How much for a special treat meal for two ?

[tyred]

Whilst I accept that there is the world of a difference between a nice meal from a decent restaurant and a few Pot Noodles from the bargain bin in Tescos, there must surely come a point where you are being ripped off.

I still haven't got over the shock of my friend and I being charged €14 for 2 cups of tea and 2 tiny scones in a cafe in Inniskeen in Co. Monaghan earlier this year

"Let's go in there, I fancy a cup of tea"
"Er Michelle, that looks the sort of cafe designed to rip off American tourists, lets go somewhere else."
"I know but how much could they possibly charge for a cup of tea?"

 

[andyfraser]

I can honestly say I'm happier at a Harvester (paid £55 for 2 including drinks) or an Indian (usually £40 - £50 for 2 with drinks around here) and luckily my OH agrees. There's a good carvery near me and I don't think I've paid more than £30 for 2 there. We're having Christmas dinner there this year and that's costing around £45 each.

I've eaten at some expensive, fancy places and never felt that they were that good that I'd want to go back.

 

[Paulus]

I don't think I'd go to a restaurant where there was a demand for mange.

Close by to a vets then ?

 

[Cubist]

You'd need to define "special treat" for me. A local restaurant where we spent about £150 for two a decade ago was absolutely fantastic. Service, food, the whole evening was a memorable one. Again, with regional variation playing a big part, I would rarely go over £50 a head all in, and to spend that sort of money round here you're in for a pretty good treat.

A lot depends on the food. I've had some pretty mediocre crap with indifferent service at £60-£70 a head, but a local curry restaurant serves a five course a la carte ( papads, choice of any starter, main course, side dish or naan etc, coffee) for £10.95. The food is out of this world, we've never been disappointed, and I must confess to being a bit of a curry aficionado. The service is attentive, friendly, swift and efficient. It's a go-to for us.

What I can't understand is folk that rave about the sort of places that are renowned for their excellent food, but when you get there you find it's simply mediocre stuff served in enormous portions. I always avoid them now.....far more interested in new types or genres of cuisine. Both Mrs Cube and I are good, adventurous cooks, so we tend to keep an eye out for new experiences, taking the rough with the smooth in trying out new places. Novelty and exploration is as much fun as being feted.

 

[ColinJ]

I do not have the money to spend on expensive meals. Even if I were able to, I wouldn't - it is not my thing, and I would not have a relationship with someone who liked that kind of thing either.

I would rather spend £450 on a week in a cottage somewhere nice and £50 on a meal at the village pub, than stay at home and spend £500 on food and drink.

I know it will probably make some people rather cross for me to suggest it, but beyond a certain level of indulgence, I would be getting a distinct feeling of guilt. (The starving children in Africa thing.) TBH, it would already be kicking in at £50 for a meal - that is nearly double what I spend in a typical week on food.

 

[Fnaar]

I've always been underwhelmed by posh restaurants (when I've been taken there on work trips etc) and the portions tend to be tiny!!!! Give me a plate of carbs with some fresh veg and decent meat, don't ponce it all up and give me two slivers of meat and a couple of leaves drizzled in bloody vinegar!!!!!
So get a £10 meal deal from M&S and be done with it.

I'm also surprised by how much people spend on 'special' events, and the emotional significance they invest in them... weddings, don't get me started. Grrr.


We went to some friends' "marriage vow renewal" thingy one time... cost me best part of £100 for a meal that left me hungry, and I only had one glass of feckin vino... 2months later, they's split up, for feck sake.

 

[Steve Malkin]

I do not have the money to spend on expensive meals. Even if I were able to, I wouldn't - it is not my thing, and I would not have a relationship with someone who liked that kind of thing either.

I would rather spend £450 on a week in a cottage somewhere nice and £50 on a meal at the village pub, than stay at home and spend £500 on food and drink.

I know it will probably make some people rather cross for me to suggest it, but beyond a certain level of indulgence, I would be getting a distinct feeling of guilt. (The starving children in Africa thing.) TBH, it would already be kicking in at £50 for a meal - that is nearly double what I spend in a typical week on food.

Me too, I can't help thinking there's something slightly obscene about that sort of extravagance, and I certainly couldn't enjoy a meal knowing I'd just spent enough on it to feed an African family for a year no matter how good it tasted.

 

[Piemaster]

I'd rather go for one very good meal and spend a fair bit more, say £50/head at a place I know the food will have been cooked for me, not sat in a bain marie for hours than go to a Brewsters or similar chain and eat what passes for food there a couple of times. We eat freshly prepared food at home, it's the minimum I expect eating out.

I was living in a Premier in for a month (all a bit Alan Partridge) and eating at the pub next door, a Brewsters. The menu got very boring after a week, service there was poor and the food was all pre-packed and deep fried or microwaved. I then got home and went to a family event at a Brewsters . Opened the menu and the heart sank - exactly the same menu. I was word perfect on it by this point. So smile and look happy, it was a family event and I couldn't leave, whilst thinking 'bleurgh'.
Oddly the lunchtime menu was a lot better in a jacket spuds and sandwiches way. I used to try and get back to hotel early enough before it was finished.

 

[Piemaster]

@Fnaar I know someone who did the wedding vow renewal then split up anyway shortly after too.

 

[andyfraser]

I remember ordering a fancy sardine starter in a posh restaurant once. What arrived was sardines with parmesan shavings and some fancy lettuce. It didn't taste particularly nice. I'd have been better off opening a tin of John West and doing it myself.

 

[Saluki]

When I worked for a provider of extras for historical films and tv work, we got taken to some very swanky places. The food was OK if you like that sort of thing but miniscule portions at exorbitant prices is not my thing. A waiter asked how we found our steak once, I was tempted to say that I moved a couple of peas and there it was, underneath but thought that I had better not. We also got larger meals at similarly huge prices which happily we didn't have to foot the bill for. Tea and buns at Betty's in Harrogate was nice but, again, I didn't have to pay the bill for 4 people. I might have had to sell the ex husband (which would not have been a bad thing).

Like @ColinJ I would rather use the 'special occasion' money for a cottage in the country and meals in a country pub.

 

[subaqua]

Depends if she wants me to take her up the oxo tower .

 

[Fnaar]

Depends if she wants me to take her up the oxo tower .

Miss Goodbody has asked me to do that when she returns from her trip away.

 

[subaqua]

Miss Goodbody has asked me to do that when she returns from her trip away.

I hoped that she would

 

[Fnaar]

To give an example of my utter contempt for posh restaurants, a friend recently posted this on facebook, singing the praises of how delicious it was...
It was the second of 4 plates (starter (gawd knows how tiny that was), this (the stone bowl is about 8 inches diameter), summat else (don't know) and a pud (which I bet wasn't called a pud)

Having a laugh, taking punters for mugs, and all the rest of it. Shocking, to serve this, I think, no matter how good it might have tasted.