Eating out at a restaurant is a bad experience and not worth the money anymore like it used to be, amirite?

A big part is because restaurants used skeleton crews to operate due to the 2m rule, and they never went back to keep labour cost low.

by seichmann 1 week ago

Yes exactly

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I went to a place we started to love recently. The owners opened a second restaurant next door, and they share the kitchen. It was a disaster, and it took forever to get our food. Won't go back.

by Okunevalora 1 week ago

Its a shame, because I still have places that we go that are well worth the money, and the food is incredible.

by ona01 1 week ago

Visited Korea recently and had the same experience.

by Okunevalora 1 week ago

I agree and for that matter the allure of going out of the house to have fun has diminished in general. Everything is expensive and my home is where I'm most comfortable anyway

by Anonymous 1 week ago

It's become too expensive just to leave the house. I only leave now to go on hikes or the grocery store.

by lkautzer 1 week ago

The pandemic showed restaurant workers they could make better money with a better quality of life. We lost a ton of experienced, talented people to other industries.

by adonisabbott 1 week ago

Very true

by Anonymous 1 week ago

This should be way higher on the list.

by travis56 1 week ago

yea I learned this lesson when I took my wife out to a nice steakhouse for some holiday... $500+ later we realize we could have made a meal just as good 6 times over. Now we save our fancy dinning out experiences to stuff like high end sushi.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

It's funny, my experience is a bit opposite. It seems like most of the cheaper local restaraunts have had to jack up prices - while the quality of food and service is down (some of the mom and pops were able to maintain better service). But the more expensive, higher dining places around me haven't gone up by the same percent, so the gap in price is less drastic. Plus, the service is still better even if it isnt as good as it was pre-pandemic..

by Granville45 1 week ago

I don't think this opinion is as unpopular as you think it is.

by Many_Jeweler_2476 1 week ago

I agree, at least where I live this is also the case

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I haven't noticed portions getting smaller but I have noticed how increasingly unhealthy going out to eat is. In the past most meals were relatively healthy or at least had like a 1/3 of the sodium and half the calories they do now.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

really? all my friends in Aus who work in restaurants have told me there isn't much more salt then you would use to salt your meals at home.

by StraightShopping 1 week ago

Everything is going up except wages. Minimum wage minimum effort (from a UK perspective)

by Bschaefer 1 week ago

I tend to agree. But it is possibly because my sons are amazing cooks. For 1/3 the cost we can have an amazing meals here. And we haven't had amazing out in the last couple of years

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Every time we go to one those fancy, trendy places you'd typically find in a downtown area. I am always disappointed. Over priced food that is mediocre at best. Occasionally we find a good spot but most of them aren't worth it.

by Weak_Cod 1 week ago

I never liked it tbh Why do I want to have a conversation around strangers?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

totally agree, I'm down to maybe 2-3 very fine spots for the $600 dinner with wine, or the $10 taco window at a gas station. The restaurants in the middle dont appeal to me anymore.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Add to this a lot of our favorite local places closed during the demic to be replaced by crappy chains.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I agree ordering especially soda drinks. Those soda taste water, everytime in different restaurants. I have tried.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Paying more for a single mixed drink than for the entree has made me think twice about eating out. I'm learning to make my own. And with rare exceptions my food is just as good or better.

by murrayalexis 1 week ago

I think I agree. When me and my friends want to go eat there's probably like 5 restaurants that we go to. We either do that or we go to the grocery store to buy ingredients and we cook at someones house. The latter is extremely fun.

by DiscussionGreedy 1 week ago

It's so much better. Hell yeah dude.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yeah I was having this conversation with my friend the other day. Where I live (Ireland), the price of eating out is just prohibitively expensive. Even if the food is good, it still doesn't feel worth it and the cost sours the experience. This applies to bars, too. It feels like it's fast becoming a luxury that only the wealthy can afford to do.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Add in tips that people do not deserve and this is exactly why I don't eat out anymore at all.

by Amiraterry 1 week ago

Surely this entirely depends on the restaurant in question

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I actually think some restaurants are a better value than ever, especially fast casual ones. Fast food has gotten so expensive and so have nicer restaurants, but you can still go to olive garden or chillis and get a server for basically the same price as a drive through. Obviously cooking at home is cheaper but as far as eating out, there are still deals.

by mcculloughfidel 1 week ago

I agree. I'd like to point out that service has gone down because while inflation has gone up, prices of food has gone up, and the price of the restaurant meals has gone up, the wage for servers has not. We get crappy service because servers are still at minimum wage. Why you'd expect them to give two craps, I don't know. I wouldn't lol

by Low_Carpet_1190 1 week ago

I can only think of one family run diner that has really good food and service. All the rest are too expensive, too unhealthy, too trendy. Also i hate the way they split up service. One person takes the order and someone else brings it??? Why?

