Pie and a ‘selected’ drink … to think this is an insane cost?

[Ipbual]

Recently seen an ‘offer’ of 19 pounds for a pie and selected drink every Thursday evening between 4-7.

This is a standard country pub on the outskirts of an average town.

I absolutely loving eating out and me and dh have a pretty decent income yet we cannot justify paying these prices anymore. If we both ordered this ‘deal’ it would be 38 quid! That’s without a desert or a coffee.

AIBU to think soon these places will collapse? Or are people still happy to spend on it?

It depends what you like to spend your money on. I'd pay that but then i don't buy expensive shoes, handbags or cars.

A main meal including a properly made, decent sized, delicious pie and a £5-7 drink brought to your table - it’s not bad I don’t think. Nearly £4 is VAT for a start so that brings it down to £15 to buy all the ingredients, pay the staff to make the pie, pay the staff to cook the veg etc and get someone to seat you, take your order, bring it to you and clear away afterwards in a min wage if £12+ an hour plus national insurance. Not sure I’d be advertising it as a “deal” though.
A microwave pukka pie with frozen chips and bisto that you have to order yourself at the bar and eat at a sticky table with 125ml blue nun - not so good.

@Ipbual if you love eating out how have you not noticed this sort of price?

Depends on the pie presuming handmade with a pub drink, sounds ok.

Business rates, energy rates and wages have all increased recently so eating out is more expensive, obviously. If you want other people to do the cooking and clearing it costs more now.

Not compulsory clearly

Would we pay this? Yes sure

I’m not querying the actual cost, I’m sure it’s similar to other places, I’m more querying whether people think this is still doable these days? We earn well but dropping 50 quid on a basic meal without desert isn’t without our reach these days

I would assume it’s an upmarket pub with homemade pies that come with mash, gravy, probably veg. For just a pie and lemonade I wouldn’t pay that. But I can imagine a main course pie £15 and pint of beer £5 at my local pub. (Although £1 off isn’t much of a deal)

I would pay it but only because I only eat out a couple of times a month, so meals out are a treat. A couple of times a week I wouldn’t and couldn’t for one meal

Seems like standard pricing for the UK. Not sure how much you were expecting to pay? £15? £10? There haven’t been those sorts of prices in sit-down restaurants for years, surely?

See £6/7 for a pint seems expensive to me. We have quite a few pubs in town and they range from £2 odd ( whether spoons) to a fiver

Yeah that's loads for just a meat pie or something with a drink, I don't care if it's hand raised or whatever. In Central London yesterday a pub was offering a pint and a chunky sandwich for £11 which seems quite reasonable in comparison. And even All Bar One do lunch and a drink for £15.

Even a pint is £6-7 now

£3.80 in our local.

I think lots of things are like this now and people will buy fewer and fewer nice to haves and services. Some jobs aren’t going to be worth the cost of having them done and having someone cook and serve your dinner to you is one of them.

I'm with you on this OP. Eating out, standard meals I'm not talking about going out to a really nice restaurant, is expensive now. Me and DH used to go out every Friday for a bite to eat or just coffee and cake, not as a special treat, just a habit to decompress from work before the weekend and spend time together with nothing to do. Now we think twice about stopping anywhere for a small meal or coffee and cake. And we are on a very good income. It just doesn't feel like a reasonable regular expense anymore if you start to think. Household weekly food shop is extraordinary expensive anyway so don't feel like spending any more on food.
So maybe yes £19/meal offer is the going rate for an average pie but to I want to spend nearly £50 by the time we get coffees etc? No. Not for an ad-hoc let's get something to eat experience.
Strangely enough, it feels like the nice restaurants we go to for more special meals are around the same cost to us, as if they haven't increased the prices as much. I don't know if it is actually true or they simply had larger profits to start with and now they are making less money whilst retaining clients.

I don't think it's too bad if it's a decent pie. I also don't think Jeremy Clarksons pub is ridiculously priced either. I do think a lot have missed the point with that. He is only serving locally sourced products which will be more expensive due to all the costs are farmers have to pay. This is exactly the point he is trying to make on his farming show, we are too used to cheap shit food imported in. I would rather eat out less but eat at places like his that supports local than at my local spoons or wherever every week.
My local decent pub charge £15.95 for a pie and Mach with veg, and it's always fully booked

That ostensibly reasonable £38 for a brace of pie and pints jumps up very easily with a couple of extra drinks or a coffee. DH is very slapdash about keeping to a budget, but even he has cottoned on to the fact that £50 for the two of us to sit down and have a fairly modest, casual dinner will mean going without something else these days. It's not something we'd do unplanned any more.

More information is needed OP (as many others on the thread have requested!)

Is this LITERALLY one pie on a plate and a drink…or is it a proper ‘pie meal’ with mash/chips, veg, gravy??

If it’s a full meal, with a drink, I think that’s a pretty good deal and would happily pay it. Round here, a pie meal in a pub would be around £18 - add on a drink and it would be over £20, so £19 for both would be a bargain.

Eating out isn’t cheap anymore (it never really was to be fair!) but it’s only going up at a similar rate to everything else…which is a lot, I know. I eat out only as a treat these days, so not often, but I realise that every business is suffering from the COL crisis, so expect to pay the price 🤷‍♀️

This really!

Depends if it’s a nice pie!

There was a thread on this a couple of weeks ago about the exact same thing - eating out costs and people just not happy paying the high prices for often something standard or even sub standard.

A pub meal out for 2 and a drink for under £40 isn't bad really so in this instance I think it's OK but then of course it depends on the quality of the pie and what you get with it. I used to order a steak pie from a local pub, from a small chain. It used to be delicious but they have now obviously changed either the steak supplier or they're using a cheaper cut as the last one I had around 18 months ago was so fatty and for me, gross and practically inedible. This sort of thing is annoying and absolutely not worth the price.

It's pretty normal round my way to pay £7 for a pint so a meal for £12 is ok I reckon.

Wildwood (chain pizza and pasta restaurant) are currently doing a pizza/pasta/burger with chips and a soft drink for £10, if you have any round your way.

Sounds like a bargain tbh assuming it is good quality pub fare. Going out is expensive - once a month that’s a pretty reasonable meal out I’d say.

How frequently would you expect to do that? So we generally spend a bit more than that for 4 of us to eat out but 2 are wee kids. And that's without booze and we don't do the 3 courses we did in our 20s because our appetites aren't the appetites of partyung 20 odd yr olds but those of tired 40yr olds prone to middle aged spread.

We earn reasonably well and manage to eat out once or twice a month but we don't do the multiple courses that's maybe twice a year and planned for

I was thinking it's more of a a bar meal/snack. Like a cold individual pork pie you eat in your hand with a pint (phwoaar).

If it's a pie mash, veg and gravy meal then I guess it's not too bad.

I would still like the option of an individual pork pie and a pint though (for a tenner?)

A glass of wine in pubs round here is £8 so that looks like a bargain to me.

Perhaps I'm posher than I thought, but I'd pay £19 for a main course in a "naice" pub without really even blinking. And if that includes a drink as well, I'd be quite happy.
Presumably said pie comes with various accompaniments? Veg? Chips?

The price is fine. You do know that not everyone is struggling and can afford prices like this?

If people can’t/don’t pay it then the pub will fail or change their offer. But presumably lots of people are paying it, so it’s fine. Seems reasonable to me, especially if comes with sides and it’s not literally just a pie.

I’m interested in how much people think it costs a venue to be open for a night.