Eating Out becoming a Luxury?

mariaalice

Anyone works in one of those places with a really good subsidised canteen, one of my daughters does, it sounds unreal for both quality and value, it has an open kitchen with the chefs cooking the food from scratch, plus they can buy to take home if you were on your own it would be cheaper to by buy a diner and take it home.

cj maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121669414#Comment_121669414

Same here . Seemingly there’s summer hours when things are open and the rest of the year when they all close .

nachouser

Yeah, we have one in work, it's great. Spag bol, lasagne, stir fry, chicken pasta, bangers & mash, baked potato with chilli etc. Something different each day. Only a fiver.

Ezeoul

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121672025#Comment_121672025

We had a pretty decent canteen pre-pandemic. Now we have an area with a kettle, a fridge, a microwave and a vending machine.

In fairness, I can see why the decision was made.

With hybrid working, there are not enough people in building every day to justify the previous level of canteen services.

Dakota Dan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058332137/eating-out-becoming-a-luxury

Eating out was always a luxury.

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121672224#Comment_121672224

Just in Ireland though.

In Europe and America it's normal for lower income people to eat out regularly.

Irish people always had the money, but spent it on drink instead.

Dakota Dan

😀😀😀

mariaalice

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121672207#Comment_121672207

She works in a massive building, post covid it became blended working for everyone, I'd say the canteen is a kind of bribe to get people into the office at least some of the time, the menu sounds like the kind of food you'd get in a modern trendy mid-range restaurant.

You have to love capitalism it keeps reinventing itself also known as no such thing as a free lunch.

Juran

We only tend to eat out when we go away. A weekend break in Ireland maybe once or twice a year, and we eat out on homidays abroad .. we take around 5 trips abroad a year.

We did a 3 night break in early January in the West Ireland, no fancy hotel. Each night in tbe local town, a simple dinner with a few drinks was €100. Thats a shared starter and no desserts or coffees.

I was suprise how expensive pub food and Asian resturants were. I cant imagine what the same would be in Dublin.

The hotel was €750 for 3 nights B&B, then €300 for dinner/drinks with dinner, and we probably spent €100 over 3 nights just on drinks in pubs in the town. We didnt have lunch as a big brekkie tends to keep us going. Thats almost €1,200 for 3 nights for 2 of us in Ireland. Hard to believe. Thats equivalent to 7 nights all inclusive plus flights in the Canaries.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121672368#Comment_121672368

€1,200 for 3 nights for 2 of us in Ireland

That's bloody insanity.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121672368#Comment_121672368

That's illustrating the point that it is a luxury, not something normal people can afford.

Juran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121672424#Comment_121672424

And thats no fancy dinner, no bottles of wine with dinner, usually 2 beers each, no lunches, no coffees.

Agree, crazy money.

nachouser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121672368#Comment_121672368

Yeah, but you knew all that going in? Why didn't you just go to the canaries or wherever? Look at prices before hand?

cj maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121672230#Comment_121672230

Most Europeans live in apartments near restaurants that offer value . Comparing apples and oranges .

FixdePitchmark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121645751#Comment_121645751

I do get his point on Dublin - yes you have mentioned all these areas around Dublin - But Sunday to Wednesday - they are ghost towns. Dublin definitely has a city centric nature - yes there are fine locals around Dublin , but they are locals - and these are struggling a bit too (IMO) - as the price has gone up too much , and the nature of drinking has changed.

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121673567#Comment_121673567

Instinctually I think I'm correct but I don't know how to prove it or even articulate it properly.

I meant it as a good thing anyway. That's why the city center has such an energy to it.

I don't know other similar sized cities either well enough to compare. London or Berlin aren't fair comparisons.

But I do think huge areas of the suburbs are quite dull with the odd suburban pub here and there, so most youngish people will head to town for a bit of excitement.

The inner suburbs like Phibs or Ranelagh have a bit of a buzz, but the outer suburbs are just sprawling houses with the odd pub or strip of shops.

Tallaght's huge for example and has very few pubs. Even UCD only has one pub on campus and no real student pubs nearby.

I'm not young anymore but I imagine young people pre-drink at someone's house and then head out late.

Aurelian

University canteen is €10/11 for a very basic main. Used to be the price of a main course in a restaurant.

It's also now close to €10 wherever you go for a coffee and a treat.

Northernlily

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121640540#Comment_121640540

Same - was absolutely disgusted with Aldi's increases. We still shop there and have noticed prices roll back a bit in the last few weeks there from €80 to €60 in our weekly shop which hopefully shows things moving in right direction.

