Eating out is expensive, but when you do eat out, you should at least order something that’s (relatively) worth your money.
Photo by Ruth Hartnup
Christa Avampato at weblog Wise Bread took a look at popular items people order when they dine out that don’t cost the restaurant anything near what customers pay for them. Items like pasta, salad, sandwiches and pizza are cheap to make per serve, but can be charged at a similar price to other mains.
Obviously eating at home is always cheaper, but when you eat out aim for specialised dishes you can’t cook at home, or dishes with a healthy helping of some kind of meat. Don’t waste your eating-out funds on drinks and dishes that cost small amounts to make on your own.
Are You Eating the 10 Most Over-Priced Restaurant Menu Items? [Wise Bread]
Comments
8 responses to “Get The Most Out Of Your Restaurant Meal By Knowing What Not To Order”
The biggest rip off in restaurants is bread! Its dirt cheap even if they cook their own, so to be charged $5 for a bun and some butter in a silver foil wrap (not even curled pats of butter in a dish, which is what I would expect) is outrageous.
I could understand if they charge for the second serve of bread, because that would be eating into their main profit source such as entree or mains, but not for the first serve of bread. In fact, if they don’t offer complimentary bread, walk out.
Uhh yeah, I don’t judge the quality of a restaurant by whether they offer free bread or not.
I don’t know if I’m interpreting this wrong, but to me it sounds like:
If you go out, don’t eat.
If you have to eat, don’t drink anything but water because alcohol, soft drink and coffee is cheaper at home.
When picking what to eat, order the things that are normally most expensive, like something meaty because that’ll save you money.
Or if you’re eating out just order what you want to eat because you’re probably not there to save money?
If I feel like pasta, I’m better off buying an overpriced pasta than a steak I don’t feel like.
I have to agree – a great deal of what you’re paying for here is the skill of the cook, so buying something with expensive ingredients because it would cost more to make at home is entirely missing the point.
To put it another way – eating out is expensive, so make sure you prioritise ordering food which you *like* (nutrition considered accordingly) rather than wasting time worrying about whether you could make it more cheaply at home.
I agree with the article to a point. It is my hard earned I am spending so things I can cook well at home I give a miss. Food I like that is hard to cook, or fiddly or a pain to buy (like a seafood combination) always ends up on my plate.
This is so much more difficult for a vegetarian or vegan when the only token vegetarian option is spaghetti with a tomato sauce.
I object to wasting money on a meal that I can cook at home and the only requirement is a can opener!