I find London restaurants often better value than elsewhere in the country. Sure they’re more expensive but at least there’s plenty of good food. Elsewhere it’s cheaper and better quality to go and get something from Waitrose. The issue is the entire uk is expensive.
Yes, it’s getting harder to justify going out for a meal.
Yes, the price rise in restaurants is at least quadruple the rise in our wages.
The worst is the hidden service charge, super annoying when you already have set your mind on the expected bill lol
they charge what people will pay. If there are punters willing to pay those prices then more fool them.
Yes and the food quality has dropped so low.
I always prefer to go hang out with friends at their homes or go out for drinks alone.
I’d have to say yes. I love going out to eat but I just can’t justify it anymore at the price you end up paying for anywhere decent. I’ll only go to specialist restaurants for cuisine I can’t cook at home.
I see a situation in the not-too-distant future where something as simple as going to a restaurant is reserved for people you’d class as ‘quite wealthy’ or higher, rather than being something most people can do now and then.
100%.
The quality to price ratio simply doesn’t make sense anymore. I choose to mostly cook at home with top notch ingredients as a treat now. However these are the few spots worth the price of admission imo:
Went to Roe, in Canary Wharf. Not the first time, we love it there because they understand that having dogs sleeping on the floor next to your table arms no one’s experience…
Anyway, last bill was £237 for two. £80 for a decent bottle of wine (a simple dry Tokaji probably worth £12 cost price), the rest is food and 14.5% service charge.
It is expensive, considering we didn’t eat a main. We took a selection of their starters, middle course and sides.
We used to go all the time. These days it’s a very occasional treat. Just can’t justify the expense.
It is getting very expensive, even mid range. There are still bargains to be found, but whereas eating out used to be a regular hobby for us (I’m very much a foodie), it is now reserved for specual occasions sadly, and I save my money to eat out abroad. To get good quality food in London now gets very expensive very quickly.
I totally understand why – small businesses (ie the venues I want to eat in) are getting hammered from all angles it seems, and I really want to support them, but with prices going to hugely in a matter of years and my own salary only going up a few per cent in that time, something just has to give.
None of those places have better food than London. If you think they do then I don’t know what to say without offending you.
I work as a chef in London, yes they have gotten more expensive in the last couple years (ie. since COVID), but as it says in the article, it’s also only since then that we actually get paid well enough to live in London.
It’s worth reading the article as well as the headline to get an idea of the financial pressures on the industry and it’s workers. There’s very few restaurants actually making more money out of if the price rises, costs are just way higher now.
The main thing I begrudge in restaurants these days is the price of wine.
I understand it’s a big portion of their revenue, but you go to a semi-decent restaurant and you’re presented with some pretty average £10 bottle and asked to pay £37.50 for it.
My local Italian had a reasonable red I used to always order that was something like £16.95 when I first started going in 2017. Just checked and they’re selling it for £32. It’s harder and harder to justify. We still go as I’d rather it is still there, but definitely less than the once a month we used to go.
Big markup for good food I can’t cook myself I’m generally ok with.
The sub headline is rubbish.
> expected to fork out £220 plus for a meal for two
Absolute bollocks and nonsense.
Have I paid this much and more for a meal for two? Yes. Do you need to do that to eat well in a top quality place? Fuck no.
Even the most overhyped Instagram number hoovering influencer spot – The Devonshire – has a 2 course for £25 option. Or three courses for £30. In the heart of Soho.
Just do your research and most London restaurants are pricing fine. Some are incredible value for what you’re getting. Some are total rip offs. Name me a city where this isn’t the case and I’ll name you a liar.
Yes, and for a number of reasons:
– the very un-European 12.5 % (not really) discretionary service charge. Common all over the UK but omnipresent in London, even in very mid-tier places.
– the stupid ‘small plates’ trend. As I imagined since the very early stage of this trend it was not about ‘sharing is caring’, but about creating speculation in pricing within the restaurant industry. Now you have mains obscenely costing between 30 and 40 £.
– lacklustre service in most restaurants non proportioned to the price you’re paying. I experienced only few places over so many restaurants with actual professional and careful service, and this imo affect the experience.
I used to be very enthusiast about the culinary diversity to be found in London, but I realized soon that it’s more about trends and excellent marketing rather than the actual experience. I still like it but everything with a pinch of salt, and tend to select more carefully my dining spots.
Yes.
There are some phenomenal restaurants at every price point in London.