All local cafes around here increased their prices. I used to be fond of breakfast out once or twice a week but there was 25%+ added onto all items and I just stopped. It might be once a month now I go out for breakfast. I think with energy & food costs coming down, many of these places need to stop being greedy and start rolling back their prices to match

global23214124

I'm a tech worker that gets free breakfast and lunch if I go into the office. I'll go out for food or get a takeaway maybe once a week. i don't have a mortgage though or childcare expenses as I rent.

JupiterKid

From what I have observed over the last few years, since the economic recovery a cohort of the population in certain sectors such as IT and pharma have plenty of disposable income to spend on eating out, but for many more in good, "professional" careers/jobs, a combination of the dire housing situation, major increases in the cost of living outpacing salary growth, the lack of acceptable State-funded childcare and other inter-related factors have squeezed the middle earners to the point where luxuries such as eating out in restaurants and holidays have had to be cut back. When things get tight, you prioritise paying the mortgage/rent, the leccy bill, keeping the car running over an "experience" at an often pretentious and overpriced eatery.

There is definitely an emerging pattern of those splashing out and those barely getting by. The dysfunctional housing market - the result of wrong-headed Government policy that has hugely distorted the market through financialisation (housing treated as a commodity and vehicle for enrichment) and the marketisation of the social housing sector has been a key driver of this trend. REITs/vulture funds are taking full advantage of the situation for profit but the largest buyer of property on the market is actually the State via local authorities as they buy housing at open market values for social housing rather than build new social housing on any significant scale. The State is essentially outbidding prospective homebuyers and is badly compounding the housing problem. IBEC has made a number of warnings now that the current housing mess is badly damaging Ireland's economic competitiveness.

On the other hand, although the Irish hospitality sector has form for price gouging, fleecing the punter and naked greed, the Covid pandemic and the tax warehousing issue - and the sharp increase in running and energy costs coupled with the difficulty in sourcing good staff due to the housing situation has pushed many restaurants into insolvency, as the high profile closure of one of Cork city's top eateries has demonstrated. It's a rather complex picture but is unsustainable in my own opinion. Something has to give.

It seems that more are ordering food online and eating at home rather than going out to eat. Deliveroo and JustEat etc. appear to be in rude health with the number of drivers/cycle delivery staff on the streets.

Eating out was far less common in the late 20th century here, and of course a much poorer and less developed economy was a major factor, but as another poster here opined, most adults back then chose to prioritise going out to pubs and drinking at weekends over restaurants as we were a far less sophisticated society then. It's a great thing IMO that alcohol consumption is dropping among the younger generation as they prefer other pursuits. Widespread alcohol abuse was endemic in 20th century Ireland its effects were devastating for so many.

I don't see the current govt being willing to address the problem effectively as they are completely lacking in joined-up thinking, lacking in competency, lacking in vision and lacking the backbone to take on the vested interests.

Annasopra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121638142#Comment_121638142

Yeah. I couldn't believe how expensive they are. Some of their burgers are 8 or 9 Euro and some meals 12

Annasopra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121638357#Comment_121638357

My Sisters neighbour even gets coffee delivered 🙄

Annasopra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121638420#Comment_121638420

To be fair retail and hospitality didn't bump their costs up for no reason. Costs to them went up.hugely too.

enricoh

If the rate of restaurants closing continues at the current rate it'll be a luxury finding a restaurant open in some parts of the country!

Ray Palmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121673806#Comment_121673806

Yeah we all really needed a late night rant about how you feel about all the economics of Ireland. Many reasons prices have gone up and some people can no longer afford the luxury of eating out which was always a luxury

miamee

Agreed that eating out was always a luxury. However it used to be an affordable luxury for many, and now it is not or not to the same extent.

We are a DINK household and would have always eaten out a good bit. Not fancy restaurants or 3 course meals but on the weekends if we're out and about which we like to be, we'll have a lunch out or maybe an early dinner. Occasionally during the week we'll meet for lunch somewhere. My eyebrow has been raised more than once at the price of some of the meals over the last few months, things have really gone skyward. As a result, we have been eating out that little bit less and when we do we are being a bit more cautious about prices. I mean we always look at prices going to somewhere new to us but we got complacent going to some of our favourite places without realising prices has been going up there. Not any more.

