£100 for a casual lunch out for 4 is too much

[GrealishGoddess]

Deeply middle class problem but. Anyone else noticed that you can no longer get out of the likes of Bill’s, Wagamama, Pizza Express, etc , with two teens, for less than £100. Is this just inflation, NI effects, price gouging, what? AIBU to stay home?

My teen son eats at least 3000 calories a day, sometimes more depending on how much sport he plays. He would laugh in my face if I told him he was sharing a pizza. He would eat a whole one, dough balls and desert without breaking a sweat! I might myself have about half of one (usually have salad as it happens! but certainly my other teen and DH can easily polish one off each.

Yes really hard to eat out as a family of 4 these days, we’ve cut down massively, as just can’t afford to do it. When we do go, we don’t drink alcohol and just get the kids a pudding. The think is, the price has gone up to £100, but it’s still as hard to earn £100 as it was when going for dinner cost £50/60

Hard disagree. Pizza Express portions aren’t big, and have got smaller. If you’d said nobody needs the wine I’d have agreed.

Business owners and staff at our locals say it's been made much harder for them with NI etc. They can't hire the staff they'd like to, and there's a lot more to dealing with a restaurant/serving staff/paperwork/government red tape etc than a lot of diners realise. If you're going to a place that does waiting on, they have to employ servers without ever really being sure how many diners will come/what they'll order.
Shame for the staff and customers-I agree it's too expensive to do it as often as we'd like. I don't hate to cook, but I used to enjoy the days/nights out with friends and family, enjoying someone bringing it to us.

We used to eat out quite frequently but noticed that the quality of ingredients was reducing but the cost was rising. Started to grudge paying for worse food than we could cook at home so very rarely go out for dinner unless a special occasion.

Get an Ooni, or similar, pizza oven for home if you want that sort of food. DH has the wood pellet one and the pizzas he does in there are far nicer.

Went out in June with 2 kids to a local pub ( not posh, just local and normal) had a steak, child 1 had a burger, child 2 had cheesy chips, 2 softdrinks and a half pint, 2 ice cream Sundays. £75! Thought was very expensive! BUT we had a lovely time and it was a rare treat!
Had a wetherspoons last month, less than £30. But I personally don't like whetherspoons and also I realise it's great value. But I'd rather have the other meal every few months than a wetherspoons once a month!

Yeah it’s getting ridiculous and increasingly I’m noticing that the quality is slipping, so more often than not now I’m coming out of a bog standard chain, £100 lighter, having not even really enjoyed my meal!

Went to pizza express yest for first time in ages and could not believe the price of a pizza - £20 each! I’m sure they were more like £12 only a couple of years ago !

I’m a healthy weight and eat a pizza to
myself, i would hate sharing my food in a restaurant, and couldn’t go to sleep hungry.

i started making my own pizzas because of this, and after some practice they are amazing. you also dont realise how cheap they are too compared to shop bought ones or restaurant. You can make 3 good size margarita type ones for under £5 easily.

Honestly, £25 a head for a meal out seems perfectly reasonable to me these days

How far back are you thinking of? I'm an 80s/90s child-teen and definitely ate out for less then luxury reasons.

ime,£30 / head for a lunch or evening meal out.
£100 to feed 4 sounds like a bargain to me.

Where do people easily find coupons or whatever to make it much cheaper to eat at Pizza Express?

YANBU it's a lot isn't it.

Ate out in Italy on holiday. Pizzas (huge and delicious) were 8-10 euros each. Wine about 5 euros a glass. Our bill for 4 including a drink each was less than 60 euros / about £50. Trying to work out why UK is now so much more expensive.

We tried a newish local independant pizza place last week - 2 adults and DD 15 - no liquor licence so just soft drinks. One shared starter and 3 mains was £90. Lunch yesterday for DH and I in a pub was £45 for just food. Was Chiswick but just a normal pub and not even that great. All Sunday roasts locally are now over £20, usually between £22 and £28.

It’s 4 adult portions, £25 not unreasonable.
I personally wouldn’t eat at a chain like that without an offer it’s bogof if you buy a supermarket version of their pizza.
I look for offers or lunch deals. Went out with a friend and paid £12 for a large pizza and soft drink 2 days ago, needed to be seated before 6.30pm.

Totally agree on pizza express! We stopped going there for that reason. Biggest mark up imaginable, it’s just dough, tomato, cheese. If you have meat it’s a tiny portion

Agree. I'm a big fan as it's healthy fast food but now too pricey for what you get. I got a quarter chicken the other day with 2 sides as its the cheapest meal but the Broccoli was waterlogged and the chicken tiny and shrivelled.

I usually make the salad my go to but that's like £20 with chicken added. It's just not worth it.

Spicy rice is now a teeny tiny portion. For about £4-5. I aways used to add it to my salad as I love it.

We used to go at least once a week. Get the points. I'm giving up.

I also find a pub meal is at least £100 for microwaved /deep fried food.

We really like eating out. We are well off and work hard. Meals out get us away from our desks and give us a proper break. I haven't always got the time or the energy to make a fake away and my dc like different things.

I support my local restaurants but nandos was the last chain I've really loved. I have given up on so many chains for passing that expensive/mediocre barrier. I have stopped going to Pizza express, wagamamas, TGIs, even yo! Sushi.

Its £25:00 for a pizza hut and thats delivery probably be even more in the restaurant tbh. Take aways from big names have become extortionate. I stick to the independents these days. I've litterally boycotted them.

A pizza express pizza per person is entirely reasonable.
A glass of wine is much nicer than only a glass of tap water.
Why must that meal be dinner? Who cares what time it’s eaten.

When in Cornwall I paid £37.50 for two large g+t's (Bombay sapphire) and 2 small cokes. I thought the barman said 27.50 and just tapped. When I checked the prices it was correct (£37.50) in a bog standard pub!

As predicted we have the mumsnet competitive under eating and thrift
4 adults eating 2 pizza and 1 starter for 4
adults eating kid menu and I bet it’s so Huuuuuge they take home in a box
or the no one gets a whole pizza family, cause that is the rules. So don’t ask
Eating out is a treat - no one should be eating out more than 1-2 times per year

I just gave 4 pizzas as an example. One or two of us might have a chicken salad! The point is, it adds up to approx £100.

might not have 2 glasses of wine. 3 of us might have a soft drink , plus one espresso. Still adds up to £100

yes, this could be lunch OR dinner. Sometimes we go at 5pm which is neither/both . Still makes 100

this was about £ not calories!!

But it’s ok because the chicken they’ve roasted will last the next 6 days.