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...

Nearest garden centre is a blue diamond. All toasties are £9.95 but come with salad and crisps and you can swap your crisps to chips for £2.95!!

Yeah is £2.90, fruit tea is £3.10. so £30 ISH here. Fish and chips, that someone else mentioned, is £16.95, which shocked me!

Overpriced for sure.

I doubt that you would even be allowed to sit in a garden centre cafe with your own sandwiches and flask! I guess you could sit in the car park and eat your sandwiches!

It’s on the pricey size, yes, but not out of the ordinary. You’d pay similar for hot sandwiches and drinks in any high street coffee chain.

You’re paying for the increased energy and staffing costs

I agree, I do not have shares in spoons by the way (I have often defended them on here!) but I love the way they restore old buildings. If you wandered in to my local one on a Sunday afternoon I could easily be seen as a 'lonely day drinker' when I actually love having a glass of wine and people watching. If I went out to my local pub or a fancy wine bar and had a couple of wines alone or with a friend, why would that be any different? And lonely people deserve to go out for some form of socialisation too even if it is just a chat with the bar staff.

Pubs can be a great thing for combatting loneliness, my local is the community hub. It's a shame we're losing so many.

You can't tell if someone's an alcoholic just by looking at them. And I am sure you get them in all pubs. And some of them don't go in pubs at all.

Many spoons are lovely, friendly places. Admittedly the one nearest me isn't one of the nicest ones, It's in a scruffy town and and I am sure you get some 'down and out' people in there, but they're not there to do me any harm, and it always has mostly families, couples and people having food in groups. No different to anywhere else.

@igelkott2026 , you don't take food and drink into a cafe.
You eat it elsewhere. In the car or a nearby scenic spot.

@OffTopicly , you can with some. Some have a strange skin colour.
An acquaintance 'liked his drink' and then gradually his skin colour changed.
It's like a dull leathery colour.

Yes exactly. I've had too many disappointing (and overpriced) cakes/baked goods.
Admittedly I've never tried the puddings at 'spoons I don't think, so not sure what they are like. Similarly to you, the spoons in the nearest town to me is a bit of dive compared to others I've been in, but not enough to put me off or encourage me to drive to the other one just a bit further away which is nicer. It's nice enough and yes, you can eat outside. Staff are friendly.

I think with it being cheap, you're going to get some 'louts'. But they're a minority as they are most places.

Damn, I am supposed to be on a diet but I think I might make a 'spoons date' with myself for this Sunday now. 😆

looks in mirror

Okay, that's interesting. And another good excuse for me to go to spoons and see if I can spot any.

I have looked at people before and suspected it. Thin, gaunt older men usually but then one of my friends was like that as he aged and was far from an alcoholic, more a two pints of bitter a few times a week guy, was just the way he was built. Other ones I've suspected have often had a very red face. A friend of mine's Dad was like that, always red in the face, I only ever saw him at gatherings where drink was plentiful anyway so was difficult to tell if it was just having a drink normally or something more problematic.

Do you live near me, @OffTopicly ?
The one near me is seriously grim (the clientele mainly)
The one in the next town is in a prime location and doesn't look like a 'Spoons.

Rosacea , not caused by alcohol but alcohol can trigger a flush in many sufferers .
Older men who have this often end up with red faces because they’re not so bothered as younger men or women about it .
They’re also set in their ways and won’t wear sunscreen or a hat and will plonk themselves down in full sun .
My MIL remarked on a very red faced older man ( only to me ) and said “ oh he’s been at the booze 🥃 “
I said “ actually he looks like a golfer with rosacea who doesn’t wear a hat when he’s out for 18 holes “

@Daftypants , it's not rosacea, although heavy drinkers often have the redness on their nose an cheeks. The skin colour is more like a leathery colour.
It's like a dull tan colour.
The skin looks tanned and a bit sunburned, puffy and lifeless.

I am closely acquainted with an alcoholic. He will go for months (sometimes over a year)without booze, but as soon as he has some, he slips back into it and doesn't stop. It's sad as he's a very intelligent man who used to have a good job, lots of friends etc.

I've noticed when he's been drinking continuously for a few weeks his nose seems a lot larger! And he is very red in the face all the time. Never noticed a 'leathery' look but then I wouldn't necessarily. He's not how other alcoholics I've known of are in that he's well built (and quite fat).

@BleedinglyObvious maybe! Yorkshire area.

@OffTopicly , nowhere near.

The leathery look is on the people who drink a bottle of spirits a day. They're often in the spoons all morning then stand around the rest of the day drinking in the street.
Ex-FIL was a functioning alcoholic and looked OK. I've no idea how much he drank and he lived well into his 80s but XP said he drank a lot. Empty bottles hidden, that sort of thing.

Friend and I had lunch in Chester pub last week. Meal deal was cod goujons on ciabatta with fries and pint of Peroni each. £30 for both of us, absolutely delicious.

What pub was it @Freysimo ?

They are fleecing people for every penny they can get. Can't see the cafe lasting that long at those prices.

We were £62 in out local garden centre for scampi ans ahips. Soup and a sarnie ( both tiny soup ans half a sandwich, a panini, strawberry tart, 2 sodas and 2 coffees.

We were £11 for take out stovies (like a large mugs worth!!!) From a local aberdeenahire roadside eatery.

Yes stuffs expensive, but they have costs to meet.

We are just nocking it on the head and going to try ans stop going out to eat. Its usually about £130 for a family.of 4..

Its normal now.. prices are up.. minimum wage is around £13 an hr for staff and food prices so there you go ♥️

The Watergates. We sat outside to people watch but it's a beautiful old pub, v quirky inside.

All depends on where you are. Pretentious overpriced London/Southeast , not surprised at all. East Midlands where I am very expensive imo.

Two toasted sandwiches and two straightforward drinks were over £20 in M&S the other day, I thought that was over the top.

See I feel that this should be standard not a meal deal. We used to regularly take eldest to cafes, garden centre etc for a snack. I think I could count on one hand the number of times we have taken youngest for the same, it has got ridiculous.

Was it a Planters? We have one locally and their food prices are absolutely ridiculous for food that is average at best. Nothing special at all and far more expensive than the pub restaurant I work at!

ETA although I have heard similar about Dobbies too.

So if it had been 4 people, it would have been 60 quid? mad

Don't touch the Ship Inn with a barge pole ( pardon the pun)

Crap