My main frustration is the pricing of distinctly average places – I’ve grown tired of paying £120/head+ for distinctly mediocre meals. You need to do your research, annoyingly.
Yes. Especially those who cook in industrial mass and charge for 5 star prices.
Unpopular opinion: the extraordinary range and diversity of London restaurants make the city one of the world’s great food values if you like really good food and are flexible about how you go about finding it. Tokyo is probably better, but that’s a deflated yen. Everywhere I go in North America (Chicago, Vancouver primarily) restaurant prices—food prices in general—are way higher. As usual the grim moaning on here makes me wonder what on earth they put in the drinking water (and on another thread there’s moaning about that.)
Yes. Always been.
You gotta try out more places. The restaurants seem in line with everything else
Everything is going up.
I just don’t understand the price of fastfood places going up
Both yes and no.
Yes, certainly for me, and for almost everyone else as well. It’s ridiculous how much it now costs to get a meal. Most people can no longer afford eating out.
But equally no, because expensive restaurants in London are doing fine. They’re very busy, and you have to book way in advance if you want to get a table. The uncomfortable reality is that ultra-rich dine in London restaurants, and whether it’s £15 for an English breakfast or £30 makes little difference to them.
I think the difference may only become more pronounced, as wealth inequality worsens over time.
Lots of good options in Soho
Yes, but restaurants are full. People are queueing to go in. Reservations are needed. So there seem to be enough market anyway.
yes
No, seeing that they’re constantly full . The price is given by supply and demand
I work at a company in London where we have a lot of youngish sales people earning decent money.
I noticed on Monday mornings when they’re talking about what they did at the weekend, there’s a lot of one-upmanship about who’s been to the biggest restaurant.
You get the impression they don’t really care about the food or the experience, but it’s all about ticking a big restaurant name off the list just so they’ve got bragging rights.
I think there’s probably a lot of that going on in London – the restaurant scene is more about exclusivity and status than good food.
Central London yes, but there are always good value restaurants further out from central London. I’m happy to support local family run places instead of chains.
I think it depends where. 25 a head sounds about right for decent meal even in zone 1. Some places especially if they are branded are just rip offs.
Not really. There are restaurants of all kinds.
Yes. I genuinely go to Italy or Europe for restaurants instead of going out in london now. Too expensive for what they produce on the plate. Can get the best quality food in a restaurant in Italy for 20-30 euro or less with a glass or bottle of wine!
Yes. Ridiculous prices at mid tier restaurants and they also expect a 12.5% service charge. Expect to pay a minimum of £30 for dinner and £20 for lunch. It’s too much for me.
Not to mention the service on some places is terrible and they still expect a ‘tip’. Just yesterday I went to a mid tier restaurant with 2 friends. We decided to order 3 dishes and share. When our food came we asked for some extra plates so that we could eat off our own plate and have the 3 dishes in the middle. The waiter’s answer? ‘sorry we don’t allow sharing in this restaurant and we don’t offer that service.’ Wtf it’s literally just giving us an extra 3 plates.
Still added a 12.5% service charge when the bill came. I objected but my friends didn’t want to make a fuss so we paid for the non service.
I’ve also been to places that don’t state anywhere the service charge is mandatory, but when it came time for the bill they bully and threaten me into paying – I used often dine alone and as a 5ft petite young woman I feel waiters often take advantage of that and harass me into paying the service charge. In response I’ve just stopped going to restaurants alone.
Small counter argument; London is actually pretty reasonable for high end (2-3 michelin star) dining. example – Core by Clare Smyth (3 stars) – classic tasting menu for £245, which compares really favourably with 3* places across most of Europe and definitely when compared to the US and even large parts of Asia.
(though part of that might be caused by less favourable currency exchange rates these days)
No idea where these people go but 20 quid per head for me as much as I would pay. Come to Harringay Green Lanes where you can feast on Turkish food for 20 -25 quid per head, and leave stuffed. Big portions, bread, mezze and salad included.
I’m going to offer a slightly different view. I live in Germany and I come over to London several times a year to see my Dad’s side of the family, who is British. I think the situation in London is similar to lots of other places in Europe and the world, in that Restaurants are increasingly falling into three distinct categories:
-super cheap places that have stayed super cheap (some chinese places, etc.)
– mediocre places that have raised prices massively and add a service charge (a lot of pubs especially)
– really good, special places that weren’t too expensive before and have remained so since, now close to the price of the mediocre restaurants (a lot of Michelin recommended or Bib Gourmand restaurants)
– super expensive pretentious restaurants that are out of reach for almost everybody but aren’t that good anyways.