As regards university canteens which someone mentioned above, OH works in a university. Met him for lunch recently at work, we both had a mains (a dinner) and he had a coke, the bill was €15 something which is still relatively good value. I was there for the company not the food! :D

I see sheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121674042#Comment_121674042

I went to buy a Whopper in Belfast City Airport recently, £8.00 😮 (just burger - that's around 9.40 euro).

I know airports are more expensive but that's pulling the piss surely. I think BK in Dublin Airport isn't too bad actually unless it's gone up a lot recently.

*I didn't get it - Sandwich/Water/Crisps in Boots was £5 or £6 I think.

Juran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121672568#Comment_121672568

We wanted a local break, we both travel a good bit with work abroad and didnt want to travel, airports, etc and we had a longhaul holiday in November and other holidays abroad lined up for Feb and March. We can afford it, we dont have an issue there. But its a lot of money for an average working couple. I was comparing it to a week in the sun as a gauge really.

And staying on the eating out in Ireland topic, yes I find it expensive, I can afford to eat out but I chose home cooked meals as I prefer them to salty, sweet, greasy or buttery resturant/pub food. We both grew up on mammys home made food, no processed foods, we never went out for food growing up .. so its probably why we much prefer home cooked food.

Banzai600

We would of went out regular, few drinks / food etc. but nowhere near as much now since the bullsh1t cov!d episode, its changed things for the worse, pub dynamics / restaurants etc, and prices obviously went upward.

prices are very high - booze and food. And i agree with the vat buffer offered to businesses may have not been managed well by the owners. the crux of that is we, like many , have pretty much decided not to eat out as much, id say 3 / 4 times less throughout the year, due to price increases. And will continue to watch the purse strings. Its the same for the local boozers, not as much, but how long til the take-away beer is on par with the pubs ?

There is a pinch on, and things are going to get tighter. ( our own energy bills are over double cost and the usage is slightly less on gas & elec for the same period 12 months ago, but everyone is in the same boat, we wouldnt be wasteful in that respect with gas/elec ). So ppl's disposable income is not as much as it used to be, plus shopping between the supermarkets, you're dropping 100e appx and you've little to show for it. Trying to continue to buy meat in the butchers, but they aint cheap either.

re takeways, you could get a large apache pizza 11.99 in the meal deal on the app, it went to 12.99, now 13.99. So thats not something we do regular either. The two indians we used to order from were around 38 euro, 2 mains and 2 starters, they jumped to both 52 & just under 60 euro at this moment in time. So thats gone - one of the owners even had the neck to challenge me asking why i didnt order the rice at 3.00 a pop, when we were ordering the meat dishes, i told him i have a rice maker and i can do it a lot less. Some neck, but we havent ordered off them in appx 7 months now - same place Early last yr, we ordered with friends staying over , and we spent 200e in a 7 day period on 2 orders. I asked about throwing in poppadoms with the order, and both times he wanted to charge - greedy, his loss, he knew we were regular. Same with the chipper, bags are less quantity, prices too dear. Even thai takeways that used to be 12.50 on average are now 16e plus per main - again, very long periods between ordering now. The chinese we used to get the odd time chips, rice, c sauce, and singapore noodles, this jumped 37 % , and when i asked i was told it was to do with vat, laughable. Take aways are as dear as eating in somewhere enow pretty much.

to me it nearly feels like who will blink first, the consumer or the businesses.......ultimately businesses will fail id imagine, which is a pity, nobody wants that or ppl out of a job. No winners here.

this week my partner wanted to go for a meal during the week, nothing fancy, just to get out of the house, been a busy few weeks, went to a boozer 10 mins drive. 45 euro for 2 burger mains and a glass of red. When i asked for tapwater i got a look, so i asked was that ok politely, they took their neck back in as i didnt want booze, driving , and i enjoy a jar of course when not driving. Burger was good, frozen skinny chips in a small steel bucket. was dear ....meh.

we would cook a lot anyway, and prep for the week, but eating in is most definitely the new not going out. Bottle of plonk, knock up a good decent meal and a playlist....but would still go to the boozer, but again, once a month now, not every week.

There is still a lot of money knocking about, only have to look at the amount of very pricey scalextrics on the road, and as mentioned some affluent areas are very busy, even still.

I hear a lot of ppl mention a quiet recession, its hard to know...but this feels like 2008 is peeping around the corner all over again? hope not because they said if it happened again it would be worse, who knows.

Tony EH

When i asked for tapwater i got a look

I hope you didn't tip this cunt.

but this feels like 2008 is peeping around the corner all over again?

Maybe it should be. Maybe another year zero will be the only way we'll learn.