Sick of eatting out and it’s not that good!

[Greekdream]

Second time this week eatting out one was a birthday celebration and today for father day
both times spending over 100 quid and the food worse then you make at home

just don’t wanna go it anymore unless it’s somewhere really good
tricky when it’s special occasions tho

I've never got the appeal of Miller and Carter. My kids rave about it but I buy 2 amazing quality sirloin steaks from Lidl and do them myself.
Plus I don't have to put up with the most annoying waiter ever at our local M and C 😅

I feel bad that restaurant costs have gone up and it costs a fortune for staff, rent and electricity. But... to get a decent good quality 2 course meal in London it now costs £100-120 for two which is just too much to do regularly - that's now saved for birthdays and celebrations. Even 2 coffees and 2 cakes cost £18 last week at Gails.

I read a newspaper article recently that said supermarket premium range ready meal sales have gone up and it's not surprising if people substitute meals out for premium supermarket food given the cost of eating out.

I'm vegetarian and am heartily sick of going out somewhere and the only option available is vegan. Especially processed vegan. DH however just covers whatever he eats in salt and says mm yummy. We have a lot of arguments about eating out

We went to south wales in March and randomly thought, every single pub/restaurant we went to the vegetarian option was bloody risotto. And if there's one meal I want to swerve, that's it. It's always precooked, slimy and full of salt. Grim.

If you buy the standard (not premium) rib eye from Aldi and marinate in salt overnight I swear it tastes better than Gaucho! Even my friends snobbish artisan shopper boyfriend commented on how tasty it was (I didn't tell him where I bought them from).

Totally agree. Had two lovely meals in Cornwall recently (spanish and a roast that was absolutely amazing - hot, generous, tasty, great veggie alternative) but apart from that most menus are thoroughly meh. Fish and chips, chicken and bacon and a sauce, lasagne, lacklustre veggie risotto, burger, all at £15+ each per serving. With a family of 5, with some kids in adult meals, a meal out often cracks into three figures and we could get a lot of treats from that.

even the chain restaurants are more disappointing than they used to be.

Dessert is never needed surely, it just tastes nice.

I wonder if opening a restaurant is more hassle now. Thinking back to when Bistros were off the main St., some were even in people's homes.
Now when a restaurant opens it needs big investment.

Depends where and what you are eating!

Yep same. I'm constantly disappointed by what we get in restaurants/ takeaways so we just eat at home now 99 percent of the time. The prices don't justify bland, unappetising slop you get presented with!

I’ve hugely cut down this lays year on eating out. If I eat out, it’s at independents. However even places I used to enjoy, I just don’t see value in the cost nowadays as I can make food just as good at home for much less. Today’s meal was tasty and gave me a new idea to try at home but the service was shocking

A bit off the subject but could you or @RaraRachael tell me how you cook/prep your steaks please?

Every time I cook them at home they're a bit bland. I have a griddle top.

When you say marinate in salt do you mean literally cover in salt and then brush it off before cooking?

In many towns a good food truck with a limited menu is the best bet
(Shambles Food Court in York)

Some of the very best food around is at Festivals because the competition is so fierce.

People like Leon (half way along the left hand side at West Holts, Glastonbury)
have honed their craft for 35 years and turn out stunning food event after event.

By the second night at any festival, the poor sellers are obvious
and the following year they have been replaced.

Plus the service charge without having the decency to point it out. We always ask for it to be removed if they do this!

We tend not to eat out in the evenings in pub type places. We either go for Sunday roast, and I could name 20 independent village pubs within about 20 minutes that do great roasts, or we eat in places that do a specific cuisine - Chinese, Indian etc.

I agree that most chain restaurants are now terrible. Even Pizza Express has gone downhill. And I wouldn’t go to a carvery. I’m not sure anyone can make mass produced food taste amazing.

Im told that Miller and Carter is just microwave meals with a hefty price tag! But if anyone is near London, Flat Iron is excellent. Great tasting, really reasonably priced steak. And I crave their bone marrow mash!