When I come to London, I want to sample the great cuisine and like to spend money on something special, and I find it can work out even cheaper than in Germany. My tip is to not go out to eat too often, but when you do, go somewhere quality. A quick search on Guide Michelin for Bib gourmand restaurants (they don’t have a star, but they are essentially classified as restaurants that offer great value for the food presented) shows quite a lot of great results, with mains as low as £9.5 at excellent quality. It’s possible to find some gems. But the times of going to a “bog standard” place and paying an acceptable price are over, not just in London.
My adopted pub of choice does good food but my dish of choice comes in an option of ‘small’ for about nine quid or ‘large’ for around £15. The first time I ordered ‘large’ but what arrived didn’t meet that description – I queried it, thinking it was a mistake, but was told “no, this IS the large”. At least I know now, although every time I order it I wonder about the size of the small portion…
Definitely mediocre, only going out to eat for special occasions now as it’s expensive. As others have said, research is needed to find good restaurants, and worth going off the beaten track to find good ones.
I just came back from London and had a fab pizza for cheaper than I would in Bournemouth. So I think it depends where you go. In Bournemouth everything is so so expensive but wages are so so low. I think the main shock I had in London was the drinks prices. I thought £9 for a cocktail was bad but in London it was more like £14. Also in Bournemouth everywhere has started adding mandatory 12.5 percent service charge even if it’s just one or two people.
I also find the rise of basic lunch takeaways to be the most difficult to avoid. I used to get a nice greek chicken shawarma box for about £7 and now it costs £12 (3year time frame). Finding lunch under £10 is a challenge.
Yes but it won’t stop me going. I’m a sucker for trying new restaurants. It is something I’ll never tire of, for me it like a bad value hobby lol. I accept that going in it will likely be overpriced, service may be poor, I could make it myself for a quarter of the price etc etc – I would still happily spend stupid money on a restaurant meal for the culinary experience.
I need to find a partner to do it with, currently that is the only reason it isn’t happening more often.
46 comments
Yes.
They are for tourists, not for Londoners.
Greggs technically is a restaurant
Hell yes!
I find London restaurants often better value than elsewhere in the country. Sure they’re more expensive but at least there’s plenty of good food. Elsewhere it’s cheaper and better quality to go and get something from Waitrose. The issue is the entire uk is expensive.
Yes, it’s getting harder to justify going out for a meal.
Yes, the price rise in restaurants is at least quadruple the rise in our wages.
The worst is the hidden service charge, super annoying when you already have set your mind on the expected bill lol
they charge what people will pay. If there are punters willing to pay those prices then more fool them.
Yes and the food quality has dropped so low.
I always prefer to go hang out with friends at their homes or go out for drinks alone.
I’d have to say yes. I love going out to eat but I just can’t justify it anymore at the price you end up paying for anywhere decent. I’ll only go to specialist restaurants for cuisine I can’t cook at home.
I see a situation in the not-too-distant future where something as simple as going to a restaurant is reserved for people you’d class as ‘quite wealthy’ or higher, rather than being something most people can do now and then.
100%.
The quality to price ratio simply doesn’t make sense anymore. I choose to mostly cook at home with top notch ingredients as a treat now. However these are the few spots worth the price of admission imo:
– Fallow
– Farang
– Trullo
– Sune
– Noble Rot (Lunch)
– Brat
– Bubala
Went to Roe, in Canary Wharf. Not the first time, we love it there because they understand that having dogs sleeping on the floor next to your table arms no one’s experience…
Anyway, last bill was £237 for two. £80 for a decent bottle of wine (a simple dry Tokaji probably worth £12 cost price), the rest is food and 14.5% service charge.
It is expensive, considering we didn’t eat a main. We took a selection of their starters, middle course and sides.
We used to go all the time. These days it’s a very occasional treat. Just can’t justify the expense.
It is getting very expensive, even mid range. There are still bargains to be found, but whereas eating out used to be a regular hobby for us (I’m very much a foodie), it is now reserved for specual occasions sadly, and I save my money to eat out abroad. To get good quality food in London now gets very expensive very quickly.
I totally understand why – small businesses (ie the venues I want to eat in) are getting hammered from all angles it seems, and I really want to support them, but with prices going to hugely in a matter of years and my own salary only going up a few per cent in that time, something just has to give.
