Restaurant sticker shock

[Anonymous]

Yes! Our eating out is downgraded to the wegman ready foods as a treat. Not even getting restaurant takeout anymore.

[Anonymous]

Yep, went to a local mexican place, $40 for two basic meals of enchiladas. They were ok. Nothing amazing.

We have cut back considerably on eating out even fast casual. Heck even fast food.

[Anonymous]

Don't forget the tips they expect you to pay at the take out places. Ridiculous!! We just stopped going out to eat, unless it's something that we do not want to make at home.

[Anonymous]

I think restaurant prices were depressed by low inflation and a weirdly favorable labor market which has changed on a number of fronts. These prices are probably more realistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safeway's single bagels went from $0.60 to $1.15. Almost doubled.

This isn't inflation. This is gouging.

Yup. Up up up prices go.

I feel this, OP. We still go out but usually sneak in our own appetizer and drinks.

How do you sneak appetizers and drinks into a restaurant and eat them without the waitstaff noticing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep, went to a local mexican place, $40 for two basic meals of enchiladas. They were ok. Nothing amazing.

We have cut back considerably on eating out even fast casual. Heck even fast food.

Yes, Mexican used to be affordable. But I refuse to pay $20 for what basically are carbs and cheap fat.

[Anonymous]

I just paid $12 for Subway sandwich today. No more $5 foot-longs I guess.

[Anonymous]

I used be able to get 4 pastelitos and a shake at my local spot for $8 +$2 tip and I would split the food with my kid. Now that amount of food $12 +tip. More expensive places, I don't even want to think about. I love to go out to eat, but I really need to not. (And I'm an excellent cook, but I just like the experience.)

[Anonymous]

Honestly I thought most restaurant prices were high 5 years ago. Now I just don’t go. My project the past year has been learning to make things I used to go out for at home. Doesn’t work for everything, but my homemade pizza is so much better than any local place, and I can get my fix of Chinese and Thai at home now. Next project is Indian.

[Anonymous]

I definitely notice it more at the fast casual and cheap places. At a good restaurant it seems like a small increase. At the casual places like five guys, I just don’t think it’s worth it.
The challenge is figuring out what to do with my teen that eats a ton and wants to hang out with his friends at the mall or similar. He can now drop $40 on fast food without even trying since he eats double or triple portions (and no soda!). We’ve told him he needs a budget but I don’t know what a fair budget is at this point.

[Anonymous]

We have stopped going to $ or $$ restaurants now. We have actually stopped going to chain restaurants. We used to frequent these restaurants a lot. We are now paying $$$ for higher end restaurants, and going pnly on special occasions.

We have started to cook more at home and since we are excellent cooks (DH and I) food is really great. We are however eating more vegetarian meals and we are spending a lot on organic ingredients.

Our motto is that if we are spending $$$ in food cost, we will eat healthier and more upscale.

[Anonymous]

If we feel like going out, DH and I have started eating something quick at home for dinner (like a burrito) and then getting drinks and maybe splitting something if we’re still hungry.

The place we like most is pretty casual (beer and pizza) so they don’t care if we eat or not, but I don’t think I would take up table space at a nice (non chain) restaurant if we were just drinking.

We went to Five Guys with our college age kids when they were home on break and it was practically $100!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safeway's single bagels went from $0.60 to $1.15. Almost doubled.

This isn't inflation. This is gouging.

You want to pay people 15.00/hour, this is the result of that including the current inflationary times we are in. I was traveling a couple of weeks ago and drove through and Einstein's Bagels and ordered a bagel with cream cheese, nothing more, I already had water in the car. They charged me $8 for a bagel with cream cheese. I asked the manager if that price was correct and she smiled and said yes, and in the same breath, "I'm sorry." I will not purchase from an Einstein's again, in fact paying $20+ dollars for a dozen bagels (flour and water), not gonna happen. English muffins in our house at this moment. I am confident I am not the only one who will walk away from favorites because these prices are absurd.

I find this difficult to believe. I live in NYC and a bagel with cream cheese at my local bagel shop is $5. $8 for a shitty Einstein bagel?

[Anonymous]

The last straw for us was at an Indian restaurant this winter where we ordered one appetizer, one veg entree, one chicken, entree, and one glass of wine that came to around $120 with a tip.

At this point, we’re just going to excellent (basically Michelin-level) places where I can’t reproduce the food easily about once a quarter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The last straw for us was at an Indian restaurant this winter where we ordered one appetizer, one veg entree, one chicken, entree, and one glass of wine that came to around $120 with a tip.

At this point, we’re just going to excellent (basically Michelin-level) places where I can’t reproduce the food easily about once a quarter.

One chicken entree*