Finding it increasingly difficult to justify eating out at pubs etc

[JupiterJa]

This is something I’ve always enjoyed doing, but I just find the financial outlay to be hard to justify now. A fairly average meal is now usually between £17-£20 (say a burger, or fish and chips) with a pint or glass of wine usually over £6. I just don’t feel the experience warrants the outlay now, especially midweek, so these trips are becoming rarer and rarer.

Not so long ago £15 would comfortably cover everything and I felt that was good value.

Does anyone else find themselves making less frequent visits now?

One final thing, A £12 meal deal at a supermarket is often very good value compared to a takeway so lots of people have these instead.

I only really go out to eat when I'm meeting friends. I have a limited food repertoire anyway as have digestive issues so I can usually only chose from a couple of menu items.
I went out for a group dinner the other night to a local place (8 of us). I had overcooked salmon for £25 and you had to buy sides separately. I could've made better at home. It was only our group and one other table in the whole place (midweek, but still).
I will pay for sushi as I can't make that at home, curry (when I could eat it as again, I'm rubbish at cooking curries).
I also hate spending over a tenner on some eggs/sourdough/avo when I eat similar at home for a couple of quid!

We've said the same. Most of the "affordable" places can't even get the basics right. Cold food, burned/overcooked food, slow service, mistakes, etc. It's not rocket science. And that's without the fact that most chain restaurants and pubs are using the same suppliers and far too much is being "warmed" on site rather than cooked on site, which is why most menus are the same across different chains. Trouble is that a lot of the chains are now owned by "money men" and venture capitalists who don't give a toss and just want the profits, so deliberately choose to under staff and employ the cheapest staff they can get, i.e. people who can warm and microwave food rather than chefs!

I've found that I'm enjoying "cafes" more these days and tend to go out for lunch rather than evening meals. Smaller, private cafes tend to have more staff, so service is quicker and more accurate, and they often have an owner doing the cooking rather than a disinterested "pinger". Yes, the menus are more limited and not as fancy, but it tends to be better quality, even at lower prices as they are more likely to use local suppliers rather than national wholesalers, so more likely that meat is from a local butcher, bread from a local bakery, potatoes and other veg from a local greengrocer etc. I'd far rather have a good bacon bap or jacket potato from a cafe at lunchtime than a steak in a pub chain in the evening due to better service, greater chance of hot/decent food etc.

@Maverickess

Tbh a lot of what's being said is basically people feel entitled to a decent service delivered by other people, but don't think it's worth paying a decent price for.

The real problem is the venture capitalists and other "money man" taking far too high a profit, so over-charging their customers AND under-paying their staff.

The cheekiest charge are the sides. Roast dinner £20 then it's £3 for each vegetable. So potatoes, carrots, peas adds another £9.

What really gets me is £3.75 for a herbal tea . Teabag and water , so expensive even yes for taking up a space but no you don’t have waiting staff .

Our local pub/restaurant is on the marina. Locals support them all year round. Boat owners come down to work on their boats popping in for a coffee and sometimes lunch. Just in time for Easter they slapped £2 on absolutely everything, food, drinks. Locals stopped going in protest. Even visitors baulked at the prices. It's been dead this whit week. The food isn't good to start with. The manager has popped outside stopping the locals asking why they've not been in . Well the menu hadn't changed in five years and now a coffee and sandwich is £4 more. From £19 to £23 .

Happy to use my local Wetherspoons!
Good choice of food, veggie options, very reasonable price, unlimited tea/coffee, good service, clean, spotless toilets, nice carpets.
I used to be snobby about them, but was persuaded by my daughter when she was a student to try them; I now go once/twice a week and have never been disappointed.

Never been big on eating out since we came back to live in the UK after a decade abroad where prices were keen and food quality high. Disappointed a number of times here so rarely bother. I spend quite a bit on food and know that I can have a higher quality meal at home for a fraction of the price of the local pubs and restaurants.

However, those of us on this thread are clearly in the minority as coffee shops, pubs and restaurants are the only thing opening up and doing a roaring trade on the High Street other than Turkish Barbers! We recently came back from Krakow, hundreds of places to eat and drink and all of them busy, the difference there was the quality was high and the prices reasonable.

But it isn't just a teabag and water is it?
It's a tea bag, water, electricity, cutlery and crockery, furniture, heating, decor, property and equipment cleaning and maintenance, insurance, accountancy costs, staff wages, NI contributions, pension contributions, mortgage/rent, business rates and probably plenty of other business costs that I have no idea about.