None of those places have better food than London. If you think they do then I don’t know what to say without offending you.
I work as a chef in London, yes they have gotten more expensive in the last couple years (ie. since COVID), but as it says in the article, it’s also only since then that we actually get paid well enough to live in London.
It’s worth reading the article as well as the headline to get an idea of the financial pressures on the industry and it’s workers. There’s very few restaurants actually making more money out of if the price rises, costs are just way higher now.
The main thing I begrudge in restaurants these days is the price of wine.
I understand it’s a big portion of their revenue, but you go to a semi-decent restaurant and you’re presented with some pretty average £10 bottle and asked to pay £37.50 for it.
My local Italian had a reasonable red I used to always order that was something like £16.95 when I first started going in 2017. Just checked and they’re selling it for £32. It’s harder and harder to justify. We still go as I’d rather it is still there, but definitely less than the once a month we used to go.
Big markup for good food I can’t cook myself I’m generally ok with.
The sub headline is rubbish.
> expected to fork out £220 plus for a meal for two
Absolute bollocks and nonsense.
Have I paid this much and more for a meal for two? Yes. Do you need to do that to eat well in a top quality place? Fuck no.
Even the most overhyped Instagram number hoovering influencer spot – The Devonshire – has a 2 course for £25 option. Or three courses for £30. In the heart of Soho.
Just do your research and most London restaurants are pricing fine. Some are incredible value for what you’re getting. Some are total rip offs. Name me a city where this isn’t the case and I’ll name you a liar.
Yes, and for a number of reasons:
– the very un-European 12.5 % (not really) discretionary service charge. Common all over the UK but omnipresent in London, even in very mid-tier places.
– the stupid ‘small plates’ trend. As I imagined since the very early stage of this trend it was not about ‘sharing is caring’, but about creating speculation in pricing within the restaurant industry. Now you have mains obscenely costing between 30 and 40 £.
– lacklustre service in most restaurants non proportioned to the price you’re paying. I experienced only few places over so many restaurants with actual professional and careful service, and this imo affect the experience.
I used to be very enthusiast about the culinary diversity to be found in London, but I realized soon that it’s more about trends and excellent marketing rather than the actual experience. I still like it but everything with a pinch of salt, and tend to select more carefully my dining spots.
Yes.
There are some phenomenal restaurants at every price point in London.
My main frustration is the pricing of distinctly average places – I’ve grown tired of paying £120/head+ for distinctly mediocre meals. You need to do your research, annoyingly.
Yes. Especially those who cook in industrial mass and charge for 5 star prices.
Unpopular opinion: the extraordinary range and diversity of London restaurants make the city one of the world’s great food values if you like really good food and are flexible about how you go about finding it. Tokyo is probably better, but that’s a deflated yen. Everywhere I go in North America (Chicago, Vancouver primarily) restaurant prices—food prices in general—are way higher. As usual the grim moaning on here makes me wonder what on earth they put in the drinking water (and on another thread there’s moaning about that.)
Yes. Always been.
You gotta try out more places. The restaurants seem in line with everything else
Everything is going up.
I just don’t understand the price of fastfood places going up
Both yes and no.
Yes, certainly for me, and for almost everyone else as well. It’s ridiculous how much it now costs to get a meal. Most people can no longer afford eating out.
But equally no, because expensive restaurants in London are doing fine. They’re very busy, and you have to book way in advance if you want to get a table. The uncomfortable reality is that ultra-rich dine in London restaurants, and whether it’s £15 for an English breakfast or £30 makes little difference to them.
I think the difference may only become more pronounced, as wealth inequality worsens over time.
Lots of good options in Soho
Yes, but restaurants are full. People are queueing to go in. Reservations are needed. So there seem to be enough market anyway.
yes
No, seeing that they’re constantly full . The price is given by supply and demand
I work at a company in London where we have a lot of youngish sales people earning decent money.
I noticed on Monday mornings when they’re talking about what they did at the weekend, there’s a lot of one-upmanship about who’s been to the biggest restaurant.
You get the impression they don’t really care about the food or the experience, but it’s all about ticking a big restaurant name off the list just so they’ve got bragging rights.
I think there’s probably a lot of that going on in London – the restaurant scene is more about exclusivity and status than good food.
Central London yes, but there are always good value restaurants further out from central London. I’m happy to support local family run places instead of chains.
I think it depends where. 25 a head sounds about right for decent meal even in zone 1. Some places especially if they are branded are just rip offs.
