A date night meal used to be $150. Good restaurant, cocktail plus wine, nice meal. It’s now $300. $33 Entrees that are now $48. It’s absurd.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, decreased. I only eat out if I go out with friends, or treat my teen 2-3 times a month. We used to order/eat out 2x week

To add, it’s something ethnic I can’t make at home. Not steak or Italian

Unless you are Italian, Italian food is ethnic too.

A lot less and ethnic food since i can make chicken or steak at home just fine and much cheaper.

We still eat out some, but less frequently and to cheaper places, which is a shame. But $18
for tofu green curry at a generic place is just not worth it to me. I feel bad, because I know food is expensive and staff need living wages, but it’s not fun anymore when the bill is high and the food is just ok. I can make “just ok” food at home!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes we've cut back on eating out. The restaurants are not going to make it.

Every restaurant I’ve seen is packed.

+1. People here are in denial. Restaurants are slammed.

We now only get pizza from Costco or Dominos once a week. Occasionally we’ll splurge on something more expensive that I can’t make at home.

We got out of the habit during Covid. My mindset changed when I saw how much we WEREN'T spending on eating out: it was something like $500 a month. Too much for our budget.

It's probably been two months since I walked into a restaurant and had someone come over to take my order - that's become something for people above my social class, like golf, home renovations and flying vacations.

It depends where. Some of our favorite restaurants haven't increased their prices too much, and are still yummy, despite some detectable recipe changes, and have great service.

We don't use fast-food places anymore, as we noticed these increased their prices the most. And for junk food, that is more definitely NOT worth it!

It's fine. We never used to go out a lot, so it's not like our lives have changed much.

Anonymous wrote:Yes we've cut back on eating out. The restaurants are not going to make it.

Every restaurant I’ve seen is packed.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, decreased. I only eat out if I go out with friends, or treat my teen 2-3 times a month. We used to order/eat out 2x week

To add, it’s something ethnic I can’t make at home. Not steak or Italian

It’s not just prices, the product is trash. I can’t even get reliable to-go coffee at this point. And when drip coffee is $3-5, I expect it to be fantastic.

Yes, decreased. I only eat out if I go out with friends, or treat my teen 2-3 times a month. We used to order/eat out 2x week

Anonymous wrote:Who else has drastically cut back on eating out? We cook our own meals often (and well, to be fair) but loved the occasional night out as a couple/family, or just me to go out to lunch with friends.

Just can’t anymore. Prices have increased so much and service/quality has decreased. It’s just no longer enjoyable nor economically feasible.
Even our favorite places have been slipping for the past year or so.

I’m 100% certain the local suburban Panera has hired literal homeless drug addicts as cashiers. I’m sorry but I’m not eating food handled by people with disgusting nails and holy dirty clothes. It’s unreal.

We still enjoy our tried-and-true spots. Then again, we’ve only ever dined out about twice a month, so we just see it as an occasional treat where we don’t have to cook. We tend to go to Japanese places, Indian, other cuisine that we don’t (and can’t) make ourselves at home.

Yes, I'm over it, especially lunches that cost $20-$25 per person now. I used to treat myself to lunch out once a week but I'm done with it.