This was expensive?

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Local garden center..

2 toasted sandwiches with tiny side salad. The sandwich consisted of 2 pieces of bread with meat/cheese.
2 teas
1 fruit tea
£32 😬 for a quick bite to eat...

@MrsJeanLuc , it wasn't obvious from the OP that the visit had been to meet a friend or friends.
If it was OP and her partner going to a local garden centre then eating at home would make sense and be much cheaper.

There's a garden centre about 2.5 miles from here but if we wanted to eat we'd go to the lovely pub nearby.

Greene King has a seniors lunch. 3 courses for £7.99 or 2 for £6.99. Very, very good.

There are some very good offers about -

£10 for steak and frites at Cote on a Monday.

£10 for lunch at Pizza Express kind of thing.

I'd swerve the lunch and have a cup of tea at the garden centre probably.

Who takes sandwiches and a flask to a garden centre? Would they even let you eat it in there?

Somebody who doesn't want to pay cafe prices.

It’s hit and miss but even they can’t get a cheese and tomato panini or a ham mushroom pizza wrong

That’s crazy. Did you know it would be that much when you ordered?

Our local garden centre in London is offering two fish and chips meals for £15.

Plus as it was so filling we didn't need dinner in the evening, so could count as two meals each I suppose. Even better value.

Why on earth not? Happens in restaurants/ takeaways all the time

I saw the menu on being seated, but hadn't been to this garden center before so didn't know the prices.
As I had said oh we can meet at X and i'll shout lunch i couldn't/wouldn't then say oh no sorry i'm not paying.
Next time maybe we'll stick to the usual home visit.
(Thsy did help me with plants though as i'm.clueless lol)

Yes I think (for me at least) food out is now at a price where the stress of the prices takes away all the pleasure of eating out. A lot of it is habit. My DS and I were standing in the queue at the cafe at our local NT property and we had time to wonder why we were about to pay over £2 for a can of Pepsi Max and however much the coffee was. So we didn't bother.

You don't pay for the teabag! You pay for equipment, fuel, cleaning, business rates and especially staff. So the NMW is £12.72 an hour, plus the increase in employer NICs. Why does nobody understand the real cost of their "cup of tea and a sandwich"?
And if you're thinking of voting Green in the next GE, they want a NMW of £15 an hour..... which will kill hospitality stone dead.

I went to a Wetherspoons the other day, had a toasted panini, chips and a pint for £7. So yes I think you got ripped off.

People do understand it but that doesn't stop £4 for a cup of tea from being a total rip-off.

Our local pub charges £5.95 for a toastie, £3 for any potato side and £1.90 for a pot of tea with unlimited hot water. The prices OP was charged were just plain extortion.

I think it’s expensive for a toastie. The tea sounds on cheaper side. I’d have guessed £10 max for an toastie and £3/4 tea. I’d check prices online before arranging something.

That is expensive .
We were recently in a small cafe in a town where there isn’t much choice and one of the cafes was closed .
We paid £32 for 2 sandwiches and 2 coffees , sandwiches sounded good on the menu but were very average just like I’d make at home if I was rushed and we needed lunch .
No crisps or salad with them and my coffee was over £4 .
I won’t go there again for lunch , maybe just have a coffee next time

Insane ! I'd rather go to M&S food hall and by a nice sarnie !!!! £32 !! If people keep doing it that's how they get away with it !!
I could afford it but I prefer to pay what it's worth !!! And no way I could make so many delicious sarnies for that cost!! 😭

It would be under £20 at my cafe. But the café owner possibly has to pay a big rent to the garden centre.

Laughing at the poster wittering on about how cheap teabags are - if only that was the only cost to a cafe owner. Unfortunately there’s also power costs, rents, insurance, wages etc.

Why would they find that funny? Sounds like that was a pretty boring conversation.

I used to treat myself to a sandwich and a coffee when out and about a couple of times a week. Living alone I get sick of always having to prepare and clear up food. However the shocking cost of everything means I have cut this little treat down to a couple of times a month and given that we are going to see things become even more pricey due to Trump's war I am getting ready to give it up altogether

We went to a local cafe recently 2 lattes, 1 soup and 1 slice of quiche and salad and it was £34!!!

I had a lovely lunch out today in our local cafe for £14.45:

Carrot & Coriander soup with a cheese toastie £9.50
Blueberry Crumble Cheesecake £4.95

All freshly made and delicious (I know the cafe owner who does all the cooking herself and her mother supplies the cakes)

This is probably more than you have to pay in some places but the quality makes it worth it

I tried to tell her, but she's not having it.

I've been a chef in restaurants, cafés, care homes and independently for 25 years.

Oooh where is it? I’d love to find a coffee shop where they have properly big pots of tea that give several cups rather than about 1.5

Where was that? Harrods Garden Centre?!

I met a friend for lunch on Monday at my local Wetherspoons...I had a chicken bbq & bacon panini....1.5 pints of cider and a Pepsi Max Cherry and it was less than £10....We always meet there as fed up of getting ripped off in other places.