Have takeaways gone massively downhill?

[LaJacondeFumantLaPipe]

We have never been huge users of takeaways, deliveroo etc, but when we did order them, I quite enjoyed them.

But we ordered one last weekend as a treat after a really busy week and really busy weekend. It was so disappointing. The meat was awful quality - so fatty and gristly. The sauces were watery and bland and.... I have a horrible feeling that I found a fingernail in mine 🤢.

Thinking back to the one I had before that (from a different place and a different cuisine completely), it was also just horrible.

On both occasions it was really expensive, which just adds insult to injury.

Have takeaways gone downhill or is it my imagination or just bad luck where I live?

We orded recently. Restaurant telephoned saying they couldn't honour the order. We ordered through deliveroo. He said it's cancelled. We made a fresh order with a different restaurant. Well both arrived and deliveroo didn't want to know. Sod that. Not bothering now. Unless I can phone up or you have a private system I'm not interested.

In my area there are some amazing takeaways and some I would never order from - people often ask for recommendations on the local Facebook group so maybe do that

Yes to the chocolate
What on earth has happened!
It's just so disappointing

I can't stand takeaways
I used to love them.
Now, I'd rather make myself anything instead of getting a takeaway, I wouldn't even like a free meal
Very disappointing
Can't even remember the last time I bought pizza

Gluten free often involves a supplementary charge for a meal with half the elements missing. Eg. gluten free burger is just a patty with a bit of lettuce plonked on while everyone else pays less for a nice bun and sauce with theirs. Was it on here that someone posted about their recent (expensive) gluten free crumble? It turned out to be a couple of spoons of stewed fruit. The place actually had the cheek to advertise that as GF crumble. If a meal is advertised as crumble or gluten free option available then it should be what by all normal standards is a burger, crumble etc. Same with veggie or vegan. It's not really a full English breakfast if it ends up being a bit of toast with tinned tomatoes or something.

I had a deliveroo order cancelled. Neither deliveroo or the restaurant will give me my money back. It's put me off ordering again as it wasn't cheap and we ended up with no money and no food.

Try a charge back on your card. Or if it was over £100 and you paid by credit card, you also have the option of a claim under section 75.

I’d say more overpriced but not otherwise. I try and collect when possible to avoid the delivery and service charges though

That's pretty poor - even I could do a GF crumble!

Totally agree. We don’t often get takeaways but we got a curry a few weeks ago from somewhere that used to be amazing, like really really amazing, far better than anything I could manage at home! But it was just awful, really watery, chicken was all fatty chewy bits, such a shame because we were looking forward to it but I wouldn’t bother again.

Yes, I think cost pressures are causing outlets to reduce the quality of their offering. We have experienced this with both our previously favourite Indian and Chinese takeaways.

Sadly no, I would love to live by the sea. Used to visit Bangor on the train with my mum when I was wee. Loved it. And took my own children there too. They loved the swans. And there were new additions - spinning Disco Ducks🤣

I think it’s true of lots of restaurant food that there is a big incentive to cut costs and decrease quality. The chains are particularly bad. There are very good independents around though - a couple in my town are still great, though I wouldn’t order through deliveroo as I think that’s a recipe for cold food and also they charge up to 35 per cent commission on the restaurant, so if their prices are not that much higher there’s kind of an incentive to cut portions in your order. My favourite takeaway is not on deliveroo, as they don’t need to be.

Absolutely using cheapest ingredients etc so expensive. Even McDonalds is now not cheap. Fish and chips you would need a mortgage for a chippie

I’m immunocompromised and not very good at it but I checked and my faves are all 5 except for one which is a 4 thankfully
had a delicious carbonara pizza the other week from one of them

Don't eat takeaway foods..As l.like to.know where my food has come from and who has cooked it. Is it reasonable quality

Not cooked by somebody's granny with no health and safety inspections in an unhygienic, overcrowded kitchen flat

But a friend is takeaway mad but even she has mentioned her takeaway food has taken a massive noise dive in the past six months or so.

I think the market is now saturated with everybody jumping on the Bandwagon.

It is no longer seen a status thing to have your food cooked and delivered at exorbitant silly prices.

May also have less chance of being run over on the pavement by a Deliveroo cyclist.

I've got an Indian takeaway and a Chinese takeaway by me that are the only ones I order from as they are 100% delicious 😋 I think you've just possibly got crap takeaways on your area maybe

Used to live in a small village in Wales, and my favourite was Chirk Steak Bar (no idea why the name, it was a chinese takeaway!) which was about a 20 minute drive from my house. I moved away 12 years ago but was nearby on holiday last week, and called back in. Nightmare of a journey back to the holiday cottage, ended up being an hour and half, but OMG was definitely worth it. Just as good as I remember it!

We do this too! Takeaways have both become so expensive but at the same time quality has nosedived. So we don’t like takeaways anymore and buy nice food from M&S instead in these instances we used to get Takeaways

Totally agree. If I'm going to pay the kind of money a takeaway costs, I'd rather get a high end ready meal. Charlie Bighams to a fabulous Chicken Tikka Masala, foe expample.

Yes, but two takeaways isn't 100% of all takeaways served across the nation this year, is it? So it's impossible to extrapolate any trends from it.

It just completely depends on where you order from, how much you pay, where you live etc. To be honest, it also depends what you mean by 'takeaway'. Most of the places I get takeaways delivered from are decent local restaurants where we also eat-in, eg a local Indian restaurant, a pan-Asian place we go to, a pizzeria we like, a Turkish place, a Lebanese place. They're all good neighbourhood restaurants for eating-in, but they also do takeaway.

I do think some cuisines lend themselves better to being packed up and delivered than others - for example, I never think fancy burgers actually travel well. There used to be an amazing burger restaurant near us that was great when we ate in, but whenever we got deliveries from them the chips were cold and by the time they arrived, and the burger sauces/fillings were just messy and the bun was soggy. I think basically everything just sort of steamed in the packaging and wasn't great when it arrived.

Yes, thank you. I do realise that, which is why I asked on here and included a polll

Possibly a difference between restaurants that own their premises and restaurants that rent their premises.

Restaurants that rent, in my area, pay £60,000/year in rent + staff wages + bills etc. That explains why the quality is poor as they need to cut back somewhere.

Whereas I went to a pub in the middle of nowhere a few months ago, fantastic quality and less than half the cost of what it would have cost in my local area. I am assuming the owner owned the premises hence has much lower overheads!

Before the local chicken shop opened I saw the premises advertised on rightmove and the rent was £60/000/year. Crazy money and no wonder in certain towns why some restaurants struggle.