I think take aways are massive let downs too. Apart from the unassuming tiny place on the main road which does brilliant chicken skewers with rice, huge salad sides and tasty everything else. Would love to eat somewhere amazing but we just don't have the cash ( never have and probably never will!).

Completely agree about the vegan option being the cop out for vegetarians too. I went for a Christmas meal with friends who all had roasts. My option when it came to turned out to be half a raw cauliflower that had been slightly singed in a pan. Took some right chewing,

I live in Austria and it's the same here. I pretty much stopped eating out during the pandemic and the few times I've eaten out since then I've been disappointed with the quality, while the prices have gone through the roof.

Even local "Wirtshäuser" which always used to have cheap and cheerful (but good quality) food are charging 18 - 20 Euros for a schnitzel with chips and a bit of soggy salad on the side. Then the drinks cost a fortune on top.
I know the cost of everything has gone up but restaurant prices have gone up even more, to the extent that it feels like we are being ripped off. If the quality had stayed the same it would be ok, but it hasn't, it's gone downhill.

I'm not prepared to fork out so much money for dishes I have now learned to cook at home. None of my friends eat out any more either.

I agree.

Everywhere is trying to be some kind of gastro pub or trendy eatery so they can charge ridiculous prices for very mediocre food served at stingy portions.

I am a food blogger and my favourite thing to do is go to a hotel in a big city for a night and order 3 or 4 different things to be delivered over the evening, some things travel better than others. Personally enjoy a dishoom chicken curry, honest burgers are gorgeous and great value, Italian style Deli sandwiches from a proper sandwich shop and Vietnamese are some good cheap tasty options.

Eating out in chains, especially pubs I find the food is just awful unless you go higher end independent.

Never had a great Sunday roast in a pub. Have had a few decent ones at a carvery to be fair.

I am easily bored though and all the menus eventually look the same. Manchester has some great food I must say though.

Restaurants are taxed to death. 20% of what you pay goes straight to the government for VAT. Every staff member has a NI cost, and a pension cost in addition to wages. Min wage keeps going up, which I'm not against, but that will increase the price of your meal. Then there are business rates, rent or mortgage. Factor in the huge increases in energy costs, and food costs. The margins the businesses make are tiny. So the £27 someone posted upthread for a fish dish is actually a fair price even if it feels too much to pay. It's getting to the point where many will give up, because they can't cover their costs.

I feel like this government hates small independent businesses and is determined to sink them all.

Came here to say exactly the same thing, one of the things I loved about going out to eat was having food that it was beyond my ability to make at home. These days the stuff that gets served up is no different and often less appealing and tasty my own cooking. The only new places that seem to open up where I live tend to be pizza restaurants and think that this is because they don't take a huge level of skill to make and probably have a reasonable profit margin

There was a thread about first world problems this would fit with. I do understand fully though so not a dig. It's so frustrating to spend our limited means on crap food.

I am always am very polite but send something back after I've had one bite and looked at it if it doesn't pass muster.

That way they'll change it immediately. Though I have sometimes had a feeling the second meal won't be any better so just nurse my drink.

Write an honest TripAdvisor and don't go again.

There are plenty of decent places who struggle which is sad really. It feels like good restaurants don't survive while mediocre chains thrive.

I don't blame you. At least if you take your own lunch, it will be exactly how you like it!

Mass produced microwaved crap is right.

Lately I can't eat out without getting ill afterwards and the quality and quantity has been shaved down endlessly. The joy has gone.

DS took me and DH to a restaurant near where he lives that was Michelin starred , my Yorkshire puddings were inedible rock solid and burnt, the roast beef was very tasteless too( heaven only knows what it cost!)
Conversely DH and I did a stadium tour of Tottenham Hotspur and decided to eat at the cafe there, okay it was served on recyclable plates and cutlery, but we had a beautifully cooked delicious meal £19 for 2 mains.
I'm really fed up of going out for overpriced food that is badly prepared, we've stopped going out to eat, and only go with friends to be sociable.