Price gouging by the pub, restaurant & hotel industry

Because people are muppets in general. Theyll spend money willly nilly then complain when the economy is in the toilet they've no money. I'm all for treating yourself but not when I see a rip off straight in front of me. If ya keep handing over your hard earned money theyll just keep taking.

The cost of eating out doesn't annoy me too much tbh, I understand the cost involved has gone up across the board and it's being passed on to the consumer. We don't eat out so much that it effects us hugely.

The thing that really bothers me is paying for food that is poor quality or badly cooked. I met my mum out in the Beach House in Greystones the other week for lunch, should be okay pub grub. My wife ordered a linguine dish and they brought her out a big bowl of penne, when I questioned it the waiter shrugged his shoulders like he didn't know there was a difference and disappeared. When he came back he said they were out of lingune so they'd swapped out for penne as it was all just pasta. He might be right but it would would have been nice to be told ahead of time. The chips were half raw and our young fellas burger was like rubber. If you're going to charge me money just give me edible food ffs.

Late night pubs have been doing this for years/

Whatever.

I don't go to late night pubs anymore, I'm just telling you the pubs change their prices through the night, something you seemed to be unaware of.

Am I the only one who thinks that these guys in Temple Bar are running great businesses?

They literally open their doors everyday and from midday onwards, people start piling in and spend spend all day long, day in and day out. If you can get it, then why not? There is nothing stopping anyone from walking around the corner to the next place and paying a few euro less. Yet, because of a great marketing campaign on social media, people feel the need to HAVE to go to Temple Bar and get their picture there having a drink. I drink in Dublin, and don't go there, as I have the choice. Not one single person is forced into those places and "robbed". Every pub in Ireland displays its prices at the door and is required to do so under law.

Also, having travelled a lot over the last year, I have had far more expensive drinks thank in Ireland. In NYC with a tip for their "small" pint its around $11. Was in a cool trendy bar in Croatia and the only beer they had was €7 for a 33cl of Crapberg - no thanks. London, when you convert prices in many places is more expensive than Dublin. Paid €9 in Paris for a pint of local beer in a normal not fancy place. My friend was in Dubrovnik and it was €10 for a pint of normal IPA.

On the flip side had a €1.20 beer in Portugal, lovely pints for €2.40 in Croatia, massive measures in Spain for a short for €7. €3.90 in Austria for a Weiss in a beautiful location in the mountains.

So yeah, prices vary. So what. It's the open market. What will be great in Ireland is when we can have more liberal law for bar licences which will allow for people to obtain a licence without remortgaging their homes and set up smaller places and offer competition to these big monster pubs.

One of the pubs/restaurants local to me has jacked up their food prices again, 19 euro for a Sunday roast beef dinner, no thank you.

Nothing fancy about it, no large portions, basically a carvery dinner brought to your table for you .

That's the sort of messing that will close a place pretty lively you can still get 2 courses on a early bird for much the same price in a proper restaurant.

Our family are now the same, used to regularly go out for Sunday lunch/dinner , not anymore, more of a treat/special occasion now

No way are we wasting 19 euro a head for a roast beef dinner/turkey and ham, not to mention the classic bowl of soup now heading for the 6.50- 7 euro mark !

Nope, just north of Drogheda.

@bikeman1 said:

"So yeah, prices vary. So what. It's the open market. What will be great in Ireland is when we can have more liberal law for bar licences which will allow for people to obtain a licence without remortgaging their homes and set up smaller places and offer competition to these big monster pubs."

I agree 100%.

I am looking forward to the licence change also. I really expect it will open the door for smaller, niche bars to flourish.

They wont have to pay stupid amounts for one of the finite licenses held down the country somewhere, attached to a pub that will never reopen.

It will be brilliant for Dublin and the other cities/larger towns and will help bring competitiveness to the market, as well as cheaper food and drinks.

Not so good for the rural ireland pubs that arent sustainable. but if they arent sustainable, then they probably need to go anyway.

It will end up like that taxis and their licence, post deregulation.

The license attached to a pub will no longer be transferrable and so becomes worthless.

For the cities and towns that do have lots of custom but suffer from lack of available licences, that issue will vanish when you go go direct for a cheap license from the council.

It should really drive new business creation in the hosputality industry.