We have a new air fryer, but I haven’t really used it much yet!

I went for a carvery the other week that was really nice
Nothing groundbreaking but well cooked and tasty, loads of veg choice, and I went back for seconds!
I used the app, cost me £6 and I got a free g&t

Sweet and sour chicken is great. Also teriyaki salmon and anything with prawns. I always overcook this stuff on the hob.

Im surprised- I’ve had a few good ones. Usually close to the £20 mark for a plate though.

Ditto other food. Theres really only one chain restaurant I like and they’ve always been very good.

Some of the cheaper chains though have gone very expensive and while I might have popped to one for lunch a few years ago i wont spend what they’re charging for ok food.

Lovely.

I love Wetherspoons food!

Lately I've had my best, more affordable food from street stalls or in food-hall-type places where you queue up at a stand and then sit at communal tables. It's not a glamorous experience but I've found through bitter experience the food is often better than sitting down in a cheap restaurant. So for the OP's £13 you can often get something quite good.
If you live in London or around I think Eating With Tod YouTube channel is good for food hall and affordable-type options.

OP I am with you on the disappointment re crap eggs on toast etc.

I love Dishoom but the cook book will tell you that one dish contains many, many (often obscure) ingredients so always worth the cost imo!