£10 plus for a jacket potato with beans and cheese!
£4 for an average sized slice of Victoria sandwich
People won’t put up with it. I can see pub and garden centres closing

i think it’s sandwiches and cake are more overpriced if anything. Thankfully we have a lovely pub nearby (who don’t serve food) with a chip shop next door and we buy food to take into the pub - £15 for a large feeds us both and it’s £4.20 a pint of beer

@justasking111. Wondering if you are my neighbour??? My local gastropub type place on the marina has hiked their prices, we have stopped going there

In carveries, the veg are either limp and rubbery or so undercooked as to be raw. One had stuffing that had been reconstituted but not baked, Yorkshires which looked lovely, but had been reheated and were tough and leathery, burnt looking roast potatoes. The standard is really poor.
We too are enjoying cafes, nice breakfasts, jacket potatoes, and snacks that don’t cost the earth. Our local cafe serves a lovely roast dinner for £6.95.

I like an independent cafe too. One near me does an amazing home made soup and cheese scone for £6. Which feels about right to me.

Yes we have stopped eating out, it’s very expensive and quite often food that is better when I cook it. It’s a shame as it was something we enjoyed but can no longer justify even though we can afford it

I don’t eat out much for all the reasons outlined but my DH does like doing it, which I find annoying

Someone I know just opened a local cafe/restaurant and I honestly think they have lost the plot and gone mad, I don’t know why they think this will be successful. Barely anyone I know can afford to eat out regularly enough for this to be a viable income. They have chosen a location saturated with similar places and a huge supermarket.

Well good luck to anyone trying to 'imagine' their way out of the increases in price to food, gas and electric, business rates, insurance, licences the NI increases to employers, without putting their own prices up, or reducing what's on offer.

Have you managed to 'imagine' your way out of the cost of living increases?

Either way with the increases in everything and the reduction in disposable income for everyone, hospitality is going to take a hit. Charge less and keep customers but you can't sustain the cost increases then doors close. Charge more, meet costs but lose customers and the doors close.

It's not a problem with businesses or customers by and large, excepting those businesses that do profiteer and those customers that demand to be delivered a service for less than it costs to be delivered and resent that they need to pay the price of the service they want.

The problem is the current economic climate. As I said in a pp, one ingredient we use has tripled in price since 2020 - who should cover that increase? Should I work for less money so the customer doesn't have to pay more? (Until all the staff leave because that's unsustainable)
Should the business still supply it at a loss so the customer doesn't have to pay more? (Until they fold because that's unsustainable)
Does the business drop the quality of that ingredient, increase the price a bit (because the inferior product is still more expensive now than the superior one was 5 years ago) and sacrifice quality?

We all know that prices for everything have increased massively, either you pay the increases or you do without. But a lot of people don't want to do either, they want to blame the industry for ripping them off instead because they're pissed off for paying more for a service they want, but place no value in.

We have stopped eating out unless it’s a birthday as the cost is higher than ever but the service isn’t the same and you are rushed out asap. It feels like a conveyor belt and no longer enjoyable.

My friend paid £22 for sausage, mash and peas when we went out about a year old!

I remember saying you could cook the same meal for a family of 4 for £5!

@Maverickess When I said ‘imaginative’ I meant some of the businesses need to get creative, put more effort in, think outside the box - that kind of thing. Have social media be an intrinsic part of their brand, regularly review their suppliers for the best deals, think about having set menus or other kinds of deals, invest in an elegant, easy to navigate website if they have the money. Plenty of us have said we can afford the prices they charge, but just can’t justify paying. I understand inflation and overheads, but it’s all about value, so paying £13 for a mediocre soup having had average service in pretty drab surroundings is an example of being ripped off. Just the way it is here currently in the U.K, generally speaking.

By contrast, there’s a wonderful independent coffee shop / cafe in my city centre where the food is freshly cooked, tastes great and the coffee is sublime. Sometimes you have to queue to get in. The service is friendly, the atmosphere cosy and buzzy. For a salted caramel brownie and americano the total is almost £7.70, which for me is excellent value. Likewise in central London I’m happy to pay £4 for a coffee if it’s really good, as it usually is at a lot of independent coffee shops.

I also have noticed the food quality is worse outside of London, and the prices are not cheaper.

We haven’t been to Pizza Express for a while, the last time was at a service station on a journey, and the pizzas seemed to have shrunk as all my teenagers were still hungry afterwards!

Food courts in London are usually good as the prices are competitive, no service charges (as you have to go get it yourself) and each stall just serves one type of food so you know they will do it well. It works well when eating out with teens as they like the busyness / street vibe but it’s not really a relaxing meal!

@StanfreyPock was it Copenhagen ? We lived there for 20 months and I now say we are paying scandi prices in UK for poorer quality , but without scandi wages- portions there were big and shareable too in many many places

Something else I have noticed is that a few of the gastropubs I used to eat in regularly are now solely focusing on burgers or pizzas, I guess these are cheaper and easier for the pub. Consequently I rarely eat there now.

I do understand overheads have risen and I don’t mind paying for a nice meal. But I do object to paying a lot for rubbery meat, soggy vegetables, frozen chips.

I agree they are very good value, but I haven’t stepped inside a ‘Spoons in years in protest over Tim Martin’s appalling attitudes to the EU and staff furlough during Covid.