Not really. There are restaurants of all kinds.
Yes. I genuinely go to Italy or Europe for restaurants instead of going out in london now. Too expensive for what they produce on the plate. Can get the best quality food in a restaurant in Italy for 20-30 euro or less with a glass or bottle of wine!
Yes. Ridiculous prices at mid tier restaurants and they also expect a 12.5% service charge. Expect to pay a minimum of £30 for dinner and £20 for lunch. It’s too much for me.
Not to mention the service on some places is terrible and they still expect a ‘tip’. Just yesterday I went to a mid tier restaurant with 2 friends. We decided to order 3 dishes and share. When our food came we asked for some extra plates so that we could eat off our own plate and have the 3 dishes in the middle. The waiter’s answer? ‘sorry we don’t allow sharing in this restaurant and we don’t offer that service.’ Wtf it’s literally just giving us an extra 3 plates.
Still added a 12.5% service charge when the bill came. I objected but my friends didn’t want to make a fuss so we paid for the non service.
I’ve also been to places that don’t state anywhere the service charge is mandatory, but when it came time for the bill they bully and threaten me into paying – I used often dine alone and as a 5ft petite young woman I feel waiters often take advantage of that and harass me into paying the service charge. In response I’ve just stopped going to restaurants alone.
Small counter argument; London is actually pretty reasonable for high end (2-3 michelin star) dining. example – Core by Clare Smyth (3 stars) – classic tasting menu for £245, which compares really favourably with 3* places across most of Europe and definitely when compared to the US and even large parts of Asia.
(though part of that might be caused by less favourable currency exchange rates these days)
No idea where these people go but 20 quid per head for me as much as I would pay. Come to Harringay Green Lanes where you can feast on Turkish food for 20 -25 quid per head, and leave stuffed. Big portions, bread, mezze and salad included.
I’m going to offer a slightly different view. I live in Germany and I come over to London several times a year to see my Dad’s side of the family, who is British. I think the situation in London is similar to lots of other places in Europe and the world, in that Restaurants are increasingly falling into three distinct categories:
-super cheap places that have stayed super cheap (some chinese places, etc.)
– mediocre places that have raised prices massively and add a service charge (a lot of pubs especially)
– really good, special places that weren’t too expensive before and have remained so since, now close to the price of the mediocre restaurants (a lot of Michelin recommended or Bib Gourmand restaurants)
– super expensive pretentious restaurants that are out of reach for almost everybody but aren’t that good anyways.
When I come to London, I want to sample the great cuisine and like to spend money on something special, and I find it can work out even cheaper than in Germany. My tip is to not go out to eat too often, but when you do, go somewhere quality. A quick search on Guide Michelin for Bib gourmand restaurants (they don’t have a star, but they are essentially classified as restaurants that offer great value for the food presented) shows quite a lot of great results, with mains as low as £9.5 at excellent quality. It’s possible to find some gems. But the times of going to a “bog standard” place and paying an acceptable price are over, not just in London.
My adopted pub of choice does good food but my dish of choice comes in an option of ‘small’ for about nine quid or ‘large’ for around £15. The first time I ordered ‘large’ but what arrived didn’t meet that description – I queried it, thinking it was a mistake, but was told “no, this IS the large”. At least I know now, although every time I order it I wonder about the size of the small portion…
Definitely mediocre, only going out to eat for special occasions now as it’s expensive. As others have said, research is needed to find good restaurants, and worth going off the beaten track to find good ones.
I just came back from London and had a fab pizza for cheaper than I would in Bournemouth. So I think it depends where you go. In Bournemouth everything is so so expensive but wages are so so low. I think the main shock I had in London was the drinks prices. I thought £9 for a cocktail was bad but in London it was more like £14. Also in Bournemouth everywhere has started adding mandatory 12.5 percent service charge even if it’s just one or two people.
I also find the rise of basic lunch takeaways to be the most difficult to avoid. I used to get a nice greek chicken shawarma box for about £7 and now it costs £12 (3year time frame). Finding lunch under £10 is a challenge.
Yes but it won’t stop me going. I’m a sucker for trying new restaurants. It is something I’ll never tire of, for me it like a bad value hobby lol. I accept that going in it will likely be overpriced, service may be poor, I could make it myself for a quarter of the price etc etc – I would still happily spend stupid money on a restaurant meal for the culinary experience.
I need to find a partner to do it with, currently that is the only reason it isn’t happening more often.
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