Eating Out becoming a Luxury?

Went to the chippers about 6 months ago (used to go twice a week instead of cooking dinner) and the price was already high, but that night it had gone up again to €13 for a cod and chips plus €8 for a kebab plus €8 for a snack box.

€4 for a "large" (dont know what their definition of large was, it wasnt much bigger than a small one) bag of chips. and €1.80 for cans.

To feed 3 of us with chipper food that night it cost €35. and I left the drinks behind and we made tea at home.

Well we decided that night that chipper food was not only bad for us, but bad for our house savings.

Price is ridiculous and I heard they went up again since. Havent been near a chippers since and wont be ever again. And feeling so much the better for it.

On an equally depressing side note, last night I called to a friends house. Himself, wife and 2 kids were ordering Indian takeaway as I was leaving. 2 adults and 2 kids Indian order - €65. He said it was ONLY €55 the week before.

Even mcD and Burger K1ing are not cheap anymore.

Its only a few quid more for a proper roast dinner in a pub.

I went into a pub for food one Sunday lunch before Christmas with the GF and her niece.

Over €50. Never again.

Can only speak for Dublin but bars and restaurants are packed here at the weekends anyway. Hard to get tables in a lot of places. I would still eat out regularly enough.

The cafe, restaurants in my area are always packed lunch time & especially weekends. Plenty of money being spent in farm shop & restaurants , garden centre cafes & local coffee shop, pub carvery.

There is a house in a street near me with the same house number. Judging by how often drivers arrive with food deliveries for them to my house, they must be spending big money. On the rare occasions that I go to takeaways, there are always drivers coming and going, and phone orders being taken. That might account for some of the decrease in footfall, if it is happening. I also get drivers with deliveries for a house the other side of a high wall from mine. Satnav or whatever tells them they can drive through the wall.

When the OP has their mortgage paid off, they will have maybe €800 a month available, and they can join the luxury people eating out again.

A nice takeaway and a few beers from the off license is the way to go these days.

I used to love pub lunches but they have become so expensive - especially when you add €7 pints to the bill.

If I go to the local for lunch with my wife, you're looking at €60+ for 2 mains, 2 pints each plus tip.

Dining out in this country was always a luxury, but in recent years it became cheaper/more affordable with the proliferation of fast food and transient labour... Now that the cost/value proposition is rising there's a portion of the population who grew up with access to easy affordable dining out. Their expectations are unrealistic & maybe there needs to be a rebalancing in society.

That's not expensive.

What ever you are into I guess.

• Blood from raw duck was noted to be dripping onto containers and bags of rice, flour + sugar
• Dirty cleaning cloths used to mop up bloody water were placed on various surfaces
• Flies were observed on raw ducks
• A black bin bag filled with waste was stored in a sink in the kitchen basement

I just spent €18 on a breakfast and a cup of tea this morning in a cafe. That will be the last time i leave the house without breakfast now too.

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.

I'd say the pubs could make good money bringing down the prices by a good bit but why would you when you have people willing to pay as is clear by them being generally packed out every week?

Restaurants you can see a bit more value in now with good cooking over the pubs for not much more but the drink prices in most has stayed beyond the pubs. More palatable though because you probably don't drink as fast there.

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.