by Important_Pitch_3857 1 week ago

I wonder if that's a"tipping culture" problem. I have plenty nice restaurant experiences in the UK (heck, I've had absolutely brilliant experiences in food-serving pubs), and you don't HAVE to tip here. You tip if the service is good. If I have the odd not-good experience - no tip. Any time I travel to the US though I feel obliged to tip.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

it's still not worth it to me as a customer. You are not a customer. You are a part of the food service industry. You are an industry insider. Of course you don't see the value of eating out because you know the real value of eating out.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Where I come from, the best value places to eat have become bars that serve burgers and pizzas. With rise of fancy burgers and neapolitan pizzas in the last few years, the quality of those two foods has gone up significantly, but they are still cheaper than regular restaurants. So you get a good meal, fast service (since its burgers and pizza), for a relatively reasonable price. Meanwhile pretty much all regular restaurants have become overpriced, with mediocre service and often times food that is worse than what I can just make at home.

by ernserkim 1 week ago

I used to be a busser. Before and after the pandemic. Hell, even I noticed how bad a lot of servers got.

by Good_Inevitable_2412 1 week ago

I still tip the same as I always have. I have to click a lot more buttons to input 15%, because there is no way I'm tipping 25% or more like some restaurants are pushing.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

We have a couple of mom and pop places we still frequent but have reduced our dining out to once a week or even less. When my biz was struggling 12-15 years ago, I told my wife we would never give up going out to eat. Now, I don't care to go due to costs, quality, skimpiness, and less than impressive food.

by Gsipes 1 week ago

There's a restaurant near me that is a mom and pop shop, locally owned for 40 years, I can still get a meal for under $10. Nothing fancy, no frills, you get what you pay for. That's the only place I go to eat out.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

I am single and dont cook. Like, at all. I dont do grocery shopping. My options are takeaway/delivery from restaurants or eating out, i do it like 30/70. Worth it or not, it is the main source of food for so many of us.

by Main-Quote7493 1 week ago

You could save so much money just eating at home sometimes.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Doesnt matter that much for me. At least it is not that big of a part in my expenses. Drinking/cigars/travel/general fun takes much more, but I am not giving it up even under death threat.

by Main-Quote7493 1 week ago

I haven't experienced this. It's probably somewhat dependent on location, and I wonder if it's mostly true of chain restaurants as opposed to locally owned places. I generally avoid chains because there are so many great locally owned restaurants in my area.

by Vicky62 1 week ago

Totally agree. My Wife and I now use what was our restaurant money to buy the nicest groceries and will eat finer, nicer foods at home, not even accounting for the decreased cost.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

This is the popular hipster opinion

by roobsarina 1 week ago

I guess maybe this is more of a thing in some places. There are definitely places I don't find worthwhile near me, but I have a handful of restaurants I visit regularly and enjoy. Maybe your standards are also higher because of your previous work experience?

by Anonymous 1 week ago

were almost exclusively takeout rather than dining out these days. In large part cause we have 2 toddlers and trying to keep them in order for an entire sit down meal is just not a fun experience for the parents. But im with you that the dinning out experience is eroding in many places. Improving your cooking skills really raises the bar for whats a worthwhile trip/expense to dine out. I can make high level steaks and seafood at home without paying restaurant premiums. Some cuisine's make sense to order out cause there is just too much work, prep, unusual ingredients needed for a one off meal so it's easier to justify some of the more exotic ones. But plenty of meals can be made as good if not better at home for a fraction of the price

by Anonymous 1 week ago

The service in general has gotten worse but they want bigger tips.

by kathleen50 1 week ago

I hate how close tables have gotten in most restaurants they wanna squeeze as many customers in as possible And I hate it !

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Portions and taste aren't getting worse here pricing has gone up a tiny bit but not doubled. what country is this in?

by StraightShopping 1 week ago

Yeah, the good servers moved on when they doubled the number of tables we are responsible for. Can't give good service if you spend your whole shift in the weeds

by Brilliant_Big 1 week ago

The food is not nearly as "good" as it used to be Portions keep getting smaller while prices keep going up The staff is lazy and disorganized. You're just describing restaurants you know. Plenty of restaurants around that serve great food and care for the customer. Silly generalization. I have lots of places that I regularly go to that are great, and have been for decades.

by Danielle86 1 week ago

While food is going up for sure. Portions and quality aren't being affected around me. Staff are generally about the same as ever too. Maybe it's just where you're going, maybe your standards are getting higher.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

Yeah, location can matter for sure. I live on the east coast near a big city so I'm sure that has something to do with it. And to be fair, I'm sure that this isn't the case for EVERYONE EVERYWHERE. But I can say for sure my standards aren't that high lol. Throughout my life my favorite restaurants were always relatively inexpensive dining options. Not chain restaurants but middle-of-the-road type casual places

by Anonymous 1 week ago

There's a lot of east costs in the world. It's maybe just standards wherever you are.

by Anonymous 1 week ago

McDonalds is still good tho!

by Sauermarilou 1 week ago