OP
OP
simon.r
Person
- Location
- Nottingham
To be fair, there was a bit more to it than just the egg!
Masterchef and Fancy Restaurants
- Thread starter simon.r
- Start date
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To be fair, there was a bit more to it than just the egg!
derrick
The Glue that binds us together.
- Location
- On the edge of London
Wetherspoons, two drinks two meals less than twelve pounds, leaves plenty for a few more beers, i don't like being ripped of on fancy meals or over priced drinks, but each to his own.
StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
Took my mum to Restaurant Gordon Ramsay (his- well, the head chef and now chef patron Claire Smyth's- three star flagship) for her 70th three years back. We both went for the set lunch, came to £120 for two all in. Bargain. Extraordinary food, immaculate service, couldn't fault a thing. And restaurants at the Michelin level aren't running big profit margins, unlike mass-market catering...
fossyant
Ride It Like You Stole It!
- Location
- South Manchester
Couldn't quite read the upside down menu, but was that £400 ish for 2 ?
I would say worth it for an experience.
Just booked Hilton Chester for me and the missus, with dining, as the kids are camping with scouts near by (it's not far from home anyway but it's our first night alone in over ten years).
Cost me way over £400 for 2 nights for two, but included breakfast and dinner in the sale for a Suite as well. Normal price would have been £600 plus..
Got to be done some times. Really.
Worth it.
I would say worth it for an experience.
Just booked Hilton Chester for me and the missus, with dining, as the kids are camping with scouts near by (it's not far from home anyway but it's our first night alone in over ten years).
Cost me way over £400 for 2 nights for two, but included breakfast and dinner in the sale for a Suite as well. Normal price would have been £600 plus..
Got to be done some times. Really.
Worth it.
OP
OP
simon.r
Person
- Location
- Nottingham
Sorry about the upside down bill, not quite mastered uploading photos from the iPad yet!
Yes to the price. It could have been less, but we made a conscious decision before we went that we weren't going to worry about the prices of extras, we were going to have what we wanted. Hence the duck egg and cheese
And they were worth every additional penny!
OP
OP
simon.r
Person
- Location
- Nottingham
Wetherspoons, two drinks two meals less than twelve pounds, leaves plenty for a few more beers, i don't like being ripped of on fancy meals or over priced drinks, but each to his own.
You'll find me in 'two meals for a tenner' pubs much more often than Michelin starred places, but the odd thing is that I didn't feel I'd been ripped off. Far from it, the total experience was well worth the cost.
One of those things that it's difficult to explain, but if you get the chance to go somewhere similar, go with an open mind and I doubt you'll be disappointed.
Just because something is expensive doesn't make it a rip off - that's like saying live sport is a rip off because you can watch it at home on Sky with a tinnie for a few pence.. Top end restaurants are for special occasions and are about more than the food.Wetherspoons, two drinks two meals less than twelve pounds, leaves plenty for a few more beers, i don't like being ripped of on fancy meals or over priced drinks, but each to his own.
derrick
The Glue that binds us together.
- Location
- On the edge of London
I was talking about food and drink nothing else. it's the way i feel is that ok.
No
The most I have ever spent on a meal was £50 and my typical meal out with friends is a tenner a head. But to call a top end restaurant 'a rip off' is wrong, because that suggests that they are gouging a huge chunk of profit out of each customer And as StuAff says, they aren't.
derrick
The Glue that binds us together.
- Location
- On the edge of London
Wetherspoons pub £2.99 a pint
Posh restarant £5 plus a half.
They both have similar overheads i would think.
Posh restarant £5 plus a half.
They both have similar overheads i would think.
StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
On drinks, particularly wines, you're probably right. On food, nope, not a chance. High end restaurants have small dining rooms- Gordon Ramsay is 45 covers, many are smaller, low or zero table turn rate (the aforementioned lunch was one sitting), and (even when they have multiple sittings) a far, far higher staff/customer ratio. For that lunch, the ratio was 1:1 or very near it when you take in to account the maitre d', sommelliers, the multiple waiters, and of course the kitchen staff. So you and your fellow diners are effectively employing 40-odd people for two or three hours (not counting prep time etc). And that's before allowing for food costs. Wetherspoons and the other pub chains bulk-buy pre-prepared meals- I'm not knocking them, a lot of it's perfectly good stuff, but their margins on that food are much higher than those pubs who really do prepare their own food on the premises (and there are still plenty of those left), let alone the likes of Claire Smyth, Sat Bains and their teams serving the finest ingredients, carefully and time consumingly prepared.
jayonabike
Powered by caffeine & whisky
- Location
- Hertfordshire
If you enjoyed it then it's worth every penny.
Mr Haematocrit
msg me on kik for android
- Location
- Out of the saddle
Long awaited accounts for Gorden Ramsey Holdings filed with Companies House, show that turnover from UK restaurants grew 21% to £38.1m in the year to the end of August 2006. The business made an £816,717 pre-tax profit.
http://www.catererandhotelkeeper.co...say-holdings-revenue-to-hit-100m-by-2010.html
They are not doing too bad imho, not sure about weatherspoons
Cyclist33
Guest
- Location
- Warrington
... although you'd be a naive fool to think that any commercial enterprise wouldn't look to maximise its profits.
I suppose in cycling terms it would be like paying a vast amount of money to test-ride and then buy a well-polished Raleigh hybrid with Shimano Tourney gearing, provided the customer service was gold-plated would you pay £2000 to get the bike just because of the top flight service? I probably wouldn't. Good service should come as standard whatever the trade. It shouldn't really come at a premium, I mean we're not savages us humans; are we?
Stu
I suppose in cycling terms it would be like paying a vast amount of money to test-ride and then buy a well-polished Raleigh hybrid with Shimano Tourney gearing, provided the customer service was gold-plated would you pay £2000 to get the bike just because of the top flight service? I probably wouldn't. Good service should come as standard whatever the trade. It shouldn't really come at a premium, I mean we're not savages us humans; are we?
Stu
