Eating Out becoming a Luxury?

There is a handful of restaurants in my city I go to that justify the price and I'm happy to go there spend my money and enjoy the eperience. But I do that 1 every couple of months. I perfer cooking my own food.

The proliferation of Deliveroo/Just Eat has created a lazy generation though who don't cook and they are now complaining about the prices.

Went to a pub on Christmas eve at about 2 o'clock with the wife & 3 kids ,

We all had a bite to eat & i had 2 pints & it was 80 euro ,

That was 4 meals , (the youngest is only 2 months old), 1 diet coke for the wife, 2 juices for the kids, & 2 pints for myself , The kids also had 2 ice creams ,

That's not to bad is it ?

Really it's €60 for 4 meals which is decent.

Eating out isn't that expensive considering what you're getting.

They've a lot of overheads to pay. I think they make their money on the drinks and coffee.

I think food trucks are a rip-off as they cost almost as much as restaurants and they've very few overheads.

Plenty of time for lovemaking after the early bird

I understand you to a point about not being able to afford €20 but you have to consider what the mortgage is, childcare fees, electric is still nearly double what it should be despite "reduction" grocery shop in Aldi or Lidl they've gone mad in prices, I'm hearing Dunnes with the vouchers they offer bring them par.

I will say tho not directed at the OP but there is a lot where people could cut back with won't too in fairness. Like ones I know on maybe €80 monthly for a **** phone plan to have the latest iPhone when an android or even keeping their iPhone rather than every 2 years having to upgrade. Then again maybe the eating out is the cut back 🙈

In fairness it's funny I remember restaurants here when prices started to go mad smugly giving the old "if you can't afford x price then maybe you shouldn't be going out"

Well we've seen where that's got a lot of em, the dole.

Agree on the Covid box style food vans. There is a local cafe to me that does nice sandwich's / toasties/ wraps for €7 with table service in a warm & cozy setting. Meanwhile the food van 2 minutes away is doing pretty much the same "gourmet" sandwich's for €12 with much smaller overheads.

what gets me is the paying high prices for really ordinary food. I actually think restaurant food was better 20 years ago. Too often when I go to a restaurant now its meh.....

Luxury implies you are getting something good.

I couoldn;t figure out where that place was until I went into Streetview, it was a car park the last time I was down that neck of the woods I think.

Not sure why Dosa Dosa was singled out, I've had it and the quality is worth the admission price. It's in an affluent area with a lot of multi-cultural offices around, the fact it's still operating tells you a few things, it's popular and they're doing enough to keep the truck running, I doubt they are absolutely rolling in it, and if they are? Fair play to them!

This thread is fascinating, for a long time I believe eating out and getting value for money has been a thing no one gave a second thought to. Costs have risen and those that were on razor thin margins have kept the doors opened by dropping the quality of raw ingredients, reducing portion size etc.

Those not on razor thin margins have increase their prices too but you still see the value in it (to some degree, probably less than before).

Eating out used to be a weekly affair for me 5-10 years ago, now, due to multiple factors eating out is maybe once every three months but mainly in higher-end restaurants the upside is I get a much better experience and I enjoy it more as I look forward to it. Doing it weekly it was just part of a routine.

White Rabbit owner was on Claire Byrne last week.

He said that his food is 50% more expensive to make today compared to a few years ago. They increased prices by 20% but there's diminishing returns increasing any more than that. People won't pay it.

One point he made is that even though he has no one on minimum wage, when min wage was increased, the staff asked for a matching pay increase. Also the VAT increase added an extra 5% more to the cost of everything, and during COVID, Revenue allowed restaurants to defer payment, but these are now due, with interest.

Probably didn't, probably already operating on a slim margin what with COVID closures. Remember that restaurants had to reduce capacity while still providing the same service.

You're right, I'm sure restaurants closing up and down the country is another plot to scam people out of their